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Beware of supermarket fresh produce scales not applying promotional price advertised

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  • voluted
    voluted Posts: 128 Forumite
    100 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 18 November 2024 at 11:08PM
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself. The purpose of my original post was simply to make customers aware of an issue with discount prices possibly not being loaded in all scales in the store -.in any store which might allow customers to self weigh. Rather than wild speculation about what might be happening in the 1,200 other stores I was merely trying to.emphaise my pont about the mis-pricing and that if it was replicated UK wide the overcharging would be substantial. I have been very discouraged by this interaction and no one (well one to be fair) has acknowledged that I was well meaning. I wasn't out to.destroy my.go to store of 20 years. I feel as though at least some of the responders may be acting on behalf of a supermarket. But that would definitely be wild speculation.
     
    But you obviously did have time, otherwise you'd have raised this point earlier in the thread. There are numerous "What ifs" you can pose but none of them are relevant. You appear to have had the time, and even if you didn't a more appropriate response would have been to report the issue to the store over the phone later, or possibly their Customer Services team. As others have said, if you had reported it to the store directly they'd almost certainly have dealt with it there and then, even if that was simply taking the scales out of service. The last thing they want to deal with is moaning customers complaining about being overcharged by 20p.

    Reporting it to the CEO (again why?) and TS to perform some sort of covert investigation for a minor overcharge on root vegetables is baffling.
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 22,614 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    You donlt know that either or both TS and departed CEO WOULD TAKE ANY ACTION OVER YOUR EMAIL.

    Do you thiunk the executive teram are going to contact all stores about the issue or do you think they might pass it dowen the line , to someone who passes down the line , who passes it to someone down the line etc. etc.
  • voluted said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself. The purpose of my original post was simply to make customers aware of an issue with discount prices possibly not being loaded in all scales in the store -.in any store which might allow customers to self weigh. Rather than wild speculation about what might be happening in the 1,200 other stores I was merely trying to.emphaise my pont about the mis-pricing and that if it was replicated UK wide the overcharging would be substantial. I have been very discouraged by this interaction and no one (well one to be fair) has acknowledged that I was well meaning. I wasn't out to.destroy my.go to store of 20 years. I feel as though at least some of the responders may be acting on behalf of a supermarket. But that would definitely be wild speculation.
     
    But you obviously did have time, otherwise you'd have raised this point earlier in the thread. There are numerous "What ifs" you can pose but none of them are relevant. You appear to have had the time, and even if you didn't a more appropriate response would have been to report the issue to the store over the phone later, or possibly their Customer Services team. As others have said, if you had reported it to the store directly they'd almost certainly have dealt with it there and then, even if that was simply taking the scales out of service. The last thing they want to deal with is moaning customers complaining about being overcharged by 20p.

    Reporting it to the CEO (again why?) and TS to perform some sort of covert investigation for a minor overcharge on root vegetables is baffling.
    They would have almost certainly dealt with it on the phone would they? You seem quite confident but not totally confident in that assumption. Before you ask why? again you may want to ponder why? Justin Gutmann sued Stagecoach South Western Trains and won a £25m compensation package for 1.4m customers. I wonder how he got on complaining to his friendly.guard or station manager or calling them on the phone to report overcharging? They almost certainly ignored him it seems. Each customer in the representative action had been overchchrged a small amount. Too small to worry them. Perhaps they thought the idea of complaining about pennies was embarrassing or *absurd*. Perhaps they thought price gouging by big corporations was a fact of life and they were powerless in the face of such corporate high handedness.
    Not so for Gutmann. We will lose a courageous campaigner for consumer rights when he is gone.


  • There was a problem in the store which could have been dealt with there and then but you were happy to leave the problem, potentially affecting other customers.

    Not very public spirited of you.


    Things that are differerent: draw & drawer, brought & bought, loose & lose, dose & does, payed & paid


  • sheramber said:
    You donlt know that either or both TS and departed CEO WOULD TAKE ANY ACTION OVER YOUR EMAIL.

    Do you thiunk the executive teram are going to contact all stores about the issue or do you think they might pass it dowen the line , to someone who passes down the line , who passes it to someone down the line etc. etc.
    Of course I dont know. How can anyone ever know before making a complaint that it will be actioned?. I don't know what the executive team will do. Might they think this is bizzare that just.one online scale in that store has the wrong price. I would have thought if one was wrong all would be wrong. I'll use my handy "All Stores" email function to query each store to send a mailshot emall to see if they are aware of it happening in their store and warn them to take extra care to identify it and report it to the executive team so we can notify the relevant team to fix it and prevent it happening again. Meanwhile I will.email IT and check If its possible to identify why this scale does not have the correct price when the orhers do." If the executice group lets it trickle down the line to some poor sod at a random.store who then has to call or email each of.the 1,200 stores then I would perceive that as a failure of accontability at executive level unless that is.the process the executive group employee must follow then it would be a failure to have robust procedures for dealing with such an issue.

  • Okell
    Okell Posts: 2,694 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself...
     
    I don't really understand the point you are making.  Are you only saying now in your 21st(?) comment on here that you didn't have the time to raise it instore?

    Almost everybody who has responded to this thread has asked you why you didn't raise it instore at the time, and despite you replying individually to nearly all those people you still haven't given a satisfactory explanation as to why you didn't.  At first it seemed to be because the local store wouldn't have a mechanism to track down everybody who had been overcharged and refund them (as if Head office will do that), and then it was because the local store would not (you think) be able to communicate the issue to head office or to other Asda stores because there would be no system to do so or because the local manger wouldn't have the competency to do so.  Are you saying now that you were simply too busy and didn't have time?

    Of course I've come across pricing errors, issues and anomalies in different stores and when I do I alert local staff to the problem.  That's what any sensible and sane person would do.  They wouldn't not tell anyone instore and instead email the ceo and contact TS.  As it is you've unnecessarily wasted time getting the scales taken out of service when that could have been done immediately.

    If all you wanted to do was to alert people to a possible problem you probably should have posted on the Praise, vent & warnings board.  Unfortunately by posting on the Consumer Rights board you were immediately asked questions about what response you got when you raised the problem instore.
  • Okell
    Okell Posts: 2,694 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    Snooper1 said:
    voluted said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself. The purpose of my original post was simply to make customers aware of an issue with discount prices possibly not being loaded in all scales in the store -.in any store which might allow customers to self weigh. Rather than wild speculation about what might be happening in the 1,200 other stores I was merely trying to.emphaise my pont about the mis-pricing and that if it was replicated UK wide the overcharging would be substantial. I have been very discouraged by this interaction and no one (well one to be fair) has acknowledged that I was well meaning. I wasn't out to.destroy my.go to store of 20 years. I feel as though at least some of the responders may be acting on behalf of a supermarket. But that would definitely be wild speculation.
     
    But you obviously did have time, otherwise you'd have raised this point earlier in the thread. There are numerous "What ifs" you can pose but none of them are relevant. You appear to have had the time, and even if you didn't a more appropriate response would have been to report the issue to the store over the phone later, or possibly their Customer Services team. As others have said, if you had reported it to the store directly they'd almost certainly have dealt with it there and then, even if that was simply taking the scales out of service. The last thing they want to deal with is moaning customers complaining about being overcharged by 20p.

    Reporting it to the CEO (again why?) and TS to perform some sort of covert investigation for a minor overcharge on root vegetables is baffling.
    They would have almost certainly dealt with it on the phone would they? You seem quite confident but not totally confident in that assumption. Before you ask why? again you may want to ponder why? Justin Gutmann sued Stagecoach South Western Trains and won a £25m compensation package for 1.4m customers. I wonder how he got on complaining to his friendly.guard or station manager or calling them on the phone to report overcharging? They almost certainly ignored him it seems. Each customer in the representative action had been overchchrged a small amount. Too small to worry them. Perhaps they thought the idea of complaining about pennies was embarrassing or *absurd*. Perhaps they thought price gouging by big corporations was a fact of life and they were powerless in the face of such corporate high handedness.
    Not so for Gutmann. We will lose a courageous campaigner for consumer rights when he is gone.
    Can you enlighten me, did he get anywhere by complaining to SW trains executive team, or was he forced to take legal proceedings against them?
  • sheramber said:
    Snooper1 said:
    la531983 said:
    I mean, talk about going nuclear, this is clearly a simple pricing error that could have been rectified there and then, on the day.
    You are very trusting. I don't agree it is "clearly a simple pricing error". If it was a simple pricing error both scales I used would have used the same wrong price. If you think about the staffed conveyer checkouts, would you expect the same item to scan at different checkouts at different prices? No. You'd expect if the pricing error was simple each checkout would scan at the same wrong price. In that case, a simple rectification could be made in the system to correct it at all checkouts quickly and simultaneously. Different prices in different scales suggests "manual processes" are involved which are prone to error and therefore this sort of error is unlikely to be confined to one scale in one store, one item and one promotion. Had it been rectified on the day who is to say that a busy staff member would have taken the time to convey to a higher up that they needed to identify how many customers (possibly hundreds or thousands) had been overcharged and refund them? 34p for each customer is nothing (for most but a canned meal for some) but having it rectified on the day misses the bigger issue that the supermarket would likely just say "sorry" and keep the money they overcharged prior customers which could be a substantial amount. When banks are found to have overcharged they are eventually forced to refund customers. Why should supermarkets be any different?
    We did have a case where the till  we went through did not give us a discounted price.

    A supervisor put i the item through another till and it did give the discounted price.

    She explained the pricing on the tills is set by head office , not the shop, and that particular till must have been missed.

    Great you were alert to the issue. Too bad for the unknown number of customers before you who weren't so attentive and were misled and parted with more £ than advertised. "Oops, head office must have messed up". That's a good one. Very versatile in application. I wonder how many customers who went to the first till after you with that item only be transferred to the "attentive customers till" were fed the same feeble excuse?
  • Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself...
     
    I don't really understand the point you are making.  Are you only saying now in your 21st(?) comment on here that you didn't have the time to raise it instore?

    Almost everybody who has responded to this thread has asked you why you didn't raise it instore at the time, and despite you replying individually to nearly all those people you still haven't given a satisfactory explanation as to why you didn't.  At first it seemed to be because the local store wouldn't have a mechanism to track down everybody who had been overcharged and refund them (as if Head office will do that), and then it was because the local store would not (you think) be able to communicate the issue to head office or to other Asda stores because there would be no system to do so or because the local manger wouldn't have the competency to do so.  Are you saying now that you were simply too busy and didn't have time?

    Of course I've come across pricing errors, issues and anomalies in different stores and when I do I alert local staff to the problem.  That's what any sensible and sane person would do.  They wouldn't not tell anyone instore and instead email the ceo and contact TS.  As it is you've unnecessarily wasted time getting the scales taken out of service when that could have been done immediately.

    If all you wanted to do was to alert people to a possible problem you probably should have posted on the Praise, vent & warnings board.  Unfortunately by posting on the Consumer Rights board you were immediately asked questions about what response you got when you raised the problem instore.
    Well I'm obviously new here so someone might have thought to guide me to the Praise vent and warnings page. If the go to position on this forum is to attempt to qualify or validate any post like mine with "what did the store say" then I think that is unfortunate. Many people would have valid reasons for making a complaint after the fact. Perhaps they don't want to be seen as disloyal, maybe they are socially anxious, maybe they have rowdy kids with them, maybe they dislike confrontation, perhaps English is not their first language and they lack the confidence to make a complaint in person. Although I don't feel compelled to say it I will in an effort to be transparent and helpful. Three weeks or so before this happened I was at the scan and go checkout and it was staffed apparently by a woman.in plain clothes. As it happened I could not scan all.my items as one had no barcode. I asked for assistance. The woman in plain clothes asked me if I wanted the item I had put to one side and I explained I did but ai couldn't scan it as it had no bar code. She took it from me and I assumed when she left the area she had gone to get another one that did have a barcode. A good 5 minutes passed while I waited and then I noticed she was back helping customers at another scan and.go point. When she was finished with them.I asked her if she had replaced my.item with one with a barcode. She told me the barcodeless one was rhe last one. I knew this to be false as there was a large stack of the item in the fridge. As a result of what I understood to be an outright lie I left my shopping where it was and left, quite upset. When I calmed down I returned to the store and asked the guy staffing the lottery and cigs counter who the most senior person in the store was as I wanted to make.a.complaint. When he started to escort me to that person I wasn't surprised it was the woman in plain clothes who my complaint was about. Anyway complain I did. I said it's not true that that was the last of that item..She said.well I gave it to a colleague to.sort it out and that's what they told me. And I said surely if it was the last one you could have helped me by keying the barcode in manually. She said that wasn't possible. So who do you complain to when your complaint is about the manager on duty? That's right...the executive office. They called me and agreed the barcode could have been keyed to allow me to buy the item. I was offered a £10 voucher which I accepted as I didn't care about the £, I emphasised I just didn’t want another customer to go through what I went through. So that experience including being told something which was false and the successful and fairly prompt resolution by a member of the executive team probably influenced my response to the mispriced scale. What confidence was I meant to have in store management when three weeks prior that person had gone to get a replacement product for me at my request only to say there were no more left. That person took zero responsibility for the outcome. Why would it be different this time? I hope this goes some way to.explain why an instore complant was not my preferred option.
  • Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    voluted said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Okell said:
    Snooper1 said:
    Snooper1 said:
    At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 
    What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

    I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.
    Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

    I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

    I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo
    Maybe you would have thought of emailing the CEO if the recall was because of the presence of an undeclared allergen and due to similariy of the products the error those Waitrose staff in your local store made could likely be made by staff in hundreds of other stores potentially leaving the dangerous product on the shelves and consumed by those for whom it might be fatal.

    If that were the case I would have insisted on speaking to the store manager on the spot - not just alerting a member of staff to the problem.

    If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

    If it's just the tip of some company wide criminal conspiracy I doubt they'll let your email stop them.  Hope you didn't give them your address...
    I didn't say the store manager cannot be trusted. It's about whether that person has the competencies or the time in a busy store to find a way to alert all.other store managers in the UK to the potential risk of.recalling the wrong product. Whenever I am getting the run around with a business I email the CEO. You might be surprised how effective it is..Try it out. Regarding my home address... that ship sailed when they started delivering my groceries years ago. I read an article about the Issa brothers once and it was a classic rags to riches tale. It was inspiring.
    Seems to me that you've gone about this in the worst way you could.

    Pointing the error out to staff instore and emailing the executive team are not mutually exclusive.

    You could easily have raised it instore and got the defective scales put out of use.  That would immediately have prevented more customers overpaying.

    You could also have asked the store manager to make sure that ASDA head office was made aware of the problem.  As other posters have said I have no doubt that Asda have a process for local stores to feed information back to head office to be acted upon.

    You could also have emailed the executive team if you were concerned that the local manager would do nothing.  But what do you expect the executive team to do?  They might alert other stores to what might be a potential problem, or they might not.  Even if they tell you they've put steps in place to prevent this, why would you believe them?

    More likely they'll just come back to you and say that it was a one-off pricing error and nothing to worry about

    And do you really expect ASDA head office to track down people who have overpaid and refund them?  It won't happen.

    You've also pointlessly delayed getting the inaccurate scales decommissioned by thinking Trading Standards would be interested and would want to carry out some covert testing rather than you reporting it instore immediately.
    As I wrote in response to another post what if I didn't have time in store like many busy people wouldn't? What if I didn't know the practical limits of any potential Trading Standards intervention ahead of time (which it turns out I didn't). With the benefit of hindsight (and having worked for TS in the past!) and having read other posts you are standing in judgment of me and subjecting my behaviour to a fine analysis and applying what you apparently perceive as a perfect template for how to behave in response to coming across this issue only you never have yourself. The purpose of my original post was simply to make customers aware of an issue with discount prices possibly not being loaded in all scales in the store -.in any store which might allow customers to self weigh. Rather than wild speculation about what might be happening in the 1,200 other stores I was merely trying to.emphaise my pont about the mis-pricing and that if it was replicated UK wide the overcharging would be substantial. I have been very discouraged by this interaction and no one (well one to be fair) has acknowledged that I was well meaning. I wasn't out to.destroy my.go to store of 20 years. I feel as though at least some of the responders may be acting on behalf of a supermarket. But that would definitely be wild speculation.
     
    But you obviously did have time, otherwise you'd have raised this point earlier in the thread. There are numerous "What ifs" you can pose but none of them are relevant. You appear to have had the time, and even if you didn't a more appropriate response would have been to report the issue to the store over the phone later, or possibly their Customer Services team. As others have said, if you had reported it to the store directly they'd almost certainly have dealt with it there and then, even if that was simply taking the scales out of service. The last thing they want to deal with is moaning customers complaining about being overcharged by 20p.

    Reporting it to the CEO (again why?) and TS to perform some sort of covert investigation for a minor overcharge on root vegetables is baffling.
    They would have almost certainly dealt with it on the phone would they? You seem quite confident but not totally confident in that assumption. Before you ask why? again you may want to ponder why? Justin Gutmann sued Stagecoach South Western Trains and won a £25m compensation package for 1.4m customers. I wonder how he got on complaining to his friendly.guard or station manager or calling them on the phone to report overcharging? They almost certainly ignored him it seems. Each customer in the representative action had been overchchrged a small amount. Too small to worry them. Perhaps they thought the idea of complaining about pennies was embarrassing or *absurd*. Perhaps they thought price gouging by big corporations was a fact of life and they were powerless in the face of such corporate high handedness.
    Not so for Gutmann. We will lose a courageous campaigner for consumer rights when he is gone.
    Can you enlighten me, did he get anywhere by complaining to SW trains executive team, or was he forced to take legal proceedings against them?
    Nope he did not. He had to sue them. https://www.boundaryfares.com/Home/About
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