Check your dockets

On Saturday Ross bought a few items at the supermarket, including a DVD for $13. The following morning I was checking the docket (I hang on to them in case I have to take back stale bread, sour milk or whatever) and I noticed an unusual item...Boys Shorts $20..on looking further I noticed the DVD wasn't on the docket.
I rang the supermarket spoke to a ditsy girl who called me 'darl'....I reciporcated with 'sweeeeetheart"...end result...it may have been a 'crossed barcode'. Now, that caused me to ask numerous questions... which she fobbed off...I persisted...she fobbed. I mentioned 'The Scanning Code of Practice'..she fobbed..I persisted.
Final result, they refunded our money and the DVD was no charge. My main concern is the 'crossed barcodes' no real explanation??? Check you dockets carefully.

That's outrageous - I'd be inclined to follow it up Karingal - what supermarket? Did you speak to the manager? Who's his boss?

Yes I keep a close eye on what is going on, been overcharged before

Check your dockets before you leave...I do 99.5% of the time...have for years and on average I would find something wrong 3 to 5 times a year.....it started for me yonks ago I bought one of those cheap containers that had flour etc written on them..at the time they were less than $2 ...thought my few things were a bit expensive...no wonder had just paid for swing top garbage bin it is not just one supermarket I shop at IGA Franklins and Woolies..they all make mistakes....

Normally I watch as they scan, but I wasn't there. Fran, I may just do some sniffing around...about this 'crossed barcode' business ... I have never heard of that one, before.

Your rights at the scanner
Most supermarkets comply with voluntary Codes of Practice, which guide supermarkets on correct procedures for pricing and customer relations. They should display signs stating this.
Under this code, prices are changed on the shelf, then entered in the store's computer.

If you can prove you were overcharged on common grocery items, you get the item free at major supermarkets such as Woolworths, Coles and Bi-Lo. If more than one of the same product is charged wrongly, you get the first one free and the difference back on the rest. At smaller retailers you should get overcharged money back.
/consumer-cop---checkout-watch

I find it a nuisance having to check every item on the docket or keep my eyes on the scanner - I should but there are more interesting things in life LOL. And how do you remember prices when there's nothing to check them with - the prices are on the shelf not the item.

Where they overcharge and are discovered - even if they give you the item for free there would still be plenty of other customers who didn't discover the discrepancy. I doubt supermarkets would feel the pinch. Maybe they should be made to put up notices in the store to the effect that such and such item was overcharged on a certain day - please return with docket for refund - make them more accountable. Wonder how they balance the books

Handing a note over the counter in some stores can mean giving away your money too. There are a couple of shops I won't go near unless I have plenty of change - would never hand a large note over to them.

Here's something interesting - I wonder how you learn to read a barcode.

http://www.timduffy.com/media/australia/today_tonight_show.htm

I wonder if this explains the discrepancy in your case Karingal -

Concerns have been raised about discrepancies between the prices on
the shelf and in the scanner at the checkout counter. This issue has often
been described as one of “scanner error”; that term is misleading, however,
because it fails to identify the true cause, which is human error. When dis-
crepancies occur, the technology itself is not malfunctioning; rather, store
employees are not changing the shelf and scanner price at the same time.
Since price changes are typically made in the scanner, the scanner reflects
the true price. For this reason, the issue is better described as one of “shelf
price accuracy.”

This is the bit I'm interested in - store employees are not changing the shelf and scanner price at the same time.

Could the DVD been on the shelf that the boy's shorts were and the shelf price not changed?

The DVDs were at the checkout area in those tallish, cardboard bins, no other stock in the same area. I have little faith in supermarkets (used to work for one, in another life ), last year a checkout person asked us were the red salad onions plums?..

Recall many moons ago being caught...two bottles of cordial had been keyed through as $12.40 each instead of $1.24....happy to refund my money...but did wonder how many others paid the wrong amount!!

Scored a carton of A4 Reflex paper - marked down to $13 scanned at $32 50 - Woolies policy is that you get them free if they scan wrongly. First time I've bought paper in Woolies but it was too much of a bargain to miss at $13 - even better at $0!!!

karingal wrote:The DVDs were at the checkout area in those tallish, cardboard bins, no other stock in the same area. I have little faith in supermarkets (used to work for one, in another life ), last year a checkout person asked us were the red salad onions plums?..

my first job was a check out chick

Nothing wrong with that... I was too..for a while. I can recollect some of the older customers bringing me gifts..one fellow brought in some homemade beer....near knocked my socks off. Another fellow would bring in fresh homegrown veggies... found out later he was knicking the packets of seed. I must have been eating the end results of some stolen property. We had some lovely customers, particularly the older folk.. they thought of us 'youngins' as family.
We had lots of funny incidents in the shop..I must write them down one day.

I often think & can now laugh about an old man that came to the office where I worked years ago...he was in his 80's...very wealthy old man (& a dirty old one at that I was to find out later!!!)..he would catch a taxi to the office...stand at the bottom of the staircase & call out to me to help him up the staircase....worked out later ..he loved to put his arm around you & hold on to you in what I would call an inappropriate place (get the picture)...he took a shine to me & turned up one week with a big bunch of "Christmas Lillies"..trouble was when I went out to greet him the flowers had all drooped!!!...I had to fuss all over them & pretend they were beautiful...innocent me thought he was a nice old man until my younger sister told me of a few happenings throughout the township...yes apparently he had become a "dirty old man"...in some ways it is rather sad as he had always been a well respected member of the community...but with age well who knows!!

yes there are a lot of dirty ol' men out there