I accidentally didn't pay in Tesco - what do I do?

[caniriskit]

I scanned everything at self checkout but just checking my bank account now it's not gone out! I must have forgotten to pay? What do I do? Will I get in trouble?

This happened to me, only noticed the transaction was declined when I got home! I did go back to pay though.

Unless you're trying to set a good example to a child, forget it. Tesco make billions of pounds profit. Food prices are higher than ever. This massive cooperation will live without your £20.

I’ve done this twice. Once in Tesco, I scanned everything on the self checkout and only realised when I got home that I’d forgotten to actually pay. There’s nothing to shout at you that you haven’t paid - I was just exhausted at the time and on autopilot and must have packed my bags and left. It was less than £10 and I didn’t bother going back 🙈

More recently I did this again at ikea. I used to the self checkout, and then there was a control, so the man came over to scan everything again - all fine. I think this distracted me and I think I focused on packing and just forgot to pay. I did realise when I was at the car though and went back to pay. I saw the same guy and he said “oh yes you didn’t pay” - he had obviously noticed but there was no security coming to look for me or anything which I was a bit surprised about!

In other countries you have to scan a barcode on your receipt to open a barrier to get out of a self checkout - I think this is a good idea!

We got our Christmas food for free one year at Morrisons. Did a click and collect to pay upon collection. We paid (or thought we did) by card at a proper till, not self check out, and were handed the box and went on our way. It was pretty manic and the card readers were slow, so I don't think the staff were taking much notice. It was a while later my partner noticed the payment hadn't been taken as there was more money than expected in his account at which point we decided it wasn't worth going back in. They had all our details, email, address, phone number, and didn’t care enough to reach out about it.
It wasn't a small amount either.

I wouldn't bother taking it back honestly. They won't notice, in fact it probably creates more work for them if you do take it back! Plus it may just be that it's taking time to process in your bank fir so.e reason, and you'll end up paying twice if you go back and try and pay again
Just make sure to take more care and properly look at the screen to see if it's gone thru at the end next time.
However it could also just be an error with your bank and you did pay properly but something went wrong and it's just now come out of your bank.
I'd just leave it. Enjoy your free shopping. It's not like it was a small local shop..

If it were a small business I'd suggest you went out of your way to get it sorted.. but a food shop from Tesco? Nah just leave it. It's more hassle than it's worth for what is a drop in the ocean to them.

I was shocked as she was so nasty. I had already decided that I wouldn’t be shopping there again as I had been overcharged ( or would have been) and not for the first time and their customer service needs a different name.
I slightly regret not waiting to see the manager in the hope of him being more sensible, but TBH I was a bit worried. I am no spring chicken and have never even had a parking ticket, I didn’t want a criminal record.

My mother checks all her receipts against her statements. She has two from different Sainsburys transactions which have never been taken, yet according to her receipts the transactions went through. One is from at least three months ago, one last month.

I find it sad the amount of people who think it is okay to not try and rectify this. Would you judge a shop lifter differently. You need to try and put it right. Just email HQ and explain. They will either say don't worry or tell you how you can pay. Although if you have no receipt it could be tricky.

This happened to me at Next, I bought a child's suit at the counter and no payment came out. I considered it a bonus xx

That's appalling customer service - you went back to pay and she threathened you with the police!

I hope someone from Morrisons sees this and follows up, she was dreadful. I thought the issue was going to be that they couldn't work out a way to take thenpayment.

It's probably pending.

Difference is a shop lifter is a shop lifter they go into a store to intentionally take and not pay. This lady made a genuine mistake and feels bad for it. Soo that comparison is not really a good one...

If you go down the donation route check out The Hygiene Bank.

Exactly the same happened to me! I was putting my shopping in the car when the security guy came up to me. I was mortified, but he was really nice and said it happens all the time. Obviously he'd been able to see that I'd tapped my card, but it turned out it hasn't gone through.

I think we do it so automatically these days that we don't notice the machine saying no.

but if you feel that bad you try and put it right surely, otherwise you are no better. If you try and the shop says don't worry or fail to sort out, that is on them, but walking out without paying and failing to try and rectify is still stealing however you want to dress it up.

The old chestnut of ‘it is ok to steal if it is from a big corporation’. Never mind costs going up for everyone else as a result!

No I don't think so. You want to do the work of a large multinational business for it do you?
If I accidentally walked out of the local greengrocer with something I'd go back and try and pay. But I'm not lining some multimillionaires pockets for them. If I genuinely attempted to pay for the items and their machine didn't work or heir security didn't pick up on it then that's on them. I'm not doing extra work to make exploitative people richer. Same with the banks. If I tapped my card and it went thru but it's not shown up on my bank so the money hasn't gone out for some reason.. I'm not doing the banks work for them.
I do my bit when I attempt to pay. Once I've gone out the shop that's it then.
Obviously if I thought it was going to directly harm someone like it was a small business who it may effect then I'd spend the time sorting it.
But no way would I waste my time an effort on one of these multi billion dollar businesses. They ought to have the money to have sorted that out themselves.

I appreciate all your messages but still totally confused if to go back or not, especially with the possibility of being threatened with being reported to the police 😱

And also consider.. if Tesco accidentally charged you double for your shopping do you think they'd take the time to contact you about it and try and rectify the situation? No. They would neither notice nor care unless you made a bid deal out of it yourself. Because they'd consider it your job to chase it up and complain.
And indeed the other way round... it is Tescos job to make sure their goods are properly paid for, by making sure their checkouts are working properly and they have the staff to pick up on it if someone doesn't pay.
Are you seriously genuinely suggesting that this lady go through her cupboards and find every item of her food shop she's put away, then pack it all up again, and use her petrol and time to take it back to the store so she could pay for it again... just to save Tesco.. a multinational multimillbillion dollar company.. a hundred quid?
Couldn't be me.

Wait until tomorrow, it may go out of your account overnight. There was something on the radio news today about software glitches but I wasn’t paying attention to who’s affected.

I've noticed quite a delay on these things today. I'd used self scans in both Sainsbury's and M&S before 8.30 this morning and they were not showing up till this afternoon. No idea why. I usually get an instant notification.

Honestly I wouldn’t bother. They wouldnt care less in the store - quite the opposite as you’d be creating work for them. It would make absolutely no difference to the business. Console yourself that it wasn’t intentional and move on with your life.

I've had this but at a manned till.
It went out of my account nearly a week later. It must of had a blip

They can't report you to the police.
They need actual evidence.
Do you think that they will be bothered to go thru all the hubdreds of thousands of transactions that day to try and pinpoint exactly who walked off without paying??
If you ran out of there with some expensive alcohol with security chasing you.. they would be able to report that to the police because it would be clear on camera what was going on.
They won't even notice this.. and it would cost more money and time to investigate to the extent where they might be able to pinpoint that it was you.. than they will have actually lost by you not paying.
Considering many other people will have done this during the day as well. It just won't be worth it. The effort it would take.
This is all assuming you didn't actually pay which you don't know because it might well be that you did and the issue is with your bank
And let's assume they do report you to the police.. they won't, but let's assume they do.. I'm presuming you have no criminal record and this isn't a usual event for you.. in which case just say 'oh God sorry I thought I had paid' and just pay it then.

Just so you know, if you bring back the food they will have to dump it. I was in a large grocery shop (not Tesco) a few months ago and group of people tried to rob a shopping trolley full of food. The security guard managed to get it back and it was in my line of sight as I was finishing my shopping. I asked the worker on the tills would someone have to put it all back? She said no, that it would all have to be dumped!! Said it happens all the time! That when an item is removed from the shelf, in particular the chilled/ frozen section, it’s considered contaminated!!