What to do about the big shop I may have inadvertently shoplifted!

[ImGoingUpstairsToTakeOffMyHat]

Did my big shop yesterday using a scan and shop doo-dah.

Racked up £100+ worth of goods, and went to the tills to pay. I was told scan and shop wasn’t working so I’d have to put it through again on the other tills. They also said Google pay wasn’t working and made sure I had a physical card.

Went to self scan, and it was chaos. I could hear that other customers’s payments weren’t going through and a few people had to take themselves to the cash machine or go to sort it at customer services.

Anyway I scanned all my shopping then went to pay with via contactless with my card. It asked me to insert the card and enter my pin, which I did. It took a really long time but the screen on the card machine, and also the self scan machine, displayed a green tick and said “approved”/“transaction complete”. But then suddenly the self scan screen showed up a red exclamation mark and said “Error - call for help?” With a yes and no option. However, by this point the machine had spat out a receipt, and staff members were all busy helping others, so I assumed it was just the machine glitching. Also DD was in the car and didn’t want to leave her much longer, especially as scanning the shipping took so long. I pressed no, took my receipt and left.

However, no money has left my bank. I didn’t realise until I was making a transfer this morning and noticed I had no transactions for yesterday.

I was going to go back and tell them but DH said that they may make me pay, only to find that the payment is just taking a few days - so says I’d risk a double payment and may struggle to get a refund on one of them. I tried calling the customer services today but was on hold for ages and we had plans. I don’t want to go into the supermarket and ask for advice in case they accuse me of shoplifting, or force me to pay (see concern above about potential double payment )

The receipt says “Total paid £102.34”. Just for clarification. It’s not the kind of receipt you get when a transaction fails.

Should I worry about this? Is it shoplifting? Has anyone experienced this before? I don’t know much about banking, can transactions take a number of days?

Ah right so there was issues with lots of peoples payments and there was an error call for help screen that you just ignored and then walked out of the supermarket with the shopping - so you knew there was a potential issue with the transaction but left the shop anyway?

Your bank will tell you if there's a payment pending. You are asking if walking out of the shop and not paying for 100 pounds worth of food is shoplifting?.

Looks like you are making excuses as to why you shouldn't go back and sort this out.

What? OP has something called a receipt. It's a proof of payment, just in case you're not familiar with the concept.

If the shop has messed up and the receipt was issued in error, it's on the shop to contact OP.

Did you not read the first post? It stated that lots of people were having issues with payment and an error message came up and she ignored it.

You think the shop will contact OP if the receipt was printed in error? How will they do that exactly with no contact details for her?

I know what a receipt is thanks

You have not 'shoplifted'. Shoplifting is when you knowingly take things without paying for them. Their systems are crap and did not take your payment. It's different. You tried to pay and received a receipt saying you had.
I would enjoy the perks and let it be a lesson to them to sort the technology out.

Keep the receipt showing payment and do nothing else.

A few years ago now I ordered a weekly shop from a big supermarket, it arrived and everything was as normal but they never took payment for it.

This.

if the system was down in some way they may take the payment later. You have a receipt saying you have paid so I would keep the money in the bank waiting for the payment to go out

Doesn't sound like it. And yes I did read the first post, thanks. OP has physical proof of payment. Unless she hears anything to the contrary, it's reasonable for her to assume her payment was successful.

I know what a receipt is...thanks. Just carry on being snide. Have a nice day

Don't worry about it.

You did everything reasonable to ensure you paid and have a receipt saying you paid.

If their systems are broken then that's not your problem.

Don't make any further efforts to give them money. You don't need to. Chances are the money will be debited by monday. If not, it doesn't matter.

Isnt it just more likely that whatever technical error they had means that the payment is still pending at their end and will come through eventually? Reciept saying youve paid means it went through ok at your end. I would do nothing and wait for the payment to eventually leave your account.

It's not "perks" if the supermarkets have to put prices up due to losses from people not paying for shopping

If you were so pressured for time why did you do a scan and shop for over 100 pounds worth of food? Why didn't you go through the tills?

Take it as compensation for your inconvenience from their IT issue.

Most big stores have done away with loads of ‘ manned ‘ tills where I live and have enormous queues at the ones where there is an assistant.

They have a few more open at Christmas, but generally people have been pushed into using the self scanners or self service tills that are made to look like traditional tills , but really arn’t! ( Looking at you M and S food hall!)

You followed procedure and got a receipt saying paid. You’ve done your bit. If the shop can’t get it together with working IT systems then that’s their problem. I used to work as a checkout supervisor in a supermarket and I wouldn’t take payment off you again in case it did go through later and it would be totally inappropriate for me to comb through your banking app looking to see if there were pending transactions or anything like that. And honestly if you came in asking and accusing yourself of shoplifting I’d be silently thinking to myself that you were a bit of a weirdo/attention seeker because who does that? It’s a public company, who cares if they’re down £100 and your time isn’t worth it when their annual profits in the millions. Also if it makes you feel better- if they couldn’t taken payment on the day and you left without any shopping then all the fresh/frozen bits you had in your trolley would have had to go in the bin because they’d been out of the cold chain. So if nothing else by taking the shopping home you prevented a load of pointless waste.

Don't be ridiculous. What a nonsense post

I didn’t mention anything about perks??

Went on the chat to my bank. No pending payments, but it’s not to say that they won’t still try to take it

Both the pin pad and shop and scan screen said payment approved.

The error message said nothing about payments. It just said “Error! Call for help!”
I assumed it was something to do with the screen/software and never thought for a moment it was to do with the payment, given that it said “approved” on two screens and I got a receipt.

I don’t have time to stand around waiting for an available member of staff, when in my eyes it was an error unrelated to me. I have places to be, I was already delayed and I had DD in the car.

Because there was one person on the tills and a big queue. In the absence of being able to snap my fingers or create magic, it was the best option at the time.

Why do you ask?

This. And when the payment comes out, check the amount against your receipt.

I earn £120 an hour. If a supermarket wants me to do the job of reconciling their error they can pay me my standard wage to do so.

@Roobarbtwo The hand held scanner saves time as you scan and pack on your way round the supermarket. It save loading the trolley, unloading at the till and then packing it again. It should be faster to use the scanner but it's not always the case

In some shops ( not just the big supermarkets) you’re actually directed to the self service tills to pay. It’s almost as if the days of paying at a till with a person on it will eventually die out completely ( or just be one booth / customer service for returns or general queries something like that )
Its already happening by stealth.