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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Regarding Free Sausages?

24 replies

SnapesMistressofMerriment · 15/12/2011 08:40

Went into mini tesco yesterday for some bits and dinner. Fancied sausage ans mash for dinner so picked up some naice sausages as well as other wine things.

When I went to pay I noticed the total the girl had given me was a little lower than I had estimated but didn't say anything. When I got outside I checked the reciept and she had not charged me for the sausages. Felt faintly smug about this and went home.

Later I thought that if it had been a little independant retailer I would (and have) pointed such errors out but with tesco I just felt smug about it.

So AIBU and am I a bad person?

OP posts:

aldiwhore · 15/12/2011 08:44

YANBU and you are not a bad person, but knowing Tesco, they're probably searching for you now and will prosecute!

Original poster

SnapesMistressofMerriment · 15/12/2011 08:46

Oh dear, I should probably just handcuff myself now to save time. :o

OP posts:

maras2 · 15/12/2011 09:18

They will hunt you down like a dog and take away your first born.It has been known.

TroublesomeEx · 15/12/2011 09:36

We've had free items from large well known retailers when the shop assistants aren't paying attention, or worse still, ignoring us (and other customers) because they're having a chat with the person next to them - very rude.

I don't tell them. It's their own fault if they get into trouble. And my expectation is that they wouldn't appreciate my honesty and that would annoy me.

I would always tell a small independent retailer if they had done this, and always have done.

I would tell the till operator if they were being personable, polite, courteous and friendly.

I like to mete out my own brand of justice in the world. I'm a bit like Batman.

MollyTheMole · 15/12/2011 10:00

yanbu - enjoy!!!

dreamingbohemian · 15/12/2011 10:02

Think of it as karma, no doubt there are times where you are overcharged or given the wrong change back...

DurhamDurham · 15/12/2011 10:07

I loathe Tescos so good on you, I wouldn't have mentioned it either. I try not to shop in Tesco as I have had too many bad experiences, overcharging, incorrectly ticketed, bad attitudes, messy stores (I could go on). I hope you enjoy your lovely free sausages!!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/12/2011 10:19

I would have gone back and owned up to the underpayment. I would have felt just as bad about keeping the sausages without paying from Tesco as I would have if they'd come from an independant retailer. I don't think it's reasonable or right to have two different sets of standards - I have one set of standards, and I stick by them. So OP, sorry to go against the flow, but I think you were unreasonable not to point out the mistake.

Takeresponsibility · 15/12/2011 10:47

When things are taken from a shop without being paid for it makes no difference if it intentional or accidental, a large multi-national or a small retailer all "losses" are passed onto the other customers.

So YABU as your sausages are not "free" they are being paid for by all of Tesco's customers whether they are millionaires or single parents with a disabled child.

Taking them back will obviously not mean that Tesco will reduce all sausage prices by a penny overnight but taking things making the payment yourself means that everyone else has to pay in the long run.

DurhamDurham · 15/12/2011 11:02

Don't own up, I was overchaged by £5 for an incorrectly ticketed coat so that covers the cost of your sausages

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/12/2011 11:23

The thing is, I suspect most people would be very quick to challenge the shop, whether small independant or huge supermarket giant, if they had been overcharged, and I personally don't think you can have it both ways. I treat people the way I want to be treated - if they don't live up to that, that's their problem, not mine. I would not want to think that I had let myself down by keeping something that I hadn't paid for.

In the past, Tesco have delivered extra stuff with my food delivery, and each time I have rung them to tell them about the stuff that's not mine. Usually they tell me to keep it, and then that's fine - but I find it all a bit unpleasant when people are rubbing their hands together and going, 'ha ha, I have got one over on the evil Tesco/other multinational' - and anyway, as Takeresponsibility says, these losses are passed on to the customers, so we all pay for this sort of thing.

StaceymAloneForver · 15/12/2011 11:30

YANBU i wouldn't have even noticed i don't add up totals as i go round and don't check reciepts, enjoy your sausages!

HeidiKat · 15/12/2011 11:38

This happened to me in the co-op a few months ago, the cashier wasn't paying attention and didn't scan through a pack of nappies in my basket because she was too busy chatting to a colleague. Not only did I not get charged for the nappies but I had given her a coupon for money off them with my payment so had still got the money off, I would have thought their electronic till would notice if a coupon was put through for something not in the sale? I thought that the bill was lower than it should be and checked the receipt once I was out of the shop but I really couldn't be arsed to go back in and sort it out so just kept them.

Original poster

SnapesMistressofMerriment · 15/12/2011 12:04

Hmm, I have been overcharged in the past and not noticed till I got home so I was also thinking of the karma angle.

The cashier was also refusing to make eye-contact and generally acting brain-dead so the irritation of that may have also gone towards it.

A fair split of opinion.

OP posts:

TotemPole · 15/12/2011 13:10

I wouldn't feel bad about it. Sometimes I've been overcharged and sometimes undercharged.

I've mentioned it if I noticed at the till before payment and before leaving the shop. I don't think I've ever gone back in once I've left.

At the mini Tesco stores the checkout staff have to do everything between them. They stack the shelves, deal with deliveries, do the yellow labelling etc. There are times I've noticed before leaving and, because the queue is so long, I just left it.

muminthecity · 15/12/2011 14:06

I was once given £17 change from a £10 note in Tesco. The cashier was so engrossed in conversation with her colleague that she completely ignored me and wasn't really looking at what she was doing. I tried to tell her the mistake but she ignored me and carried on talking to her colleague so I pocketed the extra cash and left

CoffeeDog · 15/12/2011 14:09

One reason i get my delivery in the last slot availble just for the freebies

lisaro · 15/12/2011 14:13

I bet they taste better! Enjoy.

candytuft63 · 15/12/2011 14:31

I stopped shopping with Tesco home delivery because virtually every time there was a bag less of shopping than there should have been Presumably given to someone else on the round. Then there was the arse of sorting it all out with customer services, rearranging delivery and so on. I am sure they thought I was blagging free stuff.
If you get shopping you havent paid for on these terms, then someone, somewhere loses out.

Floggingmolly · 15/12/2011 14:53

They'll have it all on the security cameras, you know...

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/12/2011 14:56

Candytuft - that's why I always ring Tesco and let them know I've been given shopping by mistake - that way, when someone else rings and says they've got shopping missing, Tesco have no excuse to question it.

The problem is that if the extra shopping that's been left, for example, with me has chilled items in it, Tesco can't take it back and redeliver it to the right customer, because they can't guarantee that the items have stayed properly refrigerated, so they can't take the risk of delivering them to anyone else. That's what the Tesco customer services person told me.

I also assume that sometimes the driver can't come back and collect the shopping because it would throw their delivery schedule out, and they'd end up with lots of late deliveries, so it's easier for them to refund one customer for their missing items that have been mis-delivered - though clearly it is far more hassle for you, candytuft.

Muminthecity - you tried to give back the extra change you'd been given, and were ignored. Under those circumstances, I don't think you were in the wrong to keep the money. But I do think it is wrong to keep something you know you haven't paid for. It's dishonest, imo.

JeanLouiseFinch · 15/12/2011 15:02

YABU. Tesco do not sell naice sausages.

candytuft63 · 15/12/2011 15:19

SDTG I know, I know... I just got really fed up. Imagining someone dancing around their kitchen at their "good luck", at my expense/inconvenience. Glad to know you didnt, though !

Original poster

SnapesMistressofMerriment · 15/12/2011 15:44

Jean I beg to differ, they had caremelised red onion in them and were very naice. :o

OP posts:

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