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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have asked for my 38p back?

72 replies

storminabuttercup · 12/07/2012 13:24

Just canvassing opinion really. (this is a boring aibu)

Today in one of the big supermarkets I noticed on my receipt that once again I'd not received the discount on a 2 for X promotion, the difference was 38p, now this has happened to me so many times in this store, I usually realise when I'm home. So I'd got to the door and thought 'no, I'm going to tell them' so I queued at the service desk and explained that id not received my discount. The person on the desk said 'oh yeah that offers finished, but the sticker is still on, do you want the 38p back then?' I said yes please and got my money back. All good.

But now I'm thinking I probably looked a bit tight, how much is too little to ask to get back If you've been over charged?

OP posts:

mollymole · 12/07/2012 14:20

I always check the discounted offers on my till receipt before leaving the store,
and yes, Tesco are the worst, I would say that 75% of the time they are not correct. They must make an awful lot of money by conning us like this. On more than 1 occasion the help desk have said ' yes, we know about this I'll refund you now' - Well if they know about it they should bloody well change it for everyone.

Original poster

storminabuttercup · 12/07/2012 14:23

I'm glad to know others would do the same. I'm tempted to keep track everytime I'm overcharged, I bet it equals a lot by the end of the year.

OP posts:

jubilucket · 12/07/2012 14:27

YY Melika they did it with Frubes last year, it made me so angry I went on about it being misleading and asked to see the manager, who in the end gave me a goodwill refund to make me shut up and go away.
I always check the receipt, even in Waitrose which I use as a corner shop, and which hasn't had an error in virtually daily visits for milk etc for over two years.

BristolJim · 12/07/2012 14:31

I insist on taking all my shopping back and getting a full refund on everything every single time I'm overcharged, even by as once happened, 2p. I'll then go and buy the same stuff somewhere else.

I don't do the weekly shops, and I live quite close to three supermarkets so it's not entirely impractical, but I just hate, absolutely hate, being ripped off. If I did the weekly shop, I obviously wouldn't insist on taking everything back, but I'd sure as hell go through my receipt with a fine-tooth comb and absolutely I'd make sure I got my money back on my next visit. Even as I say, for 2p.

And in my experience, Asda are the biggest culprits, closely followed by Tesco. Sainsbury's are quite good - to the extent that I felt moved to point out an undercharge on a banana Frijj! They let me off!

wandawings · 12/07/2012 14:34

Don't forget if you are incorrectly charged at Asda then they should be giving you a £2 gift card as well as the difference.

SusanneLinder · 12/07/2012 14:34

I usually check everything and then complain if its not right. Morrisons had to give us a docking station for £20 cos they had mislabelled.I actually cost £50 and we had bought 2............:o

I was in a hurry yesterday and hadnt checked my Tesco shopping tho............

Original poster

storminabuttercup · 12/07/2012 14:37

I usually shop online, but I have never had problems with sainsburys either. The only thing I don't like is the substitute policy when buying online where they send you the most expensive sub and charge you full price.

OP posts:

EnglishGirlApproximately · 12/07/2012 14:41

Yanbu - always get it back.

At the risk of going against the grain and sticking up for Supermarkets, they really don't deliberately do this. I have worked for one of the large supermarkets and they stock around 35,000 different items and have hundreds of offers on at once. There are a team dedicated to checking offers daily but with so much going on some things inevitably get missed. At any one time there can be a case of an item on sale, 4 cases on a cage waiting to be replenished, 14 cases in the warehouse, 28 cases in transit to store etc. If an offer changes in the middle of this it is possible a couple of stickers might get missed.

They would rather you tell them so they can go and check it rather than deal with a queue of people wanting 5p back.

I find the notion that the board of directors at Tesco sit around thinking up ways to con 3p out of every shopper a bit

BallerinaBetty · 12/07/2012 14:44

I would have done the same as you. Thing is, if you were 38p short at the checkout they'd make you put something back wouldn't they??

fedupwithdeployment · 12/07/2012 15:00

I would complain! I always do if i notice, but by the time I have got home, I generally won't get round to it.

Recently the Tesco delivery came when I was out, and au pair unpacked everything....I couldn't work out why DH had order 2x everything. Anyway by the next time I spoke to him (he was away), I realised he hadn't - Tesco had simply given us a total shopping BOGOF experience. As I say, too much time had elapsed, so I didn't report it.

gettingeasier · 12/07/2012 15:04

YANBU I agree I only ever had this at Tesco and last time spoke to the manager asking how it can be that every time I go there this happens and you have to queue at Customer services and hang around while they go off and look.

My other bug bear is putting very similar products on the same plinth as the products on offer so you assume they are part of the offer but they arent

Never go to Tesco now

EndoplasmicReticulum · 12/07/2012 15:06

I always do this with my online shopping (ASDA) - they always seem to substitute an item in a deal, then not give you the deal. They do refund, but you have to ask.

I always ask, because it's the principle of the thing. If they are getting an extra 38p out of each customer it's going to add up to a lot of money.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 12/07/2012 15:09

EnglishGirl - it really wouldn't surprise me at all. How many times does this happen to people? - and it is usually in the supermarket's favour. If it was a genuine mistake you'd end up ahead just as much as behind.

gettingeasier · 12/07/2012 15:10

Exactly.

I honestly do think its deliberate to a point and if I had been forced to use Tesco still I would think about reporting them to Trading Standards , voted with my feet instead

StuntGirl · 12/07/2012 15:12

YANBU . I've done it for 20p before! It's the principle.

grimbletart · 12/07/2012 15:12

Maybe it's their way of counteracting the loss from shoplifters who say they wouldn't lift from a little grocery stores but supermarkets can afford it.

Only joking....

Frontpaw · 12/07/2012 15:13

Supermarkets make millions. Tesco are pretty bad for that! Get your money back - they wouldn't hesitate if it was the other way around!

EnglishGirlApproximately · 12/07/2012 15:20

Its not deliberate - really, its human error! Trading standards are in supermarkets day in day out investigating these things and most of the time its a mistake. Of course its annoying and you should always get your money back but the notion of a big conspiracy is ridiculous.
If it was deliberate don't you think one of the hundreds of thousands of people working for them might have let it slip by now...

Btw - I'm no fan of Tesco and don't work for any of the supermarkets but I find the idea of a big, elaborate plot to con 3p out of every customer a bit bewildering!

Original poster

storminabuttercup · 12/07/2012 15:24

But they have been doing this for years. Promotions are changed over on a particular day, they will get a list of what promotions are ending it is their responsibility to remove the tickets. I used to work in a tiny supermarket and this was my job, but it was no smaller than a 'section' in a supermarket.

I don't think it's conspiracy as such, just laziness and lack of organisation. They would be quick to do something that would lose them a great deal.

OP posts:

EnglishGirlApproximately · 12/07/2012 15:35

storm that's what I'm saying. Some posters are saying its deliberate and a way to get extra money from people, as though a corporate decision has been made to not take a sticker off- its not, its that someone missed a sticker.

It's not right but its not deliberate either. Some stores will have good pricing control, some will have bad - it depends how good the people responsible are at their job.

slartybartfast · 12/07/2012 15:41

i used to do tht all the time, they must have seen me coming. i got charged for a turnip instead of a swede once
and a turnip is much more expensive.
i still check my receipts religiously. whilst still near the store.

slartybartfast · 12/07/2012 15:42

they used to give you double your money back but they stopped that! not surprsingly.

ReshapeWhileDamp · 12/07/2012 15:44

It's happened to me in Aldi a lot - not offers, but things being scanned twice. I do a massive fortnightly or three-week shop there, so usually don't notice until I get home and realise that no, I didn't buy three jars of jam. I think WRT Aldi, it's the speed at which the staff scan the shopping because they have a time limit to stick to.

Just think though, this must happen several times an hour in the average supermarket and it all adds up for them. I don't think it's always deliberate but it's not in their interests to do anything to become less lax.

MonkeyRisotto · 12/07/2012 15:47

I got some free dishwasher tablets a while back, the label on the shelf said half price, scanned through at full price, so I complained at customer services.
They checked it and said the offer had expired (which was why it scanned at full price) but leaving the half price offer on the shelf was their fault so they refunded double the difference, making it free. There were some celebrations in the MonkeyRisotto household that night, I can tell you

melika · 12/07/2012 16:11

gettingeasier exactly! but if you were to open the till and walk out with your money you would soon get a couple of burly guards escorting you to the back of the shop.

I see a pattern here, with TESCO! They are robdogs and get away with daylight robbery it seems.

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