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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Didn't pay for items in shop

94 replies

Theaccidentalthief · 13/12/2019 15:22

Just been to boots with my dh and baby. Had 4 items to purchase, dh put them all on the little cash desk/counter and was looking at some toothbrushes on a stand next to us. I was holding baby so juggling baby and getting my card out of my bag and talking to the cashier. Anyway paid on contactless not really paying attention to how much it came to and at that point dh turned back to us, put the items in the baby bag and we left.

We have just got home and I've realised on the receipt she has only charged us for 2 out of 4 items! So we should have paid £14 and we paid £4 😳

Obviously this was an accident but I'm a bit mortified in case they think we did it on purpose or something! We are a small town and I go to that boots a lot so I don't want my name blacklisted so to speak!

I want to ring and explain but dh says that's overkill and I should just leave it as clearly it was an accident. AIBU if I ring? I'm happy to pay next time we are in (can't go back now as dh is going away for work conference and taking the car).

OP posts:
AnnieGlypta · 13/12/2019 16:47

*think there was a thread on here ages ago where a Mum returned to the store and she was treated like a criminal? Apparently shoplifters occasionally return things out of guilt.

For that reason I wouldn't go back, donate the money to charity, they probably need it more*

Was it Tescos? I was once accused of stealing because I went into the toilets directly after paying and came out wearing different gloves - they were the gloves I had just paid for at the till????

No apology and made me feel like a criminal.

lovemenorca · 13/12/2019 16:50

You dh is leaving for a work conference on a Friday afternoon? Hmm

msmith501 · 13/12/2019 16:53

Surely either forget it or pop back in, own up and pay what you owe. Job done - no one is going to arrest you for being honest.

AnnieGlypta · 13/12/2019 16:58

If you feel worried about either returning it or keeping it you could post it back to them anonymously. Clean conscious and they have their money back.

lovemenorca · 13/12/2019 17:15

* I was once accused of stealing because I went into the toilets directly after paying and came out wearing different gloves - they were the gloves I had just paid for at the till????*

So many questions Grin
You had a pair of gloves on. Why did you buy another one?
What was so wrong with ones you were wearing that you had to change as soon as purchased?
Why did you need to go to the toilets to change your gloves?

And when you “accused” of stealing. Was it not just “madam could I please see the receipt for the Tesco gloves that you weren’t wearing when you entered the toilets?”. Seems totally fair enough to me!

SallyLovesCheese · 13/12/2019 17:17

I used to work in the cash office of a large bookshop chain. It's obvious when a till is up or down and I could even search through on a computer to determine which member of staff had been logged in at the time. But no action was ever taken, I just informed management and it was put down to human error. Only if management spotted it happening regularly under the same login would they have taken action.

kinsss · 13/12/2019 17:19

Nice to see that honesty is the best policy espoused on here.

Sometimes people are NOT dishonest, it is a mistake or something on either theirs or someone else's part.

Get over yourselves, the loss was a few pounds or something and was NOT deliberate at all.

OP, forget it, going back, ringing in, etc. will not achieve much. Errors happen. Give a bit of food to a homeless person instead. You will be fine.

LemonPrism · 13/12/2019 17:20

Just leave it. If you were able to do contactless then she clearly didn't scan everything and that's her fault

rhubarbcrumbles · 13/12/2019 17:20

They won't have noticed. If it's any consolation we had a similar thing today, my son went in the shop and bought two of the same item and got given too much change - I only noticed when we got home and there was too much money in my purse but we don't have the receipt to check it. We're not going back there as it's 10 miles away and we don't know how much we were under charged.

eggandonion · 13/12/2019 17:27

My dh goes to work conferences at weekends too... my toddler once stole a packet of soup, they never steal anything good... at this time of year there is chaos, I had a customer forget his credit card today, we constantly have keys and glasses left behind, I placed an order yesterday that didn't get processed properly.

Stick a contribution in a charity box, or buy something for a food bank!

lovemenorca · 13/12/2019 17:29

A uk work conference over the weekend?

Nope

eggandonion · 13/12/2019 17:32

Academic conferences are often at weekends, especially out of term time/during exam periods.

Original poster
Theaccidentalthief · 13/12/2019 17:46

I love that people have picked up on dp having gone away like I might have made it up for amusement or something 😂

I'm not going to out myself but DP is often away for conferences weekdays and weekends, both in this country and overseas :-) he's highly thought of in his speciality (proud wife moment but I'll never tell him 😛😛) ant often does talks etc at them :-)

OP posts:
Celticrose · 13/12/2019 17:47

This has happened to me a couple of times. I bought items from The Body shop which totaled approx 65 EUR. When checking my account I noticed it had gone through as approx 5 stg. Very odd I thought and when I looked at my receipt the receipt was ok but the voucher for the card machine was incorrect. Not sure how the the assistant managed that but I was not going to travel back 80 miles to sort it out.
Also I once got 6 months free electric. Long story short they got the readings the wrong way round. Took me a bit to figure it all out and phoned them to advise that their bill was wrong and I owed them money but they insisted that they were right so I gave up and enjoyed 2 free billing periodsSmile

Welltroddenpath · 13/12/2019 17:48

They didn’t charge you, their fault not yours so don’t stress it. I once paid for the wrong petrol pump! I had to fess upmas it was £50 cheaper! I didn’t notice till the next day. Went back two days later and they was amazed I fessed up, came back and paid. They had my number Plate! So chill. If you feel like it, phone to explain

snowball28 · 13/12/2019 17:50

I used to do this all the time when I worked retail, I was forever missing stuff and bagging it anyway 😬 I bet the customers loved me.

Just keep the items and pay it forward if you’d like

snowball28 · 13/12/2019 17:53

Why would there be a shortage in the till? If the shopping should have been £14 buy they only got charged £4 then the till won’t be up or down as they won’t have been scanned.

Fatasfooook · 13/12/2019 17:59

www.medact.org/project/alliance-boots-campaign/

Tax avoiders.

Dustarr73 · 13/12/2019 18:05

Why would there be a shortage in the till? If the shopping should have been £14 buy they only got charged £4 then the till won’t be up or down as they won’t have been scanned.

We where talking about somebody getting too much change.That will affect your till.

Not scanning items ,wont.

TheWaiting · 13/12/2019 18:07

I once ordered a bed and wardrobe from John Lewis for my son’s bedroom. DH took the order in and when I got home I saw they’d also sent the matching chest of drawers. I’d purchased online and hadn’t been charged for it but it was about £250 worth. We decided we liked it though so I called them up to tell them and paid for it.

Another time in a JL store, at Christmas, one person doing till the other packing. I got home and realised I had about £150 worth of extra toys I hadn’t paid for. I took them back a) I hadn’t paid for them b) I didn’t need nor want them.

MistyCloud · 13/12/2019 18:35

@lovemenorca

I thought it was a very odd story about the Tesco gloves too! Wink

JasonPollack · 13/12/2019 20:01

No one will care. Welcome to the shoplifting club! You can get loads under a pram Wink

Choclips · 13/12/2019 20:12

Ring Boots? Are you all quite mad? Too much time on your hands.

Leighhalfpennysthigh · 13/12/2019 20:20

I recently accidentally gave the wrong pump number in a petrol station. I too wasn't paying attention to the amount either at the pump or in the shop. Paid for it and when I got back to my car I realised that the pump whose number I gave was £20 less than what I'd actually filled up with.

Went home. Forgot about it and refuse to feel guilty. Although I avoid that petrol station for a few weeks!

user1471541711 · 13/12/2019 20:49

Tills are often used by one person only. Where i work we have to explain any difference over £1 And it goes on our records so please think of the cashier if you get too much change