Sainsburys think I’m a thief - AIBU?

[OreganoOregano146]

Something really odd happened to me the other day and I want to see what others think of it. I’ve been shopping at sainsburys for over 3 years now using scan & go (extremely convenient!) Been selected for a random check maybe 3 or 4 times in all this time, all clear, no issues at all.
Recently I’ve noticed that every time I’m shopping the security guard seems to be following me. For instance last week I was looking for my DD’s formula on the shelf and when I turned around I noticed he walked right past me. I was the only person in that isle. Yesterday I was looking in the meat section and surprise surprise, he was there again. Now, having finished my shopping I went over to the self checkout till to pay and I suddenly get a message on my device saying “hold on, we just need to do a trolley check” - I thought okay, never mind, it happens. I suddenly notice the security guard talking to the guy who’s about to scan my shopping, they were having a random chat about something laughing. The guy comes over and says “oh today we need to scan 40 items” .. I thought whaaat? They usually scan 10max, where did 40 come from? (Unless I heard 40 but in reality he said 14, not sure now). Anyway, he starts scanning my shopping and then goes “oh shit sorry I think I’ve scanned the Maltesers twice, you’re gonna have to do a full trolley re scan now”. So I proceeded to a separate till where they scanned all my shopping again, the woman didn’t say anything at all, just apologised, I paid and that was it. When I got home I realised that my shopping ended up being £18 more expensive than what it said on the hand-held device, making me look like a thief? I did buy a lot of the same items twice so perhaps it didn’t register properly.
AIBU to think this whole experience was a bit strange?

If you think the security guard is deliberately harassing you for fun, I would raise it with the store manager. It sounds entirely like the sort of thing some men would do.

@RosaBonheur 100%, but OP probably didn't question it at the time because she was embarrassed by the process, so hopefully she'll contact customer services and be compensated

sorry only just gone on my laptop, not had time to read all answers

People please read the full thread, or at least OP's posts...she is not a thief and has fully explained the situation and will hopefully rectify the discrepancy today, at the store

I worked in retail for years. You see all the scams and learn the 'go to' items.

This. Jesus 😂

Sigh.

"This. Jesus 😂"

She was using fucking coupons. So no, definitely not "this" 🙄

@ReadersD1gest

I wonder if anyone has ever just left the trolley and walked out of the store when selected for a re-scan ?

It's what I was going to do when I went through the spate of "random" rescans. Maybe the universe heard me and made sure the next shop went through ?

I did once leave a full trolley after queuing for a till and being put at the back of the queue when it closed and the next one reopened. Apparently I "couldn't do that". Only I did.

I think that OP confused things by saying "it was £18 short making me look like a thief.

Can't for the life of me work out why your self-scan only discounts not having gone through would make you look like a thief when Sainsbury's would be well aware of these special discounts?

Well it's they're time they are wasting not mine. In the meantime they are following me an actual theif is getting away.

There are still mistakes at manned tills too. Not necessarily the cashiers fault - but offers not programmed in properly or price discrepancies. There's more chance that I notice on the hand held scanner as I go round than at a manned till when I'm trying to watch the display and pack my bags at the same time.

I worked on checkouts briefly with a similar scan-as-you-shop system, and twice I managed to trigger a "re-scan entire shop" by accidentally double scanning an item on one of those "scan 10 items" random stop. So embarrassing!😩

On one of those however, it did turn out there were several items that in fact hadn't been scanned, so I felt less embarrassed over that one at least.

I did once leave a full trolley after queuing for a till and being put at the back of the queue when it closed and the next one reopened. Apparently I "couldn't do that". Only I did

I've done the same. It wasn't a big trolley full and I knew by then I was going to have to go to another supermarket for things they didnt have anyway, so no big bother to me.

I have also asked if a rescan was going to take long because if it was a full re-scan I would go and sit on the bench to wait while they did it. Fortunately it was just a random sample.

I wonder if anyone has ever just left the trolley and walked out of the store when selected for a re-scan ?

probably. I have literally witnessed customers at shops scan their shopping at self service tills as normal, bag it all…then walk away. The till is just left beeping to prompt payment and all the cashier can do is cancel the transaction to let someone else use the till. They didn’t bat an eyelid at the theft cause the thief was long gone. I’d imagine that would be the process if someone abandoned the till with a rescan.

Although at least rescans can be linked to a person/account.

To the person who asked how posters know what the popular items to steal are - it’s because some of us used to work in retail. Albeit I worked in fashion retail. Joni jeans and jersey were the biggest targets at Topshop.

Whereas the biggest targets in supermarkets are anything you see in a supermarket that is security tagged. Some shops with low theft rates won’t tag as many types of items as shops with a high theft rate. For example some shops only put security tags on high value things like alcohol and electronics, where other shops will tag anything and everything including deodorant and paracetamol.

I've had similar. SMART scanned - no vouchers to apply but got a rescan message. Chap came over and said I'll just check a few things. Looked at me and smirked and said "well this hasn't been scanned" £1.35 bottle of tonic. Bill at smart till £110 something; bill at till £110 something so it had been scanned. I was literally marched to a till opened specially and three staff observed.

@RosesAndHellebores if this ever happened to me, I would tell them where to stick their groceries, it’s outrageous!

The last time I had a full trolley scan in Tesco it turned out that the original bill was about £25 more than my actual total thanks to my son being ‘trigger happy’ with the scanning device and scanning things that we hadn’t put in the trolley. We had, however, ‘stolen’ an 18p onion that we had forgotten to weigh and scan. The staff had a right laugh.

This has turned into another "CANCEL THE CHECK" fiasco.

@Coffeepot72 I did. They didn't give a flying fuck. £800+ and equivalent over 40 years. Their loss!

Could you have accidentally shoplifted before OP?

If the facts had been made clear in the initial post, we would be less accusatory.

I noticed one staring and hovering around me once in Sainsburys and I started laughing and said Hi 👋 then he disappeared 🤣

LOL!

Read the full thread.