Scanning error in supermarket - conundrum

[Scannerscammer]

Just idly wondering about people's opinions on something that happened the other day...

Lately every bloody time I've been to the supermarket there has been an annoying time-wasting issue such as discounts advertised on the shelf not registering at the checkout (so I had to go and check, and take picture of the ticket price), the self-service machine playing up and objecting to every item I tried to scan (so I kept having to call over the assistant) - the usual irritating nonsense.

The last time I went, a few days ago, I just had a couple of items to pick up and did self-scan on my phone. One of the items (a bottle of orange juice) scanned as a totally different item (a bottle of washing liquid) even though I had been nowhere near the aisle with laundry products.

I'm afraid I thought, fuck this, I am not wasting yet more of my time because the supermarket wants to save money by getting its customers to take on the job of scanning and checking out products but can't get it to work properly. So I paid for the two items which I had scanned and went on my merry way, having saved about a pound.

Am I a terrible thief who deserves to burn in hell and eat out-of-date value pork pies for the rest of eternity, or would you have done the same thing?

I wouldn't have done the same thing because I'd be too worried about getting caught and whether it would affect other people (not directly but if a lot of people do it then it puts prices up) but I also don't think you deserve to burn in hell and eat out of date pork pies.

I would have done the same. You are already doing their work for them, if they can’t even price it right how are you to blame!

No. I try to do the right thing, for my own sake and my own peace of mind. This was theft. Sorry.

I would’ve done the same thing. It’s built into the system that occasionally the customer will actually benefit from it.

These things are very annoying but please don't blame the shop staff, they have to put up with rubbish equipment and people complaining.

Yes that's a difficult choice there

I love these little insights into how other people live! I'd not do this is a million years!

Staff will know the scanning issues and they will be fed up with them, they know it will annoy customers, who will rightly complain, they get fed up with this. They know they can't fix it and for some reason, despite the complaints it doesn't get fixed, they'll be fed up with this too.
To top it off, people like the OP are now just giving up and walking out with stuff, meaning they then have a theft to deal with on top of the above- rinse and repeat every day they are at work.

Don't be a dick about it OP, you don't have to hang around whilst the staff try and sort it for the millionth time that day - just leave it in the store. Don't take the piss and steal it. It's just adding more crap for the staff to deal with and it's not their fault either.

There have been plenty of times I’ve left a shop and then realised a special offer didn’t go through so I’ve paid more than I should. Co op are especially bad for this. I don’t always go back as no time or it’s a quid and a massive queue. The odd time I’m up is like a balancing act by the universe. I think legally the price on the shelf is an invitation to treat. Contract is formed by them telling you the price of goods scanned (offer) you pay (acceptance). It’s really up to them to be organised rather than the consumer.

This is my view - obviously.

Where did I say I blamed the shop staff? I don't consider any of this stuff to be their fault, other than when they're standing around chatting and you can't get their attention when the machine malfunctions for the eleventy-billionth time.

You're not.

The fact that you're not to blame for this does not mean you can do as you please and steal it, it means you either accept the scanner price or leave it behind.

I work in a supermarket and can just say - sometimes offers go out of date but the offer price is left on the shelf edge label (because they won't put on enough staff to get all the labels changed). If you scan something and its offer price doesn't register this is usually what's happened. If you take it to the till and show them what's happened they will be very grateful, sell it to you at the offer price shown - and then take the offending offer label off the shelf edge, tear it into little pieces while swearing quietly over the headset to anyone who will listen that we need more staffing.

Was it Asda by any chance they've had issues with their scanning system on main checkouts since Friday.

It’s not theft, she scanned the item. That the faulty system made her an offer which she accepted is their problem not the OPs. Perhaps loss will encourage them to fix the system.

I have noticed for over a decade that offers quite often aren't programmed into the system and for each instance of that it's the company that benefits. Not including actual shoplifting I'm pretty sure the chips fall this way round far more often than a situation where the customer benefits.

So you paid for it as the laundry item it scanned as? Or you just removed that item from the till completely and took it anyway?

The first one I could very easily have done in the past as tbh I'm not paying that much attention to what the item is called on the screen.
The second one I wouldn't have done.

It's not their job to serve you if the machine is serving you. I'm inclined to think just go with what the system says, it's like if a human cashier did it and the wrong item came up and they didn't notice

OP, I check that the item scans but if I'm in a hurry I would not even notice what scanned. You could have been ignorant of the whole blunder. Not your fault.

But I didn't want to leave it in the store - it was one of two items that I specifically went in for. Nor did I want to have to walk to the other end of the store and back to exchange it for a different one that may or may not have scanned properly.

Also, if I'd done what you recommend I would have had to hang around for someone to remove the scanned erroneous item from the self-service machine tally otherwise I would have had to pay for that too.

But the machine is not serving you when there's a blip and you need a human to come and sort it out. That's the point OP is making. The staff should be attentive to the customers trying to catch their eye and the alert lights flashing above the tills, not standing around chatting.

OP - totally get your frustration. I've never been in a shop where you self scan on your phone. Which one was it?

You aren't sorry though are you?

What you did was fine. You scanned an item and paid for it. If someone in head office has linked it to the wrong product then that’s their fault. If they want someone to check every time scanned then they need to pay staff on a checkout.
I once had something similar happen and the staff member just told me to take it. They really couldn’t give a hoot if someone’s shopping is a quid out! They also can’t re programme barcodes someone in HO has to do it.

There is some ethnical gymnastics here I'm not going to lie 😂

If you don't like the concept of self scanners then don't use them!