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Am I a terrible thief who deserves to burn in hell and eat out-of-date value pork pies for the rest of eternity, or would you have done the same thing?

Where I work, if something is priced incorrectly, we will honour the cheaper price, because it’s OUR error.

She hasn't stolen it.

At worst, she has received an unintentional discount.

It is exactly their job if they are clearly the staff who have been assigned to assist customers with the self-service checkout machines!

Yes, that was my thinking. I didn't actively scan the wrong product and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd been doing a bigger shop.

They did accept the scanner price. The question is given she knew the scanner is wrong is it ok to merrily carry on the transaction?

They wouldn't be standing around chatting if an actual human needed their attention rather than the machines stealing their jobs

This is interesting, although not unexpected. I knew some people would get aerated about it. Personally I don't see why I should have to repeatedly waste my time fixing the supermarket's errors, but obviously others disagree.

Are you obliged to do that by law, or is it just a policy of where you work?

If it makes you feel any better, I had similar a couple of weeks ago.

I picked up a birthday cake that should have been £14. It scanned at £4.50. I waited (for ages) for the assistant to come and sort it out. He seemed quite irritated at me for highlighting it and then said he could discount it but couldn’t make it more expensive so gave me the choice of taking it for that price or leaving it in the shop.

There's no law saying businesses have to honour the price but most do as a goodwill gesture.

The thing is (I run the self serve tills from the kiosk, we don't have enough staff to man the self serves AND the kiosk, so I'm doing it all from back there), if you put something on through the till and it scans as something else, the scales will register an error. Unless the two items are EXACTLY the same weight, an error message will have gone off on your till. Did the red light flash, OP? If not, then it may be that the item has incorrectly been entered on the system (which is the supermarket's fault, and it will be happening every time someone scans the item). If it did, but you still managed to pay, it means the person supervising the self serve tills pressed the 'over ride' button to cancel the error message from the scale telling them that the item was 'wrong' in some way. Which happens, on average, about once every twenty bloody seconds. So they overrode it. So still not your fault.

If you were able to pay for the wrong item, someone, somewhere, knows. And hopefully will be putting the issue right. Not your problem.

What's particularly annoying about this is that often you have bought multiple items of a product, or a more expensive brand, precisely because there is an offer (which is obviously the incentive the supermarket intends) and then you don't get the discount.

The more cynical side of me wonders whether this is even programmed (or rather not programmed) intentionally.

I doubt I would have even noticed, as long as it bings I just carry on, I don’t check each item on screen.

I’m a worry wort so would have been too anxious about getting a hand on my shoulder as I left so I would have called the assistant. So not really on moral grounds, more fear of being caught.

Its not theft...you scanned it...that was your job (or actually nto your job but something we are now forced to do...). Not your fault the price is wrong. I probably would have not noticed.

Well Op did only have two items!

But as a rule I often just look at the price.

I am sorry if it feels as if I'm having a go at someone. That's what I meant.

Oh no, this never happens with shop assistants, doctors' receptionists etc. Never ever. (Not that I blame them - I'm sure it can get tiring and boring working in a supermarket.)

I would just let it go. Frankly, its their problem if the scanner doesn't work, and if I was picked up on it, I'd just say 'sorry, that's what I scanned, I didn't notice'.

I hate scanners, and try not to use them, but sometimes they're unavoidable.

Unless there’s a little picture of the item on the screen then I wouldn’t have noticed and if I did I wouldn’t bother faffing about for the sake of what, 50p?

Once I was trying to scan some soup and the machine didn’t recognise the barcode. The assistant came over, asked how much I thought it was, I said “I dunno, £2 maybe?” so she put it through as £2 🤣

I don’t think it’s the law. It’s something we’ve always done because it’s good customer service. If you go to the checkout thinking you’re paying £1 for a chocolate bar, and the cashier ask for £1.50, even if it’s only 50p difference, it gets your back up a bit, doesn’t it? We’d rather lose a bit of profit, own our mistake (and correct them), and have the customer more likely to come back to us 🤷‍♀️

This, it's all fine and well saying you wanted them but then you don't want to walk to the other end of the store or hang around to get scanning issues sorted. You can't have it both ways OP, you're not 6 anymore.

Either deal with crap self-service properly or don't, this is a valid choice, not the above which frankly just sounds stroppy at best.

I scanned it on my phone, so the weight wasn't registered. It just came up as a totally unrelated item (not, say, a different flavour or fruit juice). Quite bizarre actually - perhaps something like one number of a code being different.

No person (apart from me) was involved, so no-one had to override anything.

Still don't think it's their fault. They're being asked to supervise a machine for no extra pay

I think it's a swings and roundabout thing

I was using self scan in Sainsburys last night, picked up a pork joint but changed my mind and got a different one so deleted the first one

Now for some reason when you scan Nectar price meat on the handset it says £14.07, £ 14.01 Nectar price but adjusts at the till
So I checked through on the till to make sure it had been charged correctly only to find the original item wasnt deleted...£15's worth. I wonder how many times this happens

I can't be bothered correcting low value shopping errors, whether it's in my favour or against. If it involves a long queue, a return visit, a lengthy wait on hold on the phone or a fussy website, I just don't want the hassle.