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Am I a terrible thief who deserves to burn in hell and eat out-of-date value pork pies for the rest of eternity, or would you have done the same thing?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 don’t even check what my scanner shows when I go to the supermarket. I just check that it does scan and put it in the trolley.

Presumably you are scanning and paying so it’s not up to you to check the supermarket has linked the bar code to the correct item but I wonder how often it happens and is financially detrimental to customers rather than the supermarket.

Obviously if I hadn't noticed it's one thing but if I did notice I wouldn't have taken it when it scanned wrong. I would have found a member of staff and sorted it.

I don't mean to sound sanctimonious but I feel like justifying things like this are a slippery slope.
There is no grey area, it is wrong.

In answer to your question, yes you are a thief.

@WillimNot Not Aldi, OP said "the orange one" so Sainsbo's, presumably.

I would have done the same as you OP, I've wasted too much time waiting for a poor staff member to come over and sort out the problems at self scanners 🙁

It's a bit difficult to listen to "some lowly shop worker" when it was you they were giving the explanation to, not me...

Anyway, many congratulations on your superlative self-checkout skills, Your Highness. I didn't think Fortnum's had self-checkouts.

It was washing liquid, but yes.

On the contrary here I bought an Asda cushion that was £9 ish and it scanned at £1.

I sent my husband back to buy 3 more before they realised!

I think this is what happened to me yesterday in dunelm with a duvet set 🫣 price check over headset and then said the label was there on the shelf but not meant to be anymore so they’d sell it to me just this once at that price. I dunno about anyone else but I always feel a pain though when they have to check prices

Exactly. I'm not on the supermarket's payroll, so why is it my job to check?

As I said, I suspect it is far more often to the customer's detriment.

Genuinely can’t believe some people are so worked up over a pound, I’m sure the supermarket will survive

I shall turn myself in at the nearest police station forthwith.

I would have done the same. The fact is I probably wouldn't even have noticed, as long as the scan gun beeps I don't stop to check what it's gone through as and I don't check the screen at the end, I just pay and go.

Life's too short.

It'll be Sainsburys, you use your phone with an app to scan the items.

The supermarket is saving whatever NMW is per hour on having customers do their own scanning, and apparently even more on competent tech people who organise the right bar code matching the right product. I wouldn't be even slightly worried about a £1 saving based on their error, and there's not a chance I'd be wasting my time chasing them around about it.

This is the shops fault, you scanned an item and paid the price it came up as. They need to sort out the pricing issues. These are multinational companies. They need to sort out their technology.

I have just retired from a supermarket and quite often have let customers take items that won't scan for whatever reason. They care nothing for their staff (despite all their wellbeing bollocks) so I feel the staff owe them nothing.
All supermarkets would coin it in if they spent money on systems that work and enough staff but they don't so stuff like this happens.

It wouldn't have occurred to me that was a mistake, I'd assume they were on clearance and had forgotten to mark them up.

They were new 🤣

Ordinarily so would I, but I was tired and fed up with similar things happening.

I do wonder where one draws the line. If the ticket machine isn't working at your local railway station should you be entitled to board anyway with the possibility of ending up with a free journey, or is the onus on you to walk to another nearby station thus adding x amount of time to your journey in order that you can purchase a ticket?

This would have been me. I'd never have noticed in the first place. Would I have said anything if I had?

Totally depends. If I had enough time to faff around, no kids around me needing to be somewhere, no deadline to meet, yes I would say something and sort it out.

If I was in a rush and had no spare time to right it, no, I'd probably just leave it.

It must be shop policy. If you take an item to the till and are told the labelled price is a mistake, you don’t have a right to buy the item at the lower price.

If on the other hand they sell it to you at the wrong, lower price they can't later ask you to pay up the difference.

Exactly.

Have to begrudgingly admire those paragons of virtue who allegedly walk among us, though.

I'd have done the exact same @Scannerscammer.

I do most of my shopping in Tesco and was talking to a worker while there recently. I always self-scan and was chatting to her about the apparent 'offers'. She told me that a huge number of the offers are absolute bullshit. So let's say there are Christmas lights 'reduced' from £30 to £15 for example. Her point was that these lights were only ever £12.50 so it's misleading.

And I imagine their bottom line accounts for pricing errors so by encouraging people to selfscan then they are compromising on a cashier recognising that error. I'd have done the same as you and wouldn't give it a second thought to be honest.

The OP is not a thief.

The actual law on this is the supermarket allocated the wrong price to the item. The OP paid the price allocated to it. The OP has no legal obligation to point out the mistake but had she pointed it out the supermarket is entitled to refuse to sell it to her at the lower price.

@takealettermsjones

Uh I think you mean 'ethical'