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Am I a terrible thief who deserves to burn in hell and eat out-of-date value pork pies for the rest of eternity, or would you have done the same thing?

Damn right I'd have done it! Enjoy your OJ and don't give it a second thought.

Some years back I was buying complete dry dog food and it scanned at about 50p when it should have been about £7. It gave the right product description but the wrong price. I put shopping in my car and went back in and cleared the shelf of about another 5 bags.

I then went around other branches of said supermarket and bought all they had. I had a car boot full of pet food and split it between a local dog rescue and myself and did not feel in the slightest bit regretful.

Bugger it, @Scannerscammer - if the supermarket can't get things right, why should you waste your time doing it for them? (I know I'm not a holier than thou type, but I don't see this as deliberately shoplifting, for Heaven's sake! )

You were right ....maybe just maybe when stock don't add up they'll fix the machines.
Well to not name in my view a major culprit, every liddle helps👀🙄

My last two trips to co-op have resulted in being cheated out of member only offers. I couldn’t be bothered to complain so paid full price but next time I will.

I went into marks and sparks at lunch. They literally have taken out all but 2 tills, and have installed maybe 12 self tills. With 1 member of staff or sometimes none. I had picked up some stir fry stuff and other bits and bobs.
The stir fry sauce would not scan. After 5 mins stood there like a twat I just chucked it in my bag and paid for all the other items.
Fuck em tbh. They should pay more than 12.50 in wages for the entire lunchtime.

Its ridiculous.

In terms of throughput its probably cheaper you did that than it is to hold up a till for 5 mins. So if you don’t staff to customer need this is what happens.

“They should pay more than £12.50 in wages for the entire lunchtime” 100%!!

Because we are doing it for them.

Self scanned some beef burgers that should have been a fiver or something like that, scanned at 95p. We cleared the freezer of them, paid and went on our way. Lasted us a long while!

Sainsburys are being a right nightmare with the yellow label discounted items at the moment. Anything under £1 doesn't register on the scanner and needs a poor staff member to come and input it manually.

I completely accidentally walked out of a supermarket with an unscanned can of fizzy drink the other day. I really preferred it in the days when they employed people who were trained to do the job instead of making customers do it and penalising them if they make a mistake.

I would have absolutely done the same. Having worked in a supermarket for 10 years, I have seen much worse!

I did a self service shop the other day which included two bunches of flowers, £3.49 each or £5 for two. I scanned them all properly (I thought) but after putting the second bunch of flowers on the shelf it said the thing about unexpected item on the bagging scale.

I noticed the first bunch hadn't scanned. It was gypsophila so very light. I spent about ten minutes trying to attract a supervisor to help but there was no-one about and i had to leave for the school run. Eventually I lifted the second bunch off and the system accepted that so I paid and left. I did feel bad but if they can't provide staff to help, what can you do?

Yes, I diddled them out of £1.50 and it does feel wrong, but I also slightly feel it was their fault.......

If I’m buying a few or reduced items I now go to customer services. They told me that barcodes on reduced items were having to be put in manually because the latest customer scam is to remove them and put them on much higher priced items. I couldn’t believe it! It wouldn’t ever cross my mind to do this!
anyway, as most of my items were 10p I said ‘it would be cheaper just to give items like this away, as it’s taking up so much of your time’. So she did!
But the point is that there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and they have to put up with a lot!

I would do this just based on the fact I’d had enough and it feels like compensation.

Also I don’t want to further inconvenience customers waiting behind me and it is the supermarket‘s error. Maybe someone would give up and leave if unasked for more assistance, thus saving the supermarket from losing custom.

Sometimes I forget an item and the store benefit - it evens out

Just leave it in the store
Except presumably given the fact she made the effort to go to the shop, find that particular shelf, choose that specific item, take it to the checkout and tried to scan it she probably actually wanted to buy it, and didn't do all the above for shits and giggles? Why should she miss out on something she needs and has deliberately gone to that shop to purchase because a multi-billion business can't sort one of its most basic functions out correctly?

I would have just taken it for the price it scanned as too. For the sake of a quid, come on.
The staff don't care, they'll probably thank you for not raising it to their attention and having to faff around with resorting your checkout and then reprogramming that item. The only people who will actually care are the stockholders and considering the millions of profit they make nobody is going to be crying about your £1.

TBH I'd probably not have noticed what came up wasn't what I'd scanned. I try & do self scan as quickly as possible coz I get irritated by how often things go wrong & there's nearly always a 'surprise' item lands on the packing shelf which then sets off the red light calling for the assistant. So if the items scanned & no lights flashed I'd have packed my stuff & left.

It's not theft really as OP scanned the item & it came up with a price which she paid.

Or the stores can get their GD act together and either get decent technology so the scanners work, or they can go back to hiring cashiers and stop screwing around with people's lives. The last choice is the stores can just seethe and cope with knowing that customers are not going to "fix" their problems for them, and they are going to occasionally lose some money. The stores cannot have it just their way.

They are still making more since they don't have cashiers to pay. At least the cashiers didn't screw up as often as self-scanners, etc.

Self scanned. Bought some clothes. No visible security tags.
Set the alarm off when I left. Security guard asked me back. No one around to remove whatever security tags are on the clothes so he checked my receipt and let me go.
Told him I'll be bringing some things back (what with the demise of the changing rooms and the store toilets being filthy and only the disabled/baby change one available so can't use to try on clothes anyway).
Tedious.

The store is undergoing a big refit. Nothing is where it used to be. That's fine, I accept the disruption, but they have not put on more staff to help shoppers find stuff.

Honestly. I went to Sainsbury's yesterday lunchtime. Medium size store. Again 2 manned checkouts and 12 self scan. There was 1 staff member for 12 self scan check outs and she was also covering something else cos she departed for 5 mins to sort out the staff rota and then came back to chaos.
It's not just a customer service issue. It's surely a staff welfare issue.