I just love when stores price things wrong....

[PryncessChrysty]

Oh, I also wanted to add something in regards to correcting prices. I think when people are talking about taking it to the "higher" levels, that is to fix the problem in it's entirety. To be honest, when I'm at the register, that is not my concern. I want *my* price corrected so that I can be on my merry way. Certainly cashiers, or at least managers, at any store are able to make manual price adjustments. That I know can be done. Anywhere.

I never feel like the stores are trying to cheat me. I know that there is a lot of work involved in pricing and surely mistakes will happen. That's fine. Just correct the price on my item and don't give me a hard time about it. It's certainly not the customer's fault. Unless of course it is the customer that is trying to cheat the store. Which I know happens and is very frustrating. But, if you're going to work retail and come out sane, you've got to know to treat each customer individually.

 

[delilah]

Actually, dealing with cashiers is why I like U-scan. We used to have an aisle where you could do a large order, like a week's groceries, but, now, it's just 12 items or less. I love it. Wet things never drip on dry things. Soup never crushes bread. The cashier overseeing u-scan will override incorrect scans/items not in the computer. It's great.

 

[Mskanga]

I do not know how the pricing issue goes with walmart but I wonder one thing. One store charges one amount for one item , another store 15 miles away charges less for the same item , in other words different stores charge different amounts for the same item at the same time. How does headquarters know what to charge in what store? This sounds to me more like a store issue than anything.
My problem is that a lot of times they start sales , place the sale signs all over and the regular price is the one that keeps ringing up. As someone mentioned, if the cashier starts scanning before we are done taking things out of the cart, chances are we won't see what is being charged.
Funny how they cannot change the prices when they make a mistake but there's no problem with changing prices with things that are on clearance.

 

[luvdzny]

I am the Pricing Manager at a large grocery store - here is the situation from my view point.

Every week we get anywhere from 500 to 1500 price changes, during holidays and busy times it is often more. These changes are entered into a computer and tags are generated. Signs are made at each store by people like me. Yes, I do make mistakes, sorry I am human. I also shop at my store and many others so if I make a mistake, or someone else in my position makes a mistake I run into it as well. We are audited by the state several times a year, and by our corporate office several times a year - all un-announced. I also have an employee working for me 16 hours a week just scanning the items in the store to make sure the prices are correct. We are not trying to rip the customers off, we are customers too! If an error is noticed by the customer the checker is supposed to right the item down and turn it in with her till after her shift. This does not always happen, if the line is long and customers are complaining it is hard to take the time out to write the info down. As for why the cashiers can't change the price - I have over 30 casiers working at my store. If they were allowed to change the price every time a customer complained it would be chaos! You would not believe how many times the customers are wrong. When a price is changed in the computer it has my name or the name of someone else in my department attached to it. In our store there are only 5 people authorized to make these changes. As far as intentionally "ripping people off" how would that benefit me? My paycheck stays the same. I also am called out of my office quite often to speak with customers who have found a mistake, believe me, I do not enjoy being yelled at! One of the biggest mistakes people make is not taking the time to read the signs. We do our best to make the information as clear as possible, but sometimes people don't read the signs. Just yesterday a person bought 4 8 packs of Pepsi thinking they were on sale, she complained that they did not come up on sale. I took a sign down and showed it to her, it clearly stated in 2 places 6 packs. She said "well it was near the 8 packs." Yes, it was, but below the 8 packs were tags stating the correct price, shelves are only so big - sale signs do end up near products that are not on sale. My point is I AM HUMAN and I make mistakes, but I don't try to rip people off. Is there any other business or service you can think of where absolutely NO MISTAKES are made - I don't think so!!!

 

[Papa Deuce]

Originally posted by Mskanga

My thinking on this is, when I make a mistake I pay for it. If they make the mistake, let them pay for it

When I was younger I used to think that way. But now I do not. No judgement on you, but I think of that almost as bad as stealing. Again, at one time I felt like you, but not any more.

EDIT: How about recogonizing "mistakes" as "mistakes" and just fixing the problem, no matter which side caused it? BTW, you and I both know that very seldom will you allow yourself to get cheated.... you might do a few transactions a day. The store, on the other hand, does maybe THOUSANDS of transactions a day. Plus, if you make a mistake, you might get "beat" for a few dollars, but the stores can get beat for TENS of DOLLARS per transaction.

 

[Mskanga]

luvdzny , I know what you are talking about and I know that a lot of people will try the unthinkable to get what they want but this was not the case here. My argument was that the labels were in the wrong place , where the store was clearly the ones stocking the items there, not the people.
Yes mistakes happen, I make mistakes and I pay for them. When someone else makes the mistakes, let them pay for it.

 

[luvdzny]

Just wanted to add often the mistakes are in favor of the customer and it is VERY rare for someone to bring that to our attention. Occasionally people will let us know, but I have heard people talk about "the good deal" the got on whatever but they don't bring it to the store's attention.

 

[Pete's Mom]

Originally posted by PryncessChrysty
Oh, I also wanted to add something in regards to correcting prices. I think when people are talking about taking it to the "higher" levels, that is to fix the problem in it's entirety.

That's exactly what I meant. I remember when cashiers used to insert a little paper into register to keep an error log so that someone could later change it in the system.

My problem is instances like this.

I found some boys shirts on sale at Kohls. Same exact style, but some were marked $ 10.50 and some were marked $ 5.40. I dug through and got about 6 of them that were marked $ 5.40. Because they were yellow tagged, they were going to be an additional 50% off.

When I got to the register, I was overchanged on 2 shirts that I had bought for myself, no problem, she manually adjusted it on the register.

When she started to ring up Pete's shirts, they were ringing up as $ 10.50/ea. I showed her that the tags on the shirts showed $ 5.40/ea and that they were yellow. Well, hold the phone. You would have thought someone set off an ADAM alert. A manager came over to argue with me and I said, "look, that's the price and that's what I am going to pay." She begrudgingly gave me the price. In the meantime, sales people were over in the boys department combing through the whole department and removing all of these shirts.

Nothing was done over in the ladies section for the two shirts I was overcharged on.

 

[Mskanga]

That happened to my friend and me last week at target. The same exact pants, both on clearance , same color , brand, size etc etc , some marked $1.74 and some at $4.80 . Luckily we got all the ones with the $1.74 tag, I don't know what the other ones would ring up at the register though.

 

[Mskanga]

Originally posted by Papa Deuce
When I was younger I used to think that way. But now I do not. No judgement on you, but I think of that almost as bad as stealing. Again, at one time I felt like you, but not any more.

EDIT: How about recogonizing "mistakes" as "mistakes" and just fixing the problem, no matter which side caused it? BTW, you and I both know that very seldom will you allow yourself to get cheated.... you might do a few transactions a day. The store, on the other hand, does maybe THOUSANDS of transactions a day. Plus, if you make a mistake, you might get "beat" for a few dollars, but the stores can get beat for TENS of DOLLARS per transaction.

Just to give you two examples:
1- buy bologna and get priced for virginia ham , one transaction alone cost ME $1.60 extra in my bill. How many people do they do this to and don't say anything because they don't realize? I didn't realize until I got home and my daughter said mom why did you get ham?
2- Buy a floor model lawnmower , come home and the darn cord doesn't even pull. Take it back to the store and THEY tell me after they check it that the mower should have never been put back on the floor because it had been returned and it had a ceased piston, that it would have never worked. Don't tell me to try the lawnmower in the store , I have always been told there's no oil or gas in it until I put it in.

Those mistakes cost ME money, and I didn't make the mistakes.

 

[auntpolly]

Originally posted by luvdzny
Just wanted to add often the mistakes are in favor of the customer and it is VERY rare for someone to bring that to our attention. Occasionally people will let us know, but I have heard people talk about "the good deal" the got on whatever but they don't bring it to the store's attention.

That's because I think, "Oh good! It's on sale!" Not that I'm getting away with a fast one. What are we supposed to do.....assume that absolutely no prices are ever right?
I'm not going around switching tags on things - I'm just trying not to get ripped off. I think it's the store's job, not mine, to make sure that the prices are correct. They can worry about undercharging me and I'll worry about getting overcharged.