Undercharged at the store. What do you do?

[punkin]

OT. Some years ago, my sister and I went to buy some rugs at a discount rug store. We bought two identical rugs, which they carried out to my minivan. We went to pay. The guy at the register charged us for one. My sister said "you made a mistake. you did not charge the right amount." He started SCREAMING (I kid you not) that he knows what he is doing; he does not make mistakes; and he is not going to let us cheat him. This is the price we agreed to.

My sister and I looked at each other and said "OK" and left with our two rugs.

 

[Frankiesmom]

I agree with musicdude!

 

[EthansMom]

Wow. One one hand, I'm glad that there are so many honost people out there.

On the other hand, I consider myself a very kind, caring, honost person, and I would not go back to the store. I drive 30 minutes to do my grocery shopping. I have bought things, and left them at the store accidently. I have never once gone back for them. I don't imagine I would go back if something wasn't rung up properly.

It's definately something to ponder.

Although, I do watch the register pretty carefully, and on MANY occations, double check to make sure they got everything, if I don't see them ring it up.

I'm the same as you. I try real hard to pay for everything and would never think of stealing. But, on the one or two occasions that I've gotten into the car or home before realizing I was undercharged for an item, I didn't go back and tell the store.

Honestly, I figure that the rare instance where I have not been charged for a low-ticket item probably evens out with the times that I get overcharged for items.

Once or twice I have noticed an error in the favor of a store while still at the store and do get it corrected then.

One note, the few times I've had this problem, it's always been an item that was towards the back of the shopping cart or that I'd handed to DD and I couldn't easily spot it because it was underneath the cart's child seat (with DD sitting in the seat, thus blocking my view) or DD had dropped it into her seat cover. I try, now, to not let DD hold any purchases and to doublecheck to make sure the cart is empty when I'm in the check-out line.

For a high-ticket item, like several cases of beer, I would pay for the item the next time I was at the store. So, I guess I have a price threshold.


In a similar, but slightly different, vein: A few months ago, I was shopping for a windbreaker-style jacket. As it was springtime, these jackets were in-season and I priced out several nice ones at ~$80. After much ruminating, I finally decided I was grudgingly willing to part with that much money for a windbreaker. When I took the windbreaker to the cashier, it rang up at $35. I was quite certain the jacket was NOT on sale (no sale sign on the rack, no coupon, in-season item, etc...) and the price tag definitely listed the price as ~$80.

Would you have alerted the cashier to the discrepancy? Would it have mattered if the cashier was surly? How 'bout if the cashier was in the same area as the jacket (woman's dept.)?

 

[kors]

I had a similar situation at Lowe's. We received a $300 gift card as a promo, and I picked it up when I was in the store. A few weeks later, one was mailed to me. I immediately called the store and let them know. The manager was blown away that I was honest. It does pay to do right.

 

[daughtersrus]

So, I went back to Meijer with my receipt in hand. I waited in a long line at the CS counter. I explained what happened and the clerk looked at me with this really weird look on her face. She called a manager over so once again, I explained the situation. He took my receipt and made a copy of it. He said that he will have to address the situation with the clerk (now I wonder if she's going to get written up or fired). I paid for the extras. In return, he offered me a gift card for my honesty.

When we finished our discussion, I went to get the shrimp that was on sale. I noticed that they still had a big pallet full of canned veggies in the center isle with a sign "4 for $1.00". So, I scanned a few of the cans to find out they are STILL ringing up at 69 cents each. I told a manager that was in the area that a previous customer had informed them of the error and it still hasn't been corrected several days later. I wonder if Meijer will be honest and issue credits to the customers that were over-charged? You'd think that with computers the way that they are, that they should be able to track the purchases and at least issue credits to those that paid with credit/debit cards. Of course, I don't expect that would ever happen.

 

[daughtersrus]

You did not realize you only paid $10 instead of $60? What else did you buy?

Like I said, I was paying attention to the children and not to what I was being charged. I slid my debit card and punched in my PIN #.

I bought a board game ("24" DVD version for my BIL), a frisbee soccer set for the pool (that was on clearance and I will save for next year to give to one of my daycare girls for her birthday), green olives (some of which my DH will use if he has a Bloody Mary ), apples, grapes, gold fish cracker, yogurt, milk, oatmeal, toilet paper, paper towels, Spider Man computer game, Sponge Bob computer game (all of which will be used/eaten by my daycare children), laundry soap, dishwasher soap and a few other things that I can't remember.

 

[mrsklamc]

In my experience, Meijer prices often do not ring as advertised. When I point it out to cashiers, they usually just shrug and fix it so I guess they are used to it.
This annoys me when it happens but they won points for honesty that time that everyone's orders (including gas!) rang up half price chain wide for about an hour due to computer error. Many customers offered to pay the difference and Meijer declined.

 

[CowboyCO]

Am I the only one wondering what kind of beer is on sale for $9.99 a case? That's a good deal!

This definately explains why she was buying 6 cases!

 

[Kay1]

So, I went back to Meijer with my receipt in hand. I waited in a long line at the CS counter. I explained what happened and the clerk looked at me with this really weird look on her face. She called a manager over so once again, I explained the situation. He took my receipt and made a copy of it. He said that he will have to address the situation with the clerk (now I wonder if she's going to get written up or fired).

Once, when I was pretty young, I noticed a food and beverage person charged me too little. I pointed it out and got the feeling I should have let it go. Someone could have gotten into a lot of trouble or lost her job. I don't think this is a "black or white" issue.

 

[lisajl]

Hey, similar thing just happened to me.

I ordered my son a marshmallow blaster for Christmas. Got a big box about 5 days later. Opened it the next day when he was not around, got 12 marshmallow shooters instead.
The marshmallow blaster was $24.95, the shooters were $21.95 a piece.

I called the company right away, they thanked me profusely for calling.
They are sending the correct item, and sending a UPS sticker to send the 12 shooters back.

They asked for the initials of the person that packed it. I am sure that person got a talking to, I worked in a ship and pack warehouse and know mistakes happen.

You should definately go back to the store to pay.

Lisa

 

[pixiewings71]

My Aunt is a cashier in a grocery store chain and they would get fired for that! She is allowed no more than 3.50 a day off or she is written up, 3 write ups and they are gone. My Aunt had a similar situation happen with fellow cashier she was fired for 20$ mistake in total!

I would like to mention that I DID work in a retail for 6 years and NO WAY would we fire out cashiers for making an error in ringing, we would just let them know it happened and ask them to watch the entry they were doing. But no one got fired for it. I think that is absolutely unreasonable for getting fired for a $20 mistake. JMHO

 

[noahdove]

I traveled 48 miles to return and item to pay for it...they were shocked and had no idea as to how to enter it and charge me for it, so they told me that for my honesty I could have it The good Lord knows my heart and I couldn't bear to carry that thought of not being charged for it

 

[AngieWin]

Just tonight I was at Target and my total was $10.11. Didnt have a penny, so I gave her $10.15 (dime and nickel). She started counting back 4 $1 bills! I told her it was only 4 cents and realzing her error she thanked me and said she had a long night (it was 5 minutes till closing). The extra $ would have been nice, but that would have made her night even longer!

 

[npmommie]

I do the same thing, swipe my card, and look at the receipt later, I am too busy watching the kids, calling my 4 yo from running all over........its usually basic mayhem at the check out when I take them with me........LOL
I personally would have called and spoke to the manager, I live too far from where I shop to make a special trip back, but I would paid for it on my next trip. And I would tell the manager that.

 

[merryweather20]

On the flip side I shop at Best Buy or Future Shop alot for DVD's and they often ring up $1-$3 less than the sticker. The first time this happened I mentioned it to the cashier, and she said that they change the prices in the computer first an get around to re-stickering the products later. So thats kind of like the opposite of the canned goods thing

 

[dbgardener]

I am glad to hear this happened at a Meijer store, because Meijer is notorious for overcharging. I know no one from Meijer ever came my house to return the money they overcharged me. I am no longer a customer because of this.

 

[ksumn1]

I had something like this happen to me in KMart one day. Bought a pair of pants that were originally $12.00 that were on a clearance reack for 40 or 60% off and a magazine. My cell phone rang as I was in line (my DD's school) so I answered it. The cashier had her register price disolay thingy turned so I couldn't see the total. I asked and she said $8.77. Wrote out the check, handed over my ID, got my reciept and left. Got home and while looking for my layaway pmt reciept, ran across that reciept for $18.77!!! I called the store, and was told not to worry, they'd leave a note for the mgr that did the drawer count, and have them call me. 2 days go by, no call...check post to my checking account. I call the store again, and am told too late now. They didn't seem at all concerned about it. I feel like I made the effort to correct the situation, and if it's not a big deal to them, I'm not going to feel guilty. Especially since I noticed on my layaway reciept I was overcharged for 2 items that were on sale, I'll have to fix that when I go in next week. Made sure I kept my circular.