Are you being overcharged when you shop?

[toymachines]

Are you being overcharged when you shop?
Shauntel Lowe, Christine Huard, Patch.com

Consumers are two times more likely to be overcharged than undercharged when businesses make pricing errors, making it important for people to double-check their shopping receipts, San Diego County officials announced Thursday.

A quarter of more than 1,100 businesses inspected during the last seven months had pricing errors, according to a statement from Robert Atkins, director of the county Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures (AWM).

The AWM inspects thousands of businesses and price-scanning machines each year. During the last seven months, inspectors from the Scanner Awareness Program checked the scanned prices of more than 18,000 items at more than 1,100 businesses and found there were $3.38 in overcharges for every $1 in undercharges, Atkins said...

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Keep an eye on your receipts!

[meegbear]

1. Been doing that for years ...

saw a Donahue show on it and Phil said to the consumer guy "So they overcharge you 25 cents, what's the big deal?" And he replied "If you steal a 25 cent candy bar, they'd prosecute you to the full extend of the law. They should be treated the same." And from that day on ....

[DrDan]

2. I have observed that - I watch charges carefully and cannot remember

an error in my favor - always an overcharge. I have confronted stores with that - but the response is always the same - just a mistake.

Funny how a mistake is only in one direction.

I make sure my wife and kids know this and also scrutinize every charge.

[howaboutme]

3. I can remember my mother matching grocery prices

on the cash register receipt versus the price on the item. Today just like our voting machines the customer needs to have faith in the scanned prices versus what was marked on the shelf. Stores should be face a big incentive and a big penalty to make sure pricing is correct. One incentive might be to require that the store give the item to the customer at no cost if the item is overcharged at checkout. Probably many more mistakes slip by than are ever caught.

Some of the smart phones have bar code scanners built into them and apps that allow the user to enter prices to actually verify the bill versus checkout.

[PATRICK]

4. The clerk's point of view

Ironically they will be eventually canned for ANY mistakes which causes probably more nervous over-scanning than neglect of an item. That way no raises though (hah) they'll eventually hire you back to try the game again. The zero tolerance policy looks fair, but likely contributes to the likely mistake imbalance as well as other things, like mislabeling over and above deceiving shelfing, coupons and appearances. Since the company wins in every aspect I think the blame is clear but remedies need to be more overreaching than you would think at first.