SuperValu - Repeated Discount Errors

donegal bay

this store is stealing money from my 87 yr old mother. and yours. and everyone else unfortunate enough to shop there without being vigilant and able to check everything, every time.

I'm talking about systematic overcharging. This is my term for purchases which are displayed at one price, but the till charges a different price, er, a higher price of course.

For example, prepack salads at e2.00 marked as "2 for e3.00" The till rang it up as e4.00. I went back, the checkout gave me back one euro. Am I satisfied? no, because this is systematic overcharging. Everyone who buys these goods and fails to notice, will have been overcharged. Rich, poor, elderly or unemployed, their money has been stolen.

If this happened with one product, or one promotion, I would say that was bad. There is no such thing as blameless overcharging. A retailer is obliged to check and put procedures in place to make sure they are not overcharging. So it is totally unacceptable. But here's the rest:

It happened 5 times (different products) in 2 weeks.
I am 100% satisfied that this is not incompetence, but deliberate, systematic overcharging.
Irish people ( I am Irish) are so soft. complete suckers for ripoffs and scams. Later I will post with a suggestion for how we might set up a national campaign to counteract this.

jpb1974

Happens all the time in every supermarket.

The policy in Tesco is if they over-charge and you bring it to their attention then they will give you the item for free. Could be the same in other supermarkets.

Everything in this life is subject to error, be it human or systems.

You have to check your receipt everytime you shop... there's no other way around it that's going to ensure that you're getting charged the right amount 100% of the time.

Esoteric_

Having worked in a small newsagents (that was incredibly busy all the time as it was in a major shopping center), I can tell you that it's mostly down to human error, not systematic overcharging.

The managers or other high up staff members are the ones that scan the barcodes and input the prices into the system. Why would they deliberately overcharge? They're not gonna make any money from it, because the money going in and out of the till is recorded so if they were to pocket the extra, their till would be short. They have nothing to gain from it.

When you have lots of things on special offer in a busy shop (as Supervalu is pretty much always busy), some things get through the loop. You went back, they refunded you the difference. It's not like they tried to scam you out of anything.

rubberdiddies

happens to me every couple of weeks in my local super valu. Two days ago but a block of cheese advertised at something like 1.64 (half price or something) but was charged the full price.

Its almost embarrasing at this stage having to bring this issue to their attention every couple of weeks. In fact its terrible customer service but I believe they are notorious for doing this.

jpb1974

I have to agree that it is in-convenient having to check your receipt and then request a refund in the after-math of an overcharge.

It may well be the case that certain supermarkets aren't vigilant in double checking everything to ensure that their display prices match their system prices.

A gal I know works in the local Dunnes. I spotted her with a small handheld device recently going around scanning products on the shelves. I asked her what she was doing and she was basically checking the system prices against the display prices.

Now that I think of it I can't remember being over-charged too many times in Dunnes but I can definitely recall issues with Supervalu in the past.

eightyfish

donegal bay wrote: »

I am 100% satisfied that this is not incompetence, but deliberate, systematic overcharging.

Once you tell them about the error, do they fix the price on the system? Unless you've caught them overcharging and not reducing the price when informed, you can't say "100%" it's systematic overcharging. It could easily be bad staff / bad management / under-staffing.

jpb1974 wrote: »

The policy in Tesco is if they over-charge and you bring it to their attention then they will give you the item for free.

I only found out this was company policy recently. I've brought half a dozen items back to the till in my local Tesco after being overcharged. Not once did they ever give me the item free. (Superquinn would always give if for free.)

jpb1974

I only found out this was company policy recently. I've brought half a dozen items back to the till in my local Tesco after being overcharged. Not once did they ever give me the item free. (Superquinn would always give if for free.)

Dunno... only ever happened to me once in the Wexford town store. Went to the Customer Service desk and was given a no questions asked full refund along with being allowed to keep the item.

I've seen it mentioned about this forum by other members too.

Nolimits

Ì work in Dunnes, their company policy is to give the item for free. I can also tell you that I've lost count of the number of times that things have been taken off special offer either by accident or by design and the first we hear about it is a customer complaint. After the issue is delt with we'll ring head office to find out whats wrong only to be told they already knew about it and it'll be fixed in 1 or 2 or 3 or how ever many hours, sometimes not till the next day and the products have to come off the shelf and we have to tell customers we dont have any.

I doubt Supervalu are doing this on purpose, the goodwill lost when people start talking about being overcharged will cost them far more money that what they will get back by overcharging on a couple of items.

P. Breathnach

Nolimits wrote: »

...
I doubt Supervalu are doing this on purpose, the goodwill lost when people start talking about being overcharged will cost them far more money that what they will get back by overcharging on a couple of items.

You should bear in mind that Supervalu is not a chain, where policy and practice are decided by a head office. Each shop is owned separately, and there is some scope for local decision-making. I am sure that some proprietors are not above a bit of sharp practice.

Jimmyboss

Same story in SuperValu in Ballina, no apologies, they just look at you as if you have two heads and virtually throw the change at you

Yawns

Same in Longford!

When you complain at the til they grumble and sometimes send a staff member to check the shelf. They never fix the system either!

My local supervalu waits til the last day to put the specials out and sometimes don't bother even tho every household around gets plauged with the specials pages thru the letterbox.

Del2005

eightyfish wrote: »

I only found out this was company policy recently. I've brought half a dozen items back to the till in my local Tesco after being overcharged. Not once did they ever give me the item free. (Superquinn would always give if for free.)

Are you pointing out the over charge before or after you pay?

If you point it out before they fix it. If you pay you go to customer services and they'll refund you.

I get loads of free stuff from Tesco.

foggy_lad

I stopped shopping in super value in carlow because every time I shopped there would be several overcharged items, I also believe they don't fix the prices when informed as I have seen the same mistake several weeks in a row!

Like others I found they have so many "mistakes" it negates any savings that would otherwise be made buying their special offers.

queenbeeuty

Same in monksland supervalu in Athlone.

Every single time myself or my boyfriend used to go there we were overcharged.

Its ridiculous at this stage and embarassing to go back over a euro or two
but it happens everytime,and it has happened to many others i know that
have shopped there.

So I have stopped shopping there!

I realise that Supervalu shops are not chain stores and are individually
owned but it seems very strange that the over charging has happened in so many of the Supervalu shops.

eightyfish

Del2005 wrote: »

If you pay you go to customer services and they'll refund you. I get loads of free stuff from Tesco.

Yeah they just refund the difference each time. Makes you feel measly queueing up and standing at the till waiting for your 25c. I try to avoid Tesco generally, so it may just be my local one (Dolphin's Barn).

Yawns

Always found Tesco's to refund the entire cost of item and allow you to keep it for free. The brother takes full advantage of their policy lol

morgana

Same in Mallow Supervalue, you always have to check your receipt carefully to make sure all the special offers are actually applied. Otherwise its usually a lengthy wait till someone deigns to check and refund.

rubadub

I have found supervalu in balally often overcharge too. Takes ages to get the money back from them, and like another poster said it is almost embarrassing telling them every week or so. Once I was in a rush I knew the whole ordeal of getting a manager, going to the shelf, going to the computer, cross checking etc -I just said "I am just telling you the price is wrong, you can keep it, I don't have time to get the money back"

LyndaMcL wrote: »

I can tell you that it's mostly down to human error, not systematic overcharging.

The managers or other high up staff members are the ones that scan the barcodes and input the prices into the system. Why would they deliberately overcharge? They're not gonna make any money from it, because the money going in and out of the till is recorded so if they were to pocket the extra, their till would be short. They have nothing to gain from it.

It is strange then that I am very rarely undercharged...

I would imagine most managers would have some bonus system in place and so would have a vested interest in maximising a stores profit. Not saying that it is fully intentional, but if there was a actual law enforcing that tesco policy in all supermarkets then I imagine there would be a sudden reduction in the amount of these "errors".

jpb1974

It is strange then that I am very rarely undercharged...

Good point.

I do find that more often than not it's the Special Deals that you get over-charged on.

Instead of being given "2 for the price of 1" you end up getting charged the full price of the 2 items.

foggy_lad

eightyfish wrote: »

Yeah they just refund the difference each time. Makes you feel measly queueing up and standing at the till waiting for your 25c. I try to avoid Tesco generally, so it may just be my local one (Dolphin's Barn).

the last time I was in super value carlow I had put around €40 in the till and noticed I had been overcharged by almost €6 then I was made to stand and wait while the manager finished whatever he was doing before he would approve the refund!

When the girl came back to me I just put my shopping back on the belt and asked for my money back as I was always being overcharged and could not trust them to get even two bags of shopping right.

She gave the refund without any problem and apologised saying her hands were tied over the mistakes that they were all reported to management previously but still remained incorrect!

marlie2005

I have also stopped shopping in Super valu and Tesco because of this. Most weeks there would be at least one 'mistake' on the receipt..

I shop in Aldi now and never had an mistakes yet and what I can't understand is with less staff in Aldi than Tesco's etc how can they keep getting it wrong.. Makes me think it's intentional...

rubadub

marlie2005 wrote: »

I have also stopped shopping in Super valu and Tesco because of this. Most weeks there would be at least one 'mistake' on the receipt.

You do realise you get stuff free in tesco if you are overcharged. A tip is NOT to go back right away, leave the stuff in your car then go back and buy up loads of the mispriced item, then claim the money back on all of it. I had a freezer jammed with donegal catch at one stage, all free.

Del2005

marlie2005 wrote: »

I have also stopped shopping in Super valu and Tesco because of this. Most weeks there would be at least one 'mistake' on the receipt..

I shop in Aldi now and never had an mistakes yet and what I can't understand is with less staff in Aldi than Tesco's etc how can they keep getting it wrong.. Makes me think it's intentional...

Aldi and Lidl have less of a selection, they deal only in Euro with everything coming through the same supply chain.

Tesco have a large selection with some items being bought in Euro, some in Sterling. They also have different suppliers using different billing methods.

In Tesco they will refund in full for a normal item but will only refund the difference on special offers if the price is incorrect.

Not that I'm defending the constant mispricing, but there is 1 item I buy which I always get for free:D

rubadub wrote: »

You do realise you get stuff free in tesco if you are overcharged. A tip is NOT to go back right away, leave the stuff in your car then go back and buy up loads of the mispriced item, then claim the money back on all of it. I had a freezer jammed with donegal catch at one stage, all free.

I know there's a UK site that list the miss prices and some people never pay for their shopping, only thing is due to competition nearly all UK supermarkets give the item for free unlike here.

jpb1974

Just mentioned this thread to my mother.

Now she rarely ever curses... but as soon as I said "Supervalu" and "over-charging" she let a few subtle f's out and proceeded to tell me how she was left standing for 20 minutes one day waiting for a manager to show up to rectify an issue.

The mother would be more of a shopper than me, she shops around for the deals and as a result visits all the supermarkets, and confirmed that Supervalu were the by far the worst for over-charging. She reckons that just about every other time she visits she is over-charged.

Still... you can beat the half price Striploin Steak in Supervalu... one of their few saving graces

eightyfish

Del2005 wrote: »

Aldi and Lidl have less of a selection, they deal only in Euro with everything coming through the same supply chain.

Yeah, I was talking to someone who works for an Irish supermarket about this (not Supervalu). Lidl etc have about 2,000 products at any one time, and the other supermarkets have about 20,000. Also, Lidl etc tend to have the same stock from the same suppliers all the time, whereas other supermarkets have rotating deals and products all year round. They're completely different models.

I like Lidl prices and I like that what I want is (mostly) in stock. But they stock very few Irish-made products, they employ very few staff and they don't stock anything from small ("artisan") Irish producers (cheese, jams etc).

We all spread our shopping around more nowadays, I think.

Sir Oxman

Another one for being overcharged regularly in SuperValu - nearly every second visit.
This can't be coincidence!

91011

It seems to be a problem in supervalue.

The multi branch owners such as pettits are far better as they obviously downlaod everythign from thier head office whereas the single branch owners must do everything themselves.

At this stage, supervalue themselves should have come up with some form of solution as it doies happen a little too frequently.

Same with some of the eurospars stores, though they have improved immensely.

jmorrisey

I'm sure this has been discussed before folks but i'm so feckin angry right now i need to vent!!

I live in Abbeyleix and the supervalu there is absolutely ridiculous. I would say about 50% of the time i go there i am overcharged (through not applying specail offers, upping the price on products which already have a special offer price on them, offering 2for1s and then charging for both etc etc) Another neat trick they use is to advertise a special offer on a certain product but then put a similar but slightly different product under the sign.

Ive been in there so many times seing people complaining at the checkouts and theyre just the ones who check their receipts, what about all the rest who dont realise they need to be razor sharp when dealing with these razor sharp business practices?

I honestly believe that if this Supervalu store adopted the Tesco policy of "if your overcharged for something you get it for free", it would go bust overnight.

I've made a decision today to never go into that store again and will go Tesco or Dunnes in Portlaoise in future. I'll even go to Superquinn because ,even though they can be really expensive, at least the price you see in the shop is the price you're charged at the till.

I'm writing this as a warning to anyone thinking of shopping in this particular shop but I suspect there are many other stores adopting the same methods

Jaysus, it's not as if things aren't tough enough for people at the moment without shops like these taking advantage of unsuspecting customers.

For shame Supervalu Abbeyleix, For shame!

Rackstar

Have to say I've noticed this a couple of times in more than one Super Valu. I no longer use Super Valu now.

mikemac

Same in my local SuperValu in Galway.

It's very, very rare I get overcharged in Tesco and when I do I'm delighted
Straight over to customer service for a full refund
Tesco constantly have staff out scanning and updating, maybe this is how they solve it

It's just sloppy from Supervalu, they know what to do but won't,
I no longer shop there