Spectacular Overcharge!

[Evianers]

In our ongoing saga to promote awareness of overcharging by supermarkets under the title "ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BILL", yesterday our local Lidl really excelled themselves. A marked-down item had a seriously wrong bar-code: it should have read €1.45 but instead read €13.64! heaven knows why. After a huge amount of pressing various buttons at the till, the exasperated cashier finally put in an amount of €1.00 [it wasn't his fault after all] and refunded the money. The very patient customer behind us was astonished to find such a huge amount overcharged, and to cap it all, the apples were overcharged by 20 cents as well@!!@!!# ..... We give up.....

[dave21478]

I'm in two minds about supermarket overcharging.

Obviously, I don't want to be ripped off, but the other side is that the few times I have pulled them up about it, the hassle and time wasted to get it resolved has simply not been worth it. Granted never €13 over, but for a couple of quid, it is just not worth it IMO - especially when they are all so bloody sour faced and accusatory.....you would think the difference was coming directly out of their pay packet the way the carry on in my local supermarket.

The last time I was noticeably overcharged was about €2 on a USB lead. The cashier couldnt give a shit and I could see her face visibly change when I mentioned it....just not even remotely interested and all friendliness just vanished. At the service desk, I was repeatedly told I was wrong and it was impossible for the prices not to match. They eventually gave up this tactic and started accusing me of being too stupid to read the price tag or had confused it with an adjacent one and eventually started accusing me of trying to deliberately defraud them. I did finally get the money back, but it took an unpleasant 15 minutes or so and frankly, I would rather just loose the €2 than go through that sort of piss-about again.

[Quillan]

On the other hand what to people do if they are under charged in supermarket?

[Evianers]

[quote user="Quillan"]On the other hand what to people do if they are under charged in supermarket?[/quote]

Bearing in mind 99% of the time it is in the supermarket's favour, hopefully they pocket the difference

[Quillan]

InterMarche, fillet steak at €13 a kilo instead of €31, took 2 kilo of that and very god it was to.

LeClerc, George Forman top if the range large grill with removable top and bottom for dishwasher only €28. Everyone in the village knew of that one and I whizzed over and got the last one.

I have also had a few minor 'good do's' at Carrefour but those two are the most memorial. So if they have had a few Euros out of me over the years I still think I am well ahead.

[idun]

I have more often been overcharged in France than undercharged and as I doubt I will have spotted every over charge, then I would usually keep the benefit of being undercharged.

And that is the problem of living Nullepart-en-Pleincampagne, by the time I would have paid, sorted the kids out, got them in the car, seat belted them, you know the drill and I would be home, kms away when I checked the bill. And ofcourse sometimes I would check in the supermarket, but not always.

And the other side of french supermarkets, well is most curious. I have known them on several occassions to simply give stuff away if they could not find the price. And not always something of little value, it's happened to me a few times and a couple of friends have had things costing 1000ff and over simply given to them, told to take it as no one could find a price. Last time it happened to me was when a friend from Australia was visiting, she had picked up some touristy thing, the last one on the rayon and they couldn't find the price, so told us to take it. A likely value of say 10€ this time, and previously about the same amount, I have never been lucky enough to have high priced things 'given'...... well once, but not quite in this context.

[Quillan]

Actually the worst and more alarming problem, particularily with Carrefour , is out of date food and also, something I have seen with my own eyes, is the repackaging of out of date meats. Totally criminal in the UK with huge fines and I am sure it is the same in France but it does not stop them.

[idun]

I am really not sure which of these organisations you should contact if you see that happening Quillan, maybe both. It is a very serious allegation that would be taken very seriously. I reported a boulangerie in my village to the DASS and they did something about it.

DASS (Direction Departmentale de l'Action Sanitaire et Sociale (Departmental Coordination of the Medical and Social Program, France))

DCRF ( Direction de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (French: Directorate of Consumer Affairs and Fraud ))

Handy to know what the acronyms mean[:D]

And re the meat, I remember one of the supermarkets

in the Intermarché chain was closed as they found the meat to be old

and bleached, I think it was at St Rambert en Bugey, a place we would

pass through when we were avoiding Lyon.

[Lehaut]

Our E.L'Elerc attempted to stamp this out by offering to speed up your checkout time. Instead of you getting the bill at the till, you could opt to have it sent to you by email. Could you imagine trying to sort out an overpayment taking in an emailed copy of your bill? Needless to say we have rushed to take up the offer (not).

[JeanS]

After reading this thread just like to add soemthing. On Tuesday in Decathalon, Chateauroux. I bought a travel dog bowl. The ticket clearly stated 5,95euros but my receipt 6,95euros. OH said to leave it but as I had to go to Chateauroux today thought I'd call in and get my refund. 1 euro is 1euro. So thought I'd call into Bensons Shoe shop and buy some shoes I saw on Tuesday at 10euros - today's price 33.00euros - all sales tickets had been removed!

So didn't buy them - but did query how they could put prices back up. Met wth a blank expression from the vendeuse.

 

[Evianers]

Ah.... but it is the 1 August today, so those "sale" items which have not been sold presumably must revert to their original price? Wonder if they will sell at that? BTW, day before yesterday, went to the same Lidl and checked the bill very, very carefully! For the first time in ages........ no mistakes. Hooray and halleujah.