# Tesco fined €600: charging more at the tills than the price displayed on shelf.



## Brendan Burgess (8 Oct 2011)

The Irish Times [broken link removed] that The National Consumer Agency successfully prosecuted Tescos for overcharging. 



> The misleading prices were uncovered by agency inspectors after they  visited stores in Talbot Street and Phibsboro, Dublin; Coonagh Cross,  Limerick; Ennis, Co Clare; Maynooth and Clane, Co Kildare; Wexford town;  Carrick- on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, and Greystones, Co Wicklow.





> In a statement, Tesco said it was policy “to have clear prices in  place at all times”. It said it had 2.7 million price labels up every  day across all its stores and pointed out that it had been convicted  “for a mistake in one of these”.
> “This was as a result of human  error during a time of major change in our stores. It should not have  happened and we greatly regret it. Improvements have been made to our  processes as a result.”


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## ClubMan (8 Oct 2011)

My experience with _Tesco _is that you're lucky to have ANY price displayed at all for many items and lots of times you see an out of stock notice and no price below the fully stocked shelf. Thankfully I don't shop there that often.


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## ajapale (8 Oct 2011)

From the IT article by CONOR POPE, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

THE  STATE’S largest retailer Tesco has been found guilty of misleading  shoppers on eight separate occasions by charging more for goods at the  tills than the price displayed on shelves.


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## onq (8 Oct 2011)

The news the other night reported that their sales in the Republic have gone down - no surprises there so.


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## pudds (8 Oct 2011)

ajapale said:


> From the IT article by CONOR POPE, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
> 
> THE  STATE’S largest retailer Tesco has been found guilty of misleading  shoppers on eight separate occasions by charging more for goods at the  tills than the price displayed on shelves.



Worth remembering though if you kop it at time of check out 
that you are being over charged....*continue to pay* and therefore purchase the item and then go to customer service and point out the mistake and Tesco will then refund you the amount you were over charged by.

every little helps!


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## ajapale (8 Oct 2011)

pudds said:


> ...Tesco will then refund you the amount you were over charged by.
> 
> every little helps!



Why not point it out at the till and save your self a long boring wait behind all the people returning stuff, buying cigarettes and lotto tickets? With just one person at the service desk who also answers the phone and makes announcements.


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## pudds (8 Oct 2011)

ajapale said:


> Why not point it out at the till and save your self a long boring wait behind all the people returning stuff, buying cigarettes and lotto tickets? With just one person at the service desk who also answers the phone and makes announcements.



If you point it out at the till then tesco are under no obligation to give you a refund and will probably only charge you the correct price as you have not actually purchased the product yet and therefore have not been overcharged.


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## BillK (8 Oct 2011)

Here in England, Tesco will give you back the full cost of anything for which you have been overcharged at the till.


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## ajapale (8 Oct 2011)

pudds said:


> Tesco will then _refund you the amount you were over charged by._



Pudds, 

But whats the point if Tescos only refund the amount you were overcharged by? It seems like an awful lot of hassle for a small amount of money.
aj


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## SparkRite (8 Oct 2011)

Yorky said:


> This doesn't make sense. What's the difference between paying the correct price in the first place and paying a higher price then seeking a refund of the overcharged amount?



I think what Pudds meant to say was that they will refund you the *full* amount you paid for the item, thus getting it for free.


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## Sue Ellen (8 Oct 2011)

I think pudds is referring to the situation that BillK speaks of in the UK which, I think, still also applies to Ireland.


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## RonanC (8 Oct 2011)

Afaik, Tesco are now offering double the difference refund and not a total refund on overcharging.

They were being taken to the cleaners by some people who caught them out and then spread the word on online forums, those readers then in turn getting themselves full refunds along with the item free of charge courtesy of Tesco.


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## Ryandd (8 Oct 2011)

Im glad this has been highlighted, I revisited that store so many times over being overcharged at the till,  these days I take particular care in what I spent and have to admit I may not have noticed in the good old days.


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## pudds (9 Oct 2011)

Yorky said:


> This doesn't make sense. What's the difference between paying the correct price in the first place and paying a higher price then seeking a refund of the overcharged amount?



Sorry I didn't explain things too well, as RonanC pointed out it was the double the difference I was referring to.

In _some_ cases on items like tv's and computer stuff etc the over charge can be quite substantial but never query it at the till but always pay for the item  and then seek a double the difference refund from customer service.



Helps make up for all the times we are overcharged and never bother to go back.


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## PetrolHead (10 Oct 2011)

On a related but slightly different note in Tesco's. If an item is on sale and is out of stock you can request a ticket from customer service that entitles you to purchase the item at the sale price even after the end of the offer period. Worth bearing in mind for certain products such as wine which can be heavily discounted and run out very quickly.


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## Cahir (10 Oct 2011)

My local tesco just gives back the overcharged amount.  They refused to give the item for free or double the difference because they said people were taking advantage.


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## Mpsox (10 Oct 2011)

Cahir said:


> My local tesco just gives back the overcharged amount. They refused to give the item for free or double the difference because they said people were taking advantage.


 
OH was in Dunnes last week and was wrongly charged for a box of nappies, Dunnes refunded the full amount, happy days for the little un, 96 free nappies !!


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## Bronte (11 Oct 2011)

This could all be avoided if prices were put on the products as it used to be. You cannot hope to remember all the prices on the shelves when you go to the till nor can you check it when you go home. Which is not good for the customer.  With all the technology nowadays you'd think they would have come up with a better system.


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## GuitarDave (12 Oct 2011)

Cahir said:


> My local tesco just gives back the overcharged amount. They refused to give the item for free or double the difference because they said people were taking advantage.


 
Taking advantage????

Taking advantage of what? The fact that they were overcharging in the first place????


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## bullworth (12 Oct 2011)

I was fortunate in Tesco recently in that a big steak reduced from roughly 7 euro to 4 in their bargain corner (as its best before date was imminent) rang through the till at 2 euro.   Nothing to complain about there


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## Conshine (12 Oct 2011)

I was charged for something once at my local tesco, a jar of spices I think, it should have been 2.99, the till charged 29.99 - It wasnt realised until we got home, but went back and was refunded the full amount, so in effect got the item for free. The lady that did the refund didnt bat an eye lid - I would say its a common occurance - I wonder how many people missed this one though!


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## pudds (12 Oct 2011)

Conshine said:


> I was charged for something once at my local tesco, a jar of spices I think, it should have been 2.99, the till charged 29.99 - It wasnt realised until we got home, but went back and was refunded the full amount, so in effect got the item for free. The lady that did the refund didnt bat an eye lid - I would say its a common occurance - I wonder how many people missed this one though!



How long ago was that.....

Tesco stopped giving the item for free earlier this year and now only say they will give you double the difference of the amt overcharged.


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## Crugers (13 Oct 2011)

pudds said:


> How long ago was that.....
> 
> Tesco stopped giving the item for free earlier this year and now only say they will give you double the difference of the amt overcharged.



Well you can see why they would have re-instated the "item for free" in that particular case!


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## ajapale (13 Oct 2011)

Im not inclined to queue at a very slow service desk (often unmanned) for the sake of a paltry 20c or so!

Im would be much more inclined to spend the same time gathering photographic evidence (reciept and the display price) and reporting them to the consumers authority.

How does one go about making such a report? Does one have to go through the supermarket service desk rig marole first or can you just report them.


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## Black Sheep (14 Oct 2011)

Watch out for the items priced in Sterling. 
I recently picked up a 2 packs of a couple of slices of ham @ 2Euro each, or 2 packs for 3 pounds sterling. Not having checked clearly, and when scanned at the checkout they came to 4.16 Euro.

As they were marked in Sterling I offered to pay in sterling. Needless to say some not so pleasant words were exchanged about mis-leading customers etc.


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## dubinamerica (19 Oct 2011)

Is this still the case with items being overcharged? Tescos are brutal for that and I normally try and keep an eye as things go through, but if they go through, am I entitled to double the difference? Few weeks back a playdough box came in around 20 euro in the self service checkout but I had only checked and it was 8. The manager wasn't very pleasant (as if I had purposely given her the extra work). I would doubt very much they would give me back 12 *2 so 24 euro at the customer service desk to be honest. Is there a written policy somewhere on this so that if it did happen again I could query it ?  I lived in the US for a good while and if you were overcharged most stores would give you the refund and the item for free no problem, but have never heard of that here.


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## ajapale (26 Oct 2011)

Question raised again today.

Can consumers report Tescos directly and avoid this "double the difference" charade completely?


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## dereko1969 (26 Oct 2011)

I have found, particularly recently, a significant increase in wrongly priced items in Tesco, sometimes it seems to me to be a deliberate stacking of items in an area where they will be mistaken for being included in a special offer - "oh that flavour isn't included in the special offer - well why then are there a dozen items placed directly over the special offer price?" and then if you have the misfortune to be using the shop very late it will take forever for the "right" person to rectify the issue.

My shopping has been in Tesco Ballybrack.


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## rockofages (1 Nov 2011)

On my first ever shop in Tesco Maynooth I was charged £80 but had noticed several items going though at wrong prices. At the time they would give you the item for free if the price was wrong. I went to customer services with the receipt, walked around the store with the rep ticking off wrongly priced items and ended up getting £52 back!


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## Firefly (1 Nov 2011)

*Tesco double-difference on discounts not recieved*

A big thank you to Tesco in Wilton. Scallops were marked 3 for 2 (5 euro a bag) on Sunday. I bought 6 bags but was charged 30 euro instead of 20. When I went to Customer Services they were very polite and refunded me double the difference immediately...20 euro...so I ended up getting 6 bags of scallops for a tenner! The first bag tasted pretty good too


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## Murt10 (4 Nov 2011)

dereko1969 said:


> I have found, particularly recently, a significant increase in wrongly priced items in Tesco, ...



Not very surprising really. Who is going to bother reporting when they are overcharged by 5, 10 or 20 cents. Life is too short and the queue is too long. You would feel like a right misery guts queueing up to tell them that you were overcharged by such a trivial amounts and taking back your reward 10, 20 or 40 cents. 

In my opinion, the people who were bringing stuff back and getting it for free when they were overcharged, were actually doing Tesco a favour. They were acting as a sort of external unofficial quality control on pricing.

From reading the above posts, a lot of people are complaining about being slightly overcharged and feeling annoyed about it, but not enough to waste their own time and wait in a queue, to point out the mistake to Tesco.

In the long term, I reckon Tesco are shooting themselves in the foot. 

I suppose a short term way of looking at is "Every Little Helps". Every time they overcharge, that amount goes straight to their bottom line. The problem is it is putting people off shopping there in the first place


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## ajapale (4 Nov 2011)

Topic Reminder: 
Consumer Issues and Rights   	>  Tesco fined €600: charging more at the tills than the price displayed on shelf.

Discussion relating to other retailers and topics other than display price overcharging have been moved.


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## Sandals (5 Nov 2011)

After being charged 60cent over for sauces I stood for nearly 15 minutes in the line and then 5 minutes waiting for the manager, to be refunded 1.20. certainly Im going to dunnes first next week to try for my big shop as this was really annoying. Manager wasn't exactly pleasant either to the staff member as he explained the double the difference system to her. 

On an aside I have always purchased the six tesco cans of fizzy orange for €1.89. few weeks back selling them for €1.08 and I bought a good few. Then they disappeared for a few weeks and last week reappeared as NEW four cans for €1.89 (last friday price was €1.29). same with cloudy lemonade.

Also (rant) seen 3L milk cartons tesco two days out of date, told the staff member nearby, 3/4 hour later none of them removed and told the manager at the time of overcharging, not interested either....


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## SarahMc (5 Nov 2011)

Their €12 meal deals are priced wrongly more often than not, and you get charged for each item rather than the deal. Queue up at the service desk, when its your turn wait for someone on the floor to go to meal deal section to check if items are included, come back to customer service desk, go through paperwork, people queuing impatiently behind you. 

It was worth the hassle if they gave you the item free, now I can never be bothered with that deal.


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## Sandals (6 Nov 2011)

SarahMc said:


> people queuing impatiently behind you.



Unfort I was asked to wait at the side as queue really was long and then I was completely ignored.


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## ajapale (6 Nov 2011)

*report Tescos directly and avoid this "double the difference" charade completely?*



ajapale said:


> Can consumers report Tescos directly and avoid this "double the difference" charade completely?



Submit a Consumer Complaint about a trader to the  NCA.

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