Weighing of fruit and veg in supermarkets

Hi,
I bought some fruit and veg in a well-known Irish supermarket chain at the weekend. I was overcharged and got a refund no problem. Apparently, the checkout I went to had a weighing scales which had the wrong setting on it. This must have been happening to every customer who went to that checkout but I presume the onus is on the customer to come back for a refund as I did?
I was wondering are supermarkets obliged to set their scales to a certain setting/calibration by law? It would be fairer if the old way of the customer weighing their own fruit and veg themselves before going to the checkout was still the case. Does anyone agree that this should be brought back?

Yes, I would expect that the scales should be correctly calibrated... maybe the Dept. of Weights and Measures would be interested.. for example, could you imagine if a petrol station pumped out a lower amount than on the scale?.. or a pub was giving short measures, as some may do.. even by just putting some coins at the base of the measure..

Maybe the checkout operator just hit the wrong button.. so she charged for cashew nuts when you'd bought a cabbage or something...

I notice that the displayed prices are often wrong in some supermarets.. when overcharged you can request a full refund.. I asked the last did they intend to change the shelf label... no answer... so I persisted and asked what the system was?,.. like was the Manager to be informed straight away and he'd change the sticker... no, apparently not.. basically nothing seems to happen, at least not quickly.. I did mention that I could go back into the shop and purchase all of the offending product, and get them all for free... and yes, apparently that would be ok... you just have to pay first as the word 'charged' is defined as 'charged and paid for'.. which is more-or-less a re-definition of the word 'charged', so is quite sneaky.

I often wonder if the scales at the checkout weigh the fruit & veg correctly, or even if the operator checks that the scales are registering zero before putting the items on it. So for that reason, I would prefer the old method to be reinstated. Plus it's easier to control what you're spending, if you know how much your fruit & veg costs before getting to the checkout.

Mind you, the old method was abused in a big way - I used to work in a supermarket, and can't tell you the number of people we caught who would weigh a single potato or carrot, get the price label for it, and then go back and fill the bag!

So we as customers don't trust the supermarkets to charge us the correct amount and the supermarkets don't trust the customers to weigh their fruit and veg properly! They could have a staff member in the supermarket who would weigh the fruit and veg for customers and give a price before the customer goes to the checkout as in the instore butchers/deli counters?

lets bring in some Independant Weighers

JoeBallantin said:

Yes, I would expect that the scales should be correctly calibrated... maybe the Dept. of Weights and Measures would be interested..

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That's a new one. Was this created by Bertie before the last election?

I think the appropriate agency would be the National Standards Authority of Ireland but I'm open to correction.

hi all

All supermarkets are subject to inspection by the Legal Metrology Service on an annual basis PLUS a number of un-announced inspections during the year. The metrology service took over from what used to be known as the weights and measures branch. In extreme cases these people can close you on the spot.

In the case of the supermarket group I work for ( independant, non symbol ) , the proceedure we have in the case of a customer query on the scales accuracy of a till or a meat or fruit and veg scale is to ask the customer to pick an item from any section of the premises,which is preweighed and weight marked by the producer, bags of sugar, box of cereals etc and invite the customer to weigh it .

Doesn't happen very often but you have to have a way of demonstrating to the customer that all is ok and accurate.Also the real incentive for checking the accuracy on a regular basis is the possibility of a tare weight creeping in and therefore the scales weighing out less resulting in less revenue recieved.

Westgolf

MANTO said:

lets bring in some Independant Weighers

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Weight Watchers?

In Tesco's you can scan the price of any bar coded product from one of their wall mounted machines yet you cannot weigh your loose fruit and vegetables before going to the checkout.

In fairness, I think supermarkets, with some justification, are a little concerned about customers fiddling the self weighing/pricing option. I've seen people do it on a few occasions.

Caveat said:

In fairness, I think supermarkets, with some justification, are a little concerned about customers fiddling the self weighing/pricing option. I've seen people do it on a few occasions.

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Its absolutely rampant, I used to work in a supermarket and the amount of people who would weigh 1 tomato and then add 4 more into the bag (or similar) was just unbelievable. A lot of the time the people on the checkouts are just looking for the barcode to scan and not paying attention to the price on the label so its not noticed. If it is noticed one must be very careful what one says to a customer, as you are effectively accusing them of theft but it 'could' be a genuine mistake. We used to get around it by pretending the barcode wouldnt scan and asking another staff member to re-weigh it if it was obvious that it was underpriced.

I had noticed that about Tesco also but at least they have a scales (or used to have) available to weigh fruit and veg before going to the checkout. I'm just looking for fairness and I thought there were regulations that mean the customer has to be told what price they're paying before they pay it! Having no scales before the checkout means you have no idea what you're going to pay for your fruit and veg until it's scanned.

I buy a lot of my fruit and veg in Lidl (fresh, good quality at reasonable price) and I always weigh before I buy. I even weigh the pre-packed, ie. the 1 kg. punnet of peaches etc.
Ocasionally the scales is above zero so I zero it.
Never leave the shop without a quick scan over your receipt, it saves coming back if there are errors

Bronco Lane said:

In Tesco's you can scan the price of any bar coded product from one of their wall mounted machines yet you cannot weigh your loose fruit and vegetables before going to the checkout.

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I don't see what that has to do with it, it's not as if there's a way to akter the price the barcode will scan at.

CatherineB said:

I don't see what that has to do with it, it's not as if there's a way to akter the price the barcode will scan at.

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You misunderstand.

You have a wall mounted machine to check the bar code price against the advertised shelf price if you have a doubt about the products pricing or if the product is not priced when on the shelf. I often use this machine when a shelf product isn't priced.

If there was a weighing machine for fresh fruit and vegetables with digital price display to let you know the cost of your purchase before approaching the checkout.