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So you get out to your car after grocery shopping...

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Eli said:
And I'm not talking about big things like a TV or other electronics or something. If I walked out and realized that my receipt was $53.89 instead of $453.89... I would feel bad, and probably be paranoid that they would realize their mistake and blacklist me from the store or something if I did not pay for it.
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How would that actually work in the US?

In the UK If I purchase a TV that is worth £500.00 but it scans at £50.00 if they do not notice the pricing error before I pay for the item and get the receipt then legally the item is mine and the store can do nothing because a contract has been formed and agreed at the £50.00 price point.

As for feeling bad about it, it would depend on the type of store, if it was a small one man band type operation then I would be honest about it because they need the cash. The larger chains have these sorts of expenses built into the cost of sales so when you buy an item a small fraction of that is to cover expected losses anyway so I would not care.
 
Timorous said:
How would that actually work in the US?

In the UK If I purchase a TV that is worth £500.00 but it scans at £50.00 if they do not notice the pricing error before I pay for the item and get the receipt then legally the item is mine and the store can do nothing because a contract has been formed and agreed at the £50.00 price point.
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Only stupid people believe that this is true.
 
If it was really 100% going to be 20 minutes and I had to worry about my food getting warm, I would go hom e, unload, then go back and pay.

Karma's a bitch. I've been in this situation several times and it is always just better to pay.
 
I would just forget about it. I've gotten shafted by being double charged for items on occasion and never gone back, so I don't see why I should go back when they forget to scan an item.
 
TwiceOver said:
If it was really 100% going to be 20 minutes and I had to worry about my food getting warm, I would go hom e, unload, then go back and pay.

Karma's a bitch. I've been in this situation several times and it is always just better to pay.
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Any grocery store I have been in always has a managers booth by the entrance. I would take it there and if for some reason that option wasn't available I would take it back to the cash that checked me out and just leave it with them if they couldn't deal with it in a timely manner.
 
Mike Gayner said:
Only stupid people believe that this is true.
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It's true in Michigan. We have great consumer protection laws dealing with scanning errors... the store even has to pay a penalty to you, if they overcharged.


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Mike Gayner said:
Only stupid people believe that this is true.
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I take it the consumer protection laws in NZ are pretty poor then.

In the UK the contract process when buying goods in a shop works as follows.
Item on the shelf with advertised price = invitation to treat. No offer or acceptance has taken place so no contract is in place
Item scanned through checkout with much lower price = Offer
Paying for the item = Acceptance of offer. This action completes the contract and is legally binding.

Once you accept the offer the goods are yours and they have no legal recourse if they notice afterwards that they charged you too little. If they notice before you accept the offer they can rescind the offer and re issue you a new offer at the correct price which you can choose to accept or not.

My Dad did this with a book that was worth £75.00 but scanned through at £15.00, once he had paid he had a legally binding contract stating that the store offered the goods for £15.00 and he accepted their offer so they would have had no legal recourse to get the £60.00 shortfall back.
 
Not worth my time to go back for their mistake. I'd just keep it.

It's funny though, my wife stopped by the grocery store the other day on her way home from the gym and realized she didn't have her ATM card so they let her take the groceries and she went back as soon as she got home to go pay for them.
 
ussfletcher said:
It's true in Michigan. We have great consumer protection laws dealing with scanning errors... the store even has to pay a penalty to you, if they overcharged.


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It may be true on paper, but not in practice.

I've sat in Washtenaw county court and watched defendant after defendant get slammed for driving off from a gas station after getting more gas than they PRE-paid for.

Even though it was the gas stations fault that the pump didn't stop when it should have, the defendants had to pay up.
 
Train said:
It may be true on paper, but not in practice.

I've sat in Washtenaw county court and watched defendant after defendant get slammed for driving off from a gas station after getting more gas than they PRE-paid for.

Even though it was the gas stations fault that the pump didn't stop when it should have, the defendants had to pay up.
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The pay at pump stations in the UK use a system where you put in the card and it holds £100, if you spend less then you get the difference back but that way unless you have a really big tank it is unlikely you could spend more than they reserve in the first place.

I guess it would depend on if the amount that was showing as owed was the correct amount or the £100 that was reserved, if the former then you would probably have to pay the difference as the £100 could be classed as a deposit or part payment but if the latter then it would be tough luck to the petrol station.
 
Timorous said:
The pay at pump stations in the UK use a system where you put in the card and it holds £100, if you spend less then you get the difference back but that way unless you have a really big tank it is unlikely you could spend more than they reserve in the first place.

I guess it would depend on if the amount that was showing as owed was the correct amount or the £100 that was reserved, if the former then you would probably have to pay the difference as the £100 could be classed as a deposit or part payment but if the latter then it would be tough luck to the petrol station.
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Note that I emphasized the word PRE in my post.
 
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