18 posts 6/18/2006 5:07 pm
Last Read:
7/4/2006 7:48 am
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Bulletin One
On my group site I posted this to get some feedback, I didn't get much. But I am a person who like to share information which may help some of us and I learn from what I have found and pay close attention to when I shop now.
Scanning the Scanners
How many of you when you go shopping pay attention to what the cashier is ringing up? Do you watch what each item is price? Well let me tell you, the other day I went shopping for food and other things at my favorite store Wally World (WalMart). While I had the paper with me for some good prices for some items I wanted which were on sale, I found something going very wrong with some of the scanning for prices. My bill was $103.76, well that was wrong and I told her that you over charge me on some items, well it most have been a long night, because she said go see the manager, and I was a bit stunned, I never had a problem at Wally World. So I went to the manager and show him what the paper was selling and my receipt and the differences in price, well long story short he gave me some story that the bar codes were wrong. But he took care of it and my bill was $79.84, which was much better. Than last night my favorite Investigators (Local News Station) had a story about Scanning the Scanners! Here in the valley they do this a lot, but I never had it happen to me. Any Pep Boys was rated with 60% of the time with scanner violations, next came WalMart, in fact WalMart was sued in New Hampshire. and Vermont for this type of scanning problem.
Here are some of the statements from who the team checked out.
Statement from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.:
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to respond to the pricing story. As I shared with you on the phone, we stock hundreds of thousand of items in our stores and often make more than 5,000 prices changes per week. Of course, we strive for 100% pricing accuracy, but there is always a slight possibility for error. As you noted, the error is often in the customer's favor.
Customers trust Wal-Mart to bring them the best value in the marketplace. Toward this end, our stores react very quickly to market forces. Often, this involves lowering prices on certain items during the course of a business day. We also audit our own stores regularly to make sure our pricing is as accurate as possible.
We also encourage our customers to point out any discrepancies. When they do, we compensate them appropriately. If the item is priced under $3, Wal-Mart will refund the entire purchase price of the item. If it is over $3, Wal-Mart will take $3 off the customer's total purchase price.
Please let me know if there is any other information you might need for your story.
You can reach me via email or cell phone at 479-644-7811.
Best regards,
Delia Garcia
Senior Manager of Public Affairs
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
PO Box 36536
Phoenix, AZ 85067-6536
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Statement from Pep Boy's:
Pep Boys acknowledges several incidents of scanning errors brought to our attention by the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures. These findings are disturbing and absolutely unacceptable. We can assure you that the price that rings up on our registers is our intended regular or promotional price.
For non-promotional items, our process requires the store manager to first download the item price shelf labels and print them before the system will permit them to download the prices to their system.
For promotional prices, our stores do not receive shelf labels; rather, they post temporary signs for this type of price change.
In the cited cases of scanning inaccuracy, the stores did not execute the proper procedure for posting the point-of-sale (POS) price stickers or promotional signs.
Pep Boys pride itself on customer satisfaction, accurate pricing and our low-price guarantee. Pep Boys supports a 5% price guarantee to assure our customers that if they find a lower price on a same item ‒ advertised or not ‒ we will meet that price or beat it by 5%.
Sincerely,
Alexandra Spooner
Pep Boys Communications Department
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Statement from CVS Pharmacy:
We make every effort to ensure that the prices posted in our stores is accurate. We apologize that the price scanning system in some of our Phoenix-area stores did not reflect the prices posted for some items. We are immediately reviewing our pricing procedures there in order to minimize these inaccuracies in the future.
So now I am much more careful when I shop and watch. Hope this helps and you don't have to over pay for some of your items like I almost did a few weeks ago beofre this came out.
My next post will deal with gas prices which was also posted on our group site called Fed Up With High Gas Prices (Nozzle Creeping and Jumping)
Kayle |
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18358 posts 6/18/2006 6:10 pm |
Interesting. While aware of some of these problems I have not been fastideous with making sure I am not being overcharged. Thanks for the public service post. 
Blog On!
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