My husband and I went crazy at the DIY Handyman shop over the weekend to buy stuff for the house, so we had quite a stack of things to pay for at the cashier. I knew we probably overspent, but the bill still surprised me when it reached P9,000 plus.
I paid for the bill and then asked for the tape receipt. Rugs, check. Two different sizes of hooks, check. Car cleaning stuff, check.
“What’s this item that costs P4,200?” I thought my voice sounded really calm.
The cashier and her bagger checked each item and found that it really cost P99 but the scanner somehow made P4,200 appear on-screen. Great.
They voided the charge to my credit card and counted everything all over again, while my son complained of a missed meal and general tiredness at the things that adults worry about. I paid P5,121.23 instead of P9,291.48.
I was lucky it was a big item, that I spotted it and double-checked the tape receipt before I left the store. But what if these automatic scanners have been taking money from us without us knowing it? What if these are in increments of P50, or P100? Would we notice? What if they are already taking over the world?!! (kidding)
I once scoffed at my brother-in-law who checked each item in the tape receipt every time they went to the grocery. He may have a point after all. I just hate having to feel like I can’t trust something as simple as a scanner or barcode.
29 Responses to “Do you trust the bar code?”
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Pages: « 6 5 4 3 2 [1] Show All
November 12th, 2008 at 7:13 am
I always check the monitor with every beep of the scanner. It’s not uncommon for items be incorrectly priced, and it’s always in the store’s favor, not mine. I was recently out of country for several weeks and I just received my latest electric bill, which shows the previous reading and the latest reading as identical, as it should be. The next box says “Difference” and then the digit zero., also correct. Then the next box is under the heading “KWH consumed” and they have 124! And then the rest of the bill appears with all the usual extra stuff and a substantial total. I doubt this was an error, but instead an attempt to increase somebody’s revenue at my expense.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:53 am
It’s Christmas time! Everybody is busy. Everybody is rushing. A strategy to earn extra revenue? I wonder how it’s shown on their financial statements. Ahh let’s see… “Oopps Revenue” hahahaha! You did good though!
November 11th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I wouldnt worry much. Either the barcode is linked to the wrong price, or the wrong sticker was placed on the product. In the factory, when operators run the machine, we trust the barcode - rather than having an employee key in numbers manually. Human error is much harder to control - a sleepy employee can key in the wrong numbers (mad employee, sick employee, daydreaming employee - lots of possible causes). So I’d say, I’ll take my chances with the barcode than with a cashier manually keying in numbers, who’s chitchatting with another worker…
November 11th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’m guilty. Happened to me several times especially on sale items and when I do grocery shopping. Sometimes, you don’t notice because it’s small amount compared to the total bill.
For sale items, sometimes, the system is not updated so that regular price is registered when the bar code is scanned.
I always do my grocery shopping alone and it’s really difficult to monitor the prices being punched while you are transferring your goods from the cart to the counter or packing your goods.