Now, Vic told me of a recent Zellers experience in which she purchased some chocolates from a massive display that were signed $1. They rang in at $1.09. She describes all the hoops she had to go through to get the refund here. I support anyone who even bothers to get a penny refunded. The $.09 isn't going to make or break Vic. But think about it. If Zellers managed to sell the entire display, they would have made around $36 in pure profit.
I was prepared. As you know, I have an eagle eye for making sure things ring up correctly. Zellers takes the fun out of the sport by making it easy.
Of the four items I purchased, one was marked regular price, and three were marked with a percentage discount. Two of the discounted items rang up at full price. Too small a sample size for sure to mention I was overcharged for half the items I purchased. The value of the overcharge you ask? $13.50. If I didn't notice, I would have paid 29% more.
So off I went to Customer Service, where the Customer is always a number. I was number 327. The clerk wasn't sure why I'd bother, since the cashier had corrected the error.
"You have entire displays of merchandise that you are overcharging for. The cashier didn't do anything about that."
The clerk didn't have an answer for me, but the manager was close by.
What Phil said:
- We have thousands of items and it's hard to keep track of all of them.
- Sorry.
- We put the signs up early so customers could benefit.
- I know this isn't the answer you would like to hear.
The answer I was expecting to hear is that you would correct the prices or take down the signs. Appreciating the thousands of items you need to keep track of, I was good enought to point out two.
So, I called the head office to explain I wasn't happy with the outcome at the store and to confirm whether it is practice to put signs up, but not update the cash registers.
Their response was that Zellers tries hard to ensure their pricing is correct, but they are "not at 100%" (She wouldn't say what % they're at). Sometimes things are missed, particularly when there is a discount involved. Customers are invited to tell the cashier at point of sale if something rings too high.
To which I responded, "So, what I'm hearing is that it's Buyer Beware at Zellers"
No, she said. She would contact the store manager and ensure it's corrected.
OK, gentle readers. I've ranted about this before I know. You should be ranting as well. It is obviously going to happen that an item scans too high. Signs get missed after a sale, for example. It is purely unacceptable that the situation is not immediately taken care of. Neither is it acceptable to reduce prices before the cash register is updated.
In my retail days, my chain had easy-to-follow guidelines.
First off, a 2% error rate or better needed to be maintained. And error is scans too high, scans too low, or the product does not have a shelf sticker.
Second, signs go up once a sale starts, and come down after a sale ends.
Third, when the sign goes up, the item is scanned to ensure it was captured.
Fourth, when a large sale comes down, the price is checked again. All remaining sale items are audited to ensure they are still on sale.
So there you have it. A warning when shopping at Zellers, coupled with an inside scoop of how retailers can ensure price accuracy.
Categories: Retail, Rant
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