What would you do? Hypothetical

[DocHeb]

In Michigan, the law states you are entitled a refund of the error, plus 10 times the scanning error, with a minimum of $1 and a maximum of $5. It only applies to items that have a price affixed and are scanned. The Michigan Attorney General estimated that errors occur in 1 of 6 transactions, but the FTC says they feel it occurs in "only 5%". Many retailers try to get around this by not putting price stickers on items, but the Attorney General has also stated they must use stickers.

In 1999, the Michigan Attorney General sued J.C. Pennys Department Store Chain after finding error rates up to 61%. This article also notes that Wal-Mart has a lower error rate of 0.5%.

 

[MikeIIA]

I always make sure things are right in any business transaction. I do not think there is any justification to short either myself or the other person nor to profit just because either party in the transaction doesn't know.
Just because a person can get by with it doesn't make it "ok".
Clearly to me it is deception... and it is theft.
Mike

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> I always make sure things are right in any business transaction. I do not think there is any justification to short either myself or the other person nor to profit just because either party in the transaction doesn't know.
</font>

That's right and don't you just love the look on their face when you give them money back. If you have all ready gone out of the store and had to go back in to give it to them, some times they act like they have no idea what to do with it. It's almost like they don't know how to deal with a honest person.

 

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> It's almost like they don't know how to deal with a honest person. </font>

We did. One part of our business was refilling propane cylinders. It was a repeat business and over the years we got so we could recognize most of the customers. Some were not nice people. One of my employees was a devil - he would, on accasion, deliberately give a customer $1 too much change -- and wait to see the reaction. The ones who gave it back redeemed themselves and went to the head of a list of customers for whom we would do almost anything. The ones who counted their change and stuck the extra dollar in their pocket probably never knew why they didn't get the free advice, etc. that others got, or why it seemed like they had to wait a little longer to get service.

Should we have had preferred customers? Probably not, in a perfect world. But, store owners are human, too. The stinkers always got fair measure, just nothing extra. It was worth the dollar.