Talk about beating the system

[cpux]

So I was listening to the Radio Chick earlier today. The topic came up about a woman who would go to supermarkets and "buy" mismarked items. Thing was, the stores' policies were "if it's priced wrong, it's free." So she'd abuse the system and get tons of this stuff. The thing was, she wasn't swapping tags or anything. It was all on the level, just taken to a grandose scale. However, it was enough to get her banned from two supermarkets.

I know that a bit like that would take FOREVER to complete, and if I was behind this woman, I'd definitely have to move to another line, no matter how long it was.

My grocery store's a bit smarter. There, if it's priced wrong, you get ONE free and the rest at the discounted price.

I'm just wondering, did anyone ever get the pleasure of dealing with someone like this?

[Rine]

I remember a lady that used to come in frequently a few months ago and apparantly, she was familiar with the way we did our signing. Our signs usually list the start and end dates for the currently advertised sale price. I swear, I really do think she would search all the signs in the store, looking for a sign that expired but wasn't taken down. She'd get an item from the rack/shelf and then go to the cash wrap. We'd start ringing her up and she'd do the whole, "well, the sign said..."

We'd confirm that it was an expired sign and then the lady would go, "now give me five dollars off." She was the only customer that ever made me enforce the pricing policy. Supposedly, if the item rings up at a higher price than what the sign says, we are supposed to give them the lower price and discount it a further five dollars if it is between 5-100 dollars. If the item is under 5 dollars, the customer gets this for free.

I was never told about it (as I never received formal training via computer) so I had no idea of what she was talking about, until a manager reluctantly told me about the policy. We do have little signs that are next to the register about the pricing policy and I guess she was the only customer that ever read it.

She has stopped coming in and I don't know why, but I think in one week, I must have had to do markdowns for her every single day. I honestly think she was searching for the expired stuff and using our policy to her advantage.

[Mr. Rager!]

Rine, our store stopped practicing that a while ago. In fact, I don't think I've actually ever done that kind of signing issue adjustment. Which is probably a good thing, our ISS Marketing team is horrible.

[ditchdj]

I was gonna post a link to some woman that was making a career out of getting literally thousands of dollars worth of free stuff by going to department stores and trolling around for prices that didnt match advertisements but the stupid registration page popped up. She had been banned from several stores because of this and cant figure out why. Uh, well since stores are businesses that are there to make money, not give away free stuff. And yeah, you CAN get thrown out for costing the company money. Just like when you exploit a flaw at a crap table in a casino and cost the casino millions by winning non-stop and can get thrown out as well.

[Rapscallion]

Part of me says that the stores in question should be more efficient. If someone could make pretty much a living out of seeking out mistakes such as these, there's something wrong with their systems.

The rest of me thinks "Sucky alleged customer" and cheers on the stores as they chuck her out.

Rapscallion

[Rine]

Rine, our store stopped practicing that a while ago. In fact, I don't think I've actually ever done that kind of signing issue adjustment. Which is probably a good thing, our ISS Marketing team is horrible.

ISS for our store is pretty bad too. Usually at the end of the day, I have a nice collection of bad signs that they forgot to take down. But at my store, ISS is pretty good at making sure tools/lawn and garden has no bad signs. I mean, having a bad sign in that department might mean a couple hundred dollars lost. But they don't have the accuracy pricing policy at your store? I thought that was a corporate thing.

[Primer]

Our signs usually list the start and end dates for the currently advertised sale price. I swear, I really do think she would search all the signs in the store, looking for a sign that expired but wasn't taken down.

IMHO, since the expiration date is listed, it's not mismarked....but then, I'm not a(n) SC. I always check the listed dates to be sure the item I want is still on sale. If the sale has expired, then I decide if I want to pay full price. An expired sale sign still being up does not entitle the customer to the sale price.

[JourneyofThought]

ISS for our store is pretty bad too. Usually at the end of the day, I have a nice collection of bad signs that they forgot to take down. But at my store, ISS is pretty good at making sure tools/lawn and garden has no bad signs. I mean, having a bad sign in that department might mean a couple hundred dollars lost. But they don't have the accuracy pricing policy at your store? I thought that was a corporate thing.

Its a corporate thing, but all the stores try not to do it. When you do it as a price adjustment it prints out a report that regional gets and the DM's flip about it. They teach it in training, but we were told to never ever actually enforce the policy unless the customer brought it up.

My store also had a horrible ISS department, and I worked in tools..and if we had to enforce that policy, we would have been giving away alot of money and discounts.

[kibbles]

But was the woman really doing anything wrong? The stores should have been more efficient, it's not her fault that she could easily spot their flaws IMO.

Kibbles

[Rapscallion]

Well, I have to agree with you on part of this, Kibbles. As I said above, the stores ought to be more careful. The whole reason they run sales is to attract people into the place, so they ought to be accurate about when they end.

On the other side of the coin, someone who makes a living by profiting from someone else's mistakes is a parasite.

Rapscallion

[ds_36]

But was the woman really doing anything wrong? The stores should have been more efficient, it's not her fault that she could easily spot their flaws IMO.

Kibbles

Well there's different levels of wrong-doing. If you go to a store, only "buy" things that are priced incorrectly meaning that you wind up with more money than you started with (or even the same amount), you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing in a store. If you take it to such an exterme you are doing something wrong and should got into some type of trouble. And I assume stores are private property, meaning that they can decide who can and can't come in on their own, it's their decision if she can or can't come in. And since most stores want to make money, I assume after a few episodes of this they would chose to ban her.

[Kiwi]

I think its a good faith issue, we screwed up, you get rewarded for helping us to do better

when its abused like that, it becomes a principal thing

but if I was in the same situation.... to be honest, I'd do the same thing. It is up to the store to set the correct prices.

[ds_36]

but if I was in the same situation.... to be honest, I'd do the same thing. It is up to the store to set the correct prices.

But would you really go "shopping" to only find things that are incorrectly priced? That's the difference between what she's doing and what the average person does.

[Becks]

And since most stores want to make money, I assume after a few episodes of this they would chose to ban her.

Nah, I bet they have management/coporate types that would hire her to make sure all the signs are correct.

[I_Hate_SCs]

She probably starts at aisle 1 and carefully scrutinizes every single price tag, and would be a real asset as an employee since she probably has all of the prices and item numbers on their price tag memorized. I'm glad Target doesn't have a ridiculous 'its free/5 bucks off if it scans wrong' policy like that. The only time we would ever bend the rules is if it was an expired sale sign and the price difference was within 5-10 dollars, or it was a current sign which was incorrect and somehow had a ridiculously low price. For example, something in my dept had a sign for $5.99, but it was really $29.99. Before I could replace the sign, I was (of course) called up for a price check on the item. It rang up 5.99 at the register, but when I scaned it with my hand scanner and checked it with one of our price checkers, it showed the real price of 29.99. The real 29.99 price tag was beneath the $5.99 tag on our shelf. The customer got it for $29.99.