Lady Sues KMart because they make a mistake

[mattm04]

This "AARP Consumer Advocate" claims she told a Kmart that they were charging sales tax on TP several times before she sues them for $100. IN PA they can not charge sales tax on sanitary items. My bet is that he idea of telling someone involves muttering something to the cashier and not telling the manager, like many SC's.

[Ree]

Is there a link to the PFB letter?

[mattm04]

Sorry, i forgot to post the link

http://consumerist.com/consumer/laws...per-307866.php

This lady seem very sue-happy. As I suspected, it appearers she never talked to the manager, just told the cashier. She claim to have taken KMart to court other times because the price in the as/shelf tag is lower than the scan price. In my store, when that happens the customer gets one item free and the rest of the items at the sign/ad price, and the CDH immidealtey corrects the price file.

[RammsteinGirl]

I work at Kmart but haven't heard anything about this yet. In my state (Michigan) EVERYTHING is taxed except non-prepared food items. And doesn't that ticketing mistake happen in all stores? You have humans using the ticketing guns, and sometimes they'll mis-read the price on the RMU or something like that.

In Michigan, if a customer pays for their items and finds one that is ticketed a lower price than it rang up at the register, they get paid a bounty - 5 times the amount they were overcharged, not to exceed $5.00.

This lady just sounds like a sue-happy biotch, IMO. Everyone has had items ring up wrong for them, and if you notice it's a big problem with a certain store, wouldn't the normal course of action be to speak to management and corporate - as opposed to just suing them without giving them a chance to make it right? Knowing Kmart they would've probably showered her with gift cards, as they usually like to just give the customer whatever they want to shut them up and get them out of the store. As cashiers, we're told that if a customer says an item is up to 50% off whatever it's ringing up to just give it to them at that price - especially around the holidays (obviously, we can't do this for expensive items - I'm talking under $20 items).

A "price scanner error crusader"?? No, this lady isn't doing this for the benefit of humanity, she's doing it so she can get rich off suing big companies.

God, someone give this lady a life fast!

OH, I forgot to add - at Kmart, the cashier can just hit the "tax exempt" button on the register and it will remove tax from the item, so this lady is clearly taking advantage of an error in the system.

[Rine]

She sues because tags and labels are wrong on the shelf? What a bitch. Can't she be happy with getting the price marked plus a discount? (And usually, people are just happy getting the price that was on the shelf because they know that HUMANS make MISTAKES.) I've had maybe three or four people tops in my three years retail life be extremely bitchy about an item's price and I had to give them like 10 percent off to make them happy.

Also with the whole tax thing...it's not like K-mart is getting rich. Taxes go back to the government, right? Sounds like someone accidentally coded that TP wrong or something. I think the problem could have been fixed if she talked to a manager and then the manager got in touch with corporate.

We don't need the legal system clogged up with pointless lawsuits like hers.

[mattm04]

I just read some of the comments from the article again. The Consumerist readers are insane. They are the "customer is always right" and i have a right to be rude because I am always right types.

If this bothered her enough, she would have talked with a manager the first time OR called later in the day. That way within minutes of her complaint the manager could take the appropriate action, either fixing it on the spot or calling the appropriate person. By telling the cashier she was ensuring that it would be not be reported to at least the end of the cashiers shift and maybe even to close when the manager counts the drawers, etc. Since she has sued all these companies before, she is not in it for "consumer protection" she is in it for $100 bucks profit per lawsuit. If I were the judge and she could prove that KMart ignored the issue than I would give her the amount she was overcharged. Nothing more. I bet that the tax issue was corrected shortly after she told the manager.

[CancelMyService]

That's part of the joys of working in a store in PA. What is and isn't sales taxed is kind of weird so there's people (usually older people who have nothing better to do) who go around playing gotcha.

I think they're related to the people who bitch because the advertisments don't include sales tax and they come to the checkout with exact change.

[Hon'ya-chan]

We don't need the legal system clogged up with pointless lawsuits like hers.

This is the perfect reason why we need tort reform.

The guy driving the car that rammed into yours was drunk? Good case for small claims court.

K-Mart charged you tax for TP when it's not supposed to? Not a case for the courts.

[CancelMyService]

I just read some of the comments from the article again. The Consumerist readers are insane. They are the "customer is always right" and i have a right to be rude because I am always right types.

I read the Consumerist at work, and while there are a few of the obviously-never-spent-a-day-in-retail types, most of them are anti-large-company-treating-people-like-crap in a way that's not really all that different from most of us here.