Stores nickle and diming us to death.

In these hard economic times, stores are doing everything to maximize profits; they cut staff to bare bones levels at minimum wage or maxed out at 32 hours a week to avoid overtime and they stick it to the consumer in every way possible to get every last penny out of them. They know high prices will drive customers away so product makers have taken to making their products in smaller quantities at the same old price in order to try to fool consumers.

Now, a consumer advocate has caught Walmart red-handed, ripping off their customers two pennies at a time.

Mary Bach, Consumer Activist, Wins Lawsuit Against Walmart -- Over 2 Cents

For Mary Bach, 2 cents isn't chump change.

The Pennsylvania woman took Walmart to court over a two-penny discrepancy on her receipt -- and won.

Bach was shopping at a Walmart in Delmont when she picked up a package of Banquet "Brown 'N Serve" sausage, listed at 98 cents, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

When the cashier rang up the the breakfast meat, the item scanned at $1. Bach says she pointed out the cashier's error and accepted a refund.

But when she returned several days later and was overcharged again, Bach decided that a refund wouldn't cut it. She filed a civil suit against the retail giant -- a practice the consumer activist has made a habit.

Huff Post

She won $100 in damages and $80 in court costs.

Walmart complains that she just bought the sausage the 2nd time in order to file another lawsuit. Well duh! She knew they wouldn't correct their mistake and would continue to rip off their customers two pennies at a time. The only way to bring attention to the matter was to take them to court.

Lots of people think the lawsuit is petty but, this is just one of the few times they've been caught is all. If you think about them overcharging by just a few pennies on every purchase, over millions of customers, it looks like Walmart is making a pretty penny off of the mis-pricing game.

They're ripping off millions of their customers, knowing that most people won't bother to complain over just a few pennies per purchase. Its just not worth the effort to argue with the cashier, get a supervisor involved to adjust to the proper price and don't forget all the dirty looks from all the other customers in line for the hold-up. They know most customers will accept a tiny overcharge rather than go through the trouble of complaining.

It seems this isn't the only scam they run on their customers; they also charge the full price tax on products after deducting for coupons.



Is anyone gullible enough to believe this is just the result of honest mistakes, rather than being the new business model?

Bravo for her! It is going to take one step at a time to stop these practices. The more they get caught, the more they may think about trying this again. Clearly they thought that most people would not be bothered to make an issue out of this. They were wrong.

I spent an hour fighting over 2 bucks at heb. Over "free" stuff" i watch them. B ou t when i do my big grocery shops, its hard! Caught them (heb) over charging hotdogx! Cant remember the amounts.. B ou t i was more issed peeps were getting over charged than my "2cents"

Thats why i check reciepts.. For some reason its hard to understand my walmart bill!

Originally posted by Ultraman2011
Bravo for her! It is going to take one step at a time to stop these practices. The more they get caught, the more they may think about trying this again. Clearly they thought that most people would not be bothered to make an issue out of this. They were wrong.

She's just one person who's caught on to their tricks. They may just write people like her off as the cost of doing business. It may take thousands of lawsuits to force them to change their ways.

I wonder how hard it is to file lawsuits like this? Does she have some type of legal background or is this something that anybody can do? I'll bet a person could earn a pretty steady livelihood by shopping around and suing all the store that hit them with crap like this.

I looked into Mary Bach some more and it seems that she doesn't just stick it to Walmart.

Here is a vid of her discussing how portions are shrinking but, the container size (and price) remain the same.

Funny.... I just bought something at Walmart today that said "2 for 5 dollars" but when it was rung up, it was at the normal price listing. I checked the receipt later to confirm it.

Originally posted by boncho
Funny.... I just bought something at Walmart today that said "2 for 5 dollars" but when it was rung up, it was at the normal price listing. I checked the receipt later to confirm it.

Looks like you have good grounds for a lawsuit.



BTW: I found another awesome lawsuit she won:

Mary Bach: Don't tax the Charmin

Mary Bach says a local K-Mart store has been doing more than squeezing the Charmin.

Bach, a Murrysville resident who heads the American Association of Retired Per-sons consumer task force, said the Kmart store on Mall Boulevard in Monroeville is illegally charging sales tax on toilet tissue.

The product is on the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's list of non-taxable items.

Source

She won $100 in that lawsuit too.

the last 2 weeks, i caught mistakes.

today:

price on the shelf was 3.97/5lb bag of apples. It rang up 5 something. Also the vitamins I bought were 5 something, rung up at 6.98. As a previous post said, its hard to read the walmart receipt, so when I went to customer service over my apples, I had the cashier look up the code for the 6.98, which was my vitamins.

the week before, over charging for rubbing alcohol. mine was supposed to be .88cents, they were charging a 1.88.

Why do I continue to shop, because I am on a budget and I can make it stretch further there. But I make sure now to to check my receipt against my list and I dispute wrong prices now....fed up. In the end, I fought for my 2.26 back.

Originally posted by boncho
Funny.... I just bought something at Walmart today that said "2 for 5 dollars" but when it was rung up, it was at the normal price listing. I checked the receipt later to confirm it.

Did you not tell the cashier?

if not, you should have....

reply to post by FortAnthem


they do it all the time...the most deceiving thing they do though...is replace one product that has a bit more than another...with another product that has less in it...but at the same price or more...

I have no idea if this is wal-mart's fault or the company that makes the product...which it is more or likely the company itself that does this as a way to maximize profits...

sure pisses me off thought when I go to buy a 2 gallon jug of salsa at sam's club, and they've replaced it with 2 seperate containers of less than half of 2 gallons of salsa but marked the same price...

Yeah, stores are ripping people off all the time. And it's true that most people either won't put up a fight or just don't pay attention. I do feel for the cashiers though. They get the brunt of a lot pissy customers over the way corporations run their businesses. I understand if the cashier does not seem to care or isn't helpful to correct a matter, but a lot of the times, at least in my experience as being a cashier, the cashier honestly will NOT know a product was scanned at the wrong price. Especially in a huge store like Walmart. They aren't going to spend their free time memorizing the price of every item. Especially when prices are constantly changing.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Take a picture with your phone of the original tag on the marked item...

get the mismatched receipt and that will be all the proof you need.

It isn't just Walmart. I noticed a few months ago that sale discounts at Safeway and Fred Meyers are now taken off at the end of the receipt. Instead of it popping up as 2 for $5 or $2.50 ea, it comes up at the original price, then after everything has been scanned, sale prices are applied and the total magically reduces. I also saw something I didn't even know was legal last week. The woman in front of me had an item that rang up as "unknown" in the computer. The customer stated the price it was displayed with and even went so far as to show that it was in that week's ad (It was some sort of food storage container that was advertised at, like, $12.99 which was a 50% discount). The manager was finally called and the customer was told that the item could not be sold to her as it wasn't "in the system" and, furthermore, no rain check could be offered also because the item wasn't in the system. Mind you, this was in their weekly flier. I just know that not so long ago, in the 80s and early 90s when I was a kid, there were false advertising laws that covered bait and switch and forced stores to honor even erroneous sale prices. Guess those days of customer protection are history.

Good post !
I seldom check the receipt, like many others I lazily rely on the prices to be accurate and applicable discounts being applied. Everyone is seeing the resizing of products and same pricing. Glad to see this lady took the time and won

brill

Ah, whatever........

I still love walmart.

Honest mistake or not, as the vendor they have the obligation to either overcome the challenges of the size of their operations, or reduce the size of their operations so that they can manage it.

With the sheer size of walmart, if they can steal 2 cents on each transaction, it is worth millions a year to their bottom line.

Wal Mart is NOTORIOUS for this!

I bought some tanning lotion over the summer and read the tag to make sure the price was right well when I got to the register it rang up 2 dollars more! I told her it was wrong and she continued to argue with me. I showed her the tag and she said "oh it's wrong." I worked in grocery stores so I know how to read the labels and how the pricing is done. It all matched and her only answer was "oh it's wrong." She wouldn't change the cost either so I told her to keep it I didn't want it.

This happens a lot at Wal Mart. I always make sure I check the pricing when they scan. Most people don't pay attention so they don't notice it but I do. I live on a budget so I add my items as I go on my phone or in my head and almost every time somethings wrong and then I have to hold up the line for price checks. It comes down to not having enough people doing the pricing. The prices change and they aren't switching out the labels!

Now the only place I never have a problem with this is Target. If something rings up wrong and it's under 5 dollars in difference they will take your word for it. This is their policy and I know this cause I worked there. They still have the philosophy "The customer is always right." Walmart workers in my experience are lazy and rude. If you question anything they get an attitude. I was in the stocking section one day and they were all over the floor so I decided to pick them up and put them back on the rack. I've worked retail and I know people will destroy things so it didn't bother me to help out a little. Well the lady in the section started yelling at me! She accused me of ruining her area and went on a tangent! I took the whole rack and dumped it on the floor and told her I was helping her and that now she can do it herself. I got the manager who said that they have problems with her being rude to customers...yet to this day she is STILL there! I'd fire her and get someone in there who will do their job with a smile and appreciate that they have a job!

Good for this woman though! Sorry for the semi rant

target got taken to task over wrong prices, stories all over the tv, sued big time. Here is another thing I don't like, some stores give you a reciept that just has the total, not the one with each item and the tax, this happened at the cigaret store where I got ripped off.

when you get that kind of receipt it is a lot easier to rip people off.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth

Originally posted by boncho
Funny.... I just bought something at Walmart today that said "2 for 5 dollars" but when it was rung up, it was at the normal price listing. I checked the receipt later to confirm it.

Did you not tell the cashier?

if not, you should have....

I normally would have, but the cashier was having enough trouble comprehending the operation of her point of sale system. I figured the chance of her having a critical thought and resolving the situation without calling over a manager was slim... I therefore said nothing.

I just had an ordeal at the bank where they failed to do something and when asked about it they said, "The bank does this at this time".

Except it wasn't done!

So I asked again for a timeline of when it would be done....

They said "The bank does this at this time _________ ."

That was it! Nothing. No resolution, no nothing. May as well be talking to a programmed robot.

in canada they have the scanning code of conduct. if the shelf price is different than the scanned price you get the item for free up to $10 dollars, if it's over $10 you get that much off the price.

but it looks like they haven't much less heard about it.

Originally posted by showintail
I spent an hour fighting over 2 bucks at heb. Over "free" stuff" i watch them. B ou t when i do my big grocery shops, its hard! Caught them (heb) over charging hotdogx! Cant remember the amounts.. B ou t i was more issed peeps were getting over charged than my "2cents"

Thats why i check reciepts.. For some reason its hard to understand my walmart bill!

The thing about HEB is that at every isle and all around the store they have free food for you to try. I may have been overcharged a few pennies her or there but I have eaten WAY more than that in free samples lmao

I love HEB.