WENDY KNOWLER | Is double the difference code for lowering the bar?

I like to think I am pretty fair in my dealings with corporates.

Sometimes consumers can be unreasonable — they’re often flat out wrong or overly entitled in their demands of companies, and I’m quick to recognise that.

In this instance, though, I think the consumer is right and the company, a major South African supermarket group, believes the opposite.

Read on and, if you’re inclined, let me know what you think.

The issue has to do with a wrong price.

The Consumer Goods and Services ombud’s office is of the view that by the time a supermarket customer reaches or places their chosen goods on the checkout counter, the advertised price is binding, “unless reasonable steps had already been taken to inform the consumer of the error”.

So, simply put, if an item scans at a higher price than marked at the display point, you’re entitled to the lower price.

Of course, many people simply don’t notice they’ve been overcharged, given we don’t have price stickers on products any more — we have to remember what the price at the shelf or “bargain bin” was.

Many years ago, Pick n Pay introduced a policy whereby if an item scanned at a higher price than marked at the display point, the consumer would be given the item free and any other identical ones at the lower price.

A few years after that, when I was getting a lot of complaints from Woolworths’ customers about their “3 for the price of 2”-type specials scanning at the normal price at the till, I put it to a Woolies higher-up that they should introduce a similar compensation policy.

A supervisor came and adjusted the price to R199 to match the display sign. But when I asked about their Double the Difference policy, she said it does not apply as there was no barcode printed on the promo price of R199 to compare with the barcode on the actual product.

—  Tony Human

“But those mistakes are so rare,” he said, to which I responded: “Well then it won’t cost the company too much, will it?” To its credit, Woolies introduced that “get it free if the price is wrong” policy soon afterwards in all departments, and it’s still in place.

Ironically, Pick n Pay subsequently diluted its compensation to “Double the Difference” — now, if a price scans higher at the till than the one on display with the product, the customer gets double the difference between the right price and the wrong one.

The key words in Pick n Pay’s policy wording are “if the barcode corresponds” — in other words, the barcode on the item in question must match the barcode of the item on the shelf. Fair enough — sometimes a product ends up sitting on a shelf above a price “tag” for another product altogether. And so to Tony’s Human’s experience.

On entering Pick n Pay in Somerset mall last month, he saw a huge display advertising discounted prices on their winter goodies, including a single-bed electric blanket for R199.

“I took one and proceeded to the till, where it rang up as R299 and not the advertised price,” he said.

“A supervisor came and adjusted the price to R199 to match the display sign. But when I asked about their Double the Difference policy, she said it does not apply as there was no barcode printed on the promo price of R199 to compare with the barcode on the actual product.”

If the policy had been applied, Human would have got that electric blanket free of charge.

“She did acknowledge that it was the same exact product as advertised, so I asked for the manager.”

The manager wouldn’t budge either.

So I took up the issue with Pick n Pay, saying that given the store management conceded the price of that appliance was incorrectly advertised at the display, this was a case of circumventing the warranty on a technicality.

“Clearly that is totally contrary to the spirit of the compensation policy.”

In my local Pick n Pay this week, a large area was designated for Save Now items, with prices - but no barcodes - on mostly high-ticket items: flat screen TVs, speaker systems, comforters, keyboards, toasters, fans, microwave ovens and more. They ranged in price from R300 to R8,000. That’s a LOT of stock which carries no compensation for customers should a higher price scan at the till.

But Pick n Pay doesn’t see it that way.

“We honoured the lower price that was marked on promotion, as any customer would expect us to do. Our policy on Double the Difference is unambiguous — it’s very clear and easy to understand. The electric blanket was advertised for sale on a special promotional table. Its special price was clearly marked. There was no barcode on the promotional table, so the Double the Difference policy does not apply. We are disappointed the customer believes this is a technicality, because it’s very clearly our policy. We are confident we honoured our customer by correcting the price at the till when it was pointed out to us.”

I must admit to being gobsmacked. The only relevance of a barcode in this context is to ensure the price which scans at the till is wrong — in other words, that the price on display applied to that specific item and not something else.

Human took an electric blanket from a promotional area, where it was clearly marked as R199, to the till where he was charged R299 for it. But the Double the Difference compensation doesn’t apply because there are no barcodes printed on prices in promotional areas?

The policy was intended to compensate customers when goods scan higher at the till than they were advertised, thereby creating a false lure.

In my local Pick n Pay this week, a large area was designated for Save Now items, with prices — but no barcodes — on mostly high-ticket items: flat screen TVs, speaker systems, comforters, keyboards, toasters, fans, microwave ovens and more. They ranged in price from R300 to R8,000.

That’s a LOT of stock which carries no compensation for customers should a higher price scan at the till.

Double the Difference is a voluntary compensation, granted, but is it fair to exclude these “special” items because the advertised prices are devoid of barcodes?

CONTACT WENDY: E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer