Bris, the best one I ran into was in Woolworths.
Before I start - I do accept that they probably made an accidental error, and I know I simply took advantage of it. But their reaction made me “rev up” and it ended up costing them a great deal more.
I know everyone else uses their phones to take photos, but I usually detest doing it. However, on this occasion I did. OK - I admit it - I was startled by the price! - so I photographed it.
Hm 250gm of one of my favourite french cheeses for only $5 - WOW!!!
Went to the checkout. They tried to put the cheese through at the normal price, which I think was about $17.50. I said - excuse me - that’s incorrect - it is only $5. The checkout assistant started to argue. Obviously what was on their computer and what I’d seen on the shelf didn’t match. I told her so. She called one of the “managers” - repeated the “argument” we were having. Manager went off and came back, trying to tell me I had made a mistake, and read the wrong ticket. “No I haven’t”. “Anyway I can PROVE your wrong!”. The Manager looked a bit shaken.
By this time my wife was trying to kick me in the shins, to get to hell out of the place, she was finding it all too embarrassing.
And of course by now, we had a queue of a dozen people watching while they waited to get served.
“Well” says I “we can do this your way, or do it mine!” “What on earth are you talking about?” “Do you want to take me to the shelf, and see what you’ve done to the price tags on this cheese, on that shelf?” “Are you trying to suggest that I’ve changed the price tags?” “No - of course not. I don’t have to. I have a photo of what was on the shelf at the moment I took this cheese off the shelf and put it in my shopping trolley. And under Australia’s consumer protection laws, I’m entitled to insist that you honour the price. I no longer care what you have on the shelf!”
You should have seen the Manager’s face! It was priceless! And in front of all those other customers, too!
Here’s the good bit. I walked out of the store with the 250 gm I’d take off the shelf, another half a kilo that the Manager insisted on simply giving me to shut me up and get rid of me, and I ended up with 5//8ths of a kilo - worth a total of roughly $90 - for nothing!
Don’t just peel back the labels. Read them. Compare them. Analyse them, if it’s appropriate.
Another item was just paying lip service to Australia’s labelling laws. No idea which product or which store, now - but it list all the ingredients you’d find in 100gm of product. And the list totalled 164gm! WOW - an extra 64gm, for nothing! What utter rubbish. They obviously don’t give a stuff about Australia’s consumer protection laws. and they need to be prosecuted tor breaching them. Not everyone is as informed as I am, most peolple just glance at labels and “trust” the vendors - the supplier and the store - to protect them. But they DON’T. At least not always. And some are decidedly worse than others - mainly, some manufacturers. Generally speaking, the stores are OK - most, if not all of the time. But the manufacturers? Some of them couldn’t give a ****** what happens after they ship the goods to the supermarkets.
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