hum...tesco weights not adding up....

[poe.tuesday]

I was doing an online tesco food shop yesterday and I was looking at dishwasher tablets and I was compairing the price per tablet to get the cheapest option, then I realised that the info on the site was wrong.

 

They had 28 fairy dishwasher tablets for £7.66/£0.17 each - now that just does not add up as 28 x17 = £4.76 or £7.66/28 =27 so as you can see, the maths just does not add up

 

so, I carry on with my online shopping and come across some boxes of pre-packed grapes and they are £2.20 for 500g/£2.94 per kg.....

 

so I email tesco telling them about this and that I want a refund for my shopping on the above two items - tesco called me this morning and starting rambling on about their T&C's and I mention that surely they are misleading their customers etc - the tesco lady once she had grasped onto what I was on about got off the phone pronto

 

anyhoo - I have checked out some other items on the tesco website and there are loads of things that are wrong - in the olive section there are 29 items listed, 10 of them are wrong when it comes to the price per item against the price per kg/each etc

 

so, are tesco doing anything wrong, if so, what and who do I complain to?

 

thanks for any advice you can give

[citizenB]

I would think if it something to do with weights and measures then it will be Trading Standards you need to get in touch with.

[poe.tuesday]

just checked their t&c's and it does say that there is an issue and they are working hard to fix it....

 

really? can they really just cover this up under their T&C's? surely if there is an issue they should be flagging it so everyone can see?

[perplexity]

Because of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 it is a strict liability criminal offence to cause or be "likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise, taking account of its factual context and of all its features and circumstances."

 

Section 19 provides that

 

(1) It shall be the duty of every enforcement authority to enforce these Regulations.

This means that when an enforcer fails to enforce, you could act against the enforcer who would then be obliged to defend himself.

 

Strict liability means that it falls to the defendant to show that he that he "took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of such an offence by himself or any person under his control."

[raydetinu]

yep I notced the same thing on prices marked in store, errors on £/kg or per item.

either error when printing or whoever does them cant do maths.

just ignore and work it out myself, but can be missleading.

[poe.tuesday]

the T&C were updated in 2004 so they have known about this issue since then

[patdavies]

The priice per unit is only advisory and not statutory so I suspect that there is no offence here.

[raydetinu]

sure, but it should be correct! otherwise dont bother.

[poe.tuesday]

The priice per unit is only advisory and not statutory so I suspect that there is no offence here.

 

where does it say that it's advisory?

 

surely the price is the price - if they say a tin of beans is 50p then it's 50p not just an advisory price that they can just pluck out of thin air?

[patdavies]

If the headline price for your tin of beans is 50p, then that is the 'invitation to treat' and the price that is charged.

 

If underneath this, it says 12p per 100g, then this is advisory

[theghost]

If the headline price for your tin of beans is 50p, then that is the 'invitation to treat' and the price that is charged.

 

If underneath this, it says 12p per 100g, then this is advisory

 

No its not

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/102/contents/made

 

To cut a long story short, big shops like Tesco will be required to 'unit' price' for many items.

 

On top of that if the unit prices are wrong they can be comitting offences for misleading consuemrs. Some people use the unit prices to compare goods - hence it could affect their decision to go wit one product over another

[poe.tuesday]

If the headline price for your tin of beans is 50p, then that is the 'invitation to treat' and the price that is charged.

 

If underneath this, it says 12p per 100g, then this is advisory

 

thanks theghost for the link, very interesting - I will be calling trading standards and the national measures office tomorrow as The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 also prohibits retailers from giving misleading information to consumers about product pricing, which is something I feel tesco is doing

 

but it does not say it underneath, it says it to the side of the price and if it bears no relevance they why have it

[theghost]

If they have a genuine cock up in their system - i.e IT problems then a couple of signs on each aisle should set them clear

 

It is a bit dodgy if its a known problem (i.e mroe than a couple of days) and they are doing NOTHING to make their customers aware

 

With regards to the website, you would expect a banner or a message as you enter the website I would suggest

[mr2mr2]

my other half works for one of the morrisons.

they always mislabling things.

they had their own audit recently FAILED MISERABLY...

[perplexity]

If the headline price for your tin of beans is 50p, then that is the 'invitation to treat' and the price that is charged.

 

If underneath this, it says 12p per 100g, then this is advisory

 

 

If the manager of a supermarket told you that, send him a summons.

 

According to Article 8 of the EU Directive 98/9/EC on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products:

 

Member States shall lay down penalties for infringements of national provisions adopted in application of this Directive, and shall take all necessary measures to ensure that these are enforced. These penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

It could hardly be clearer than that.

[raydetinu]

Its QA problem; nobody checks it before putting the prices up!

Tesco often get the display price and checkout price wrong; so check you receipt.

Often have to go to service desk and get a refund x 2.

[BankFodder]

poe.tuesday - there is some media interest in this story. Would you mind contacting me by email and let me know if you would be prepared to discuss this with the media.

 

Use our admin email address please

 

Thanks

[poe.tuesday]

email on it's way