Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’::‘Was annoyed that the amount due on my Woolies purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’
So it was resolved instore to their even better benefit, AND the person still went and posted a false story to shame and blame them?
People are fucking weird.
Even if it was a one-time glitch that was resolved in-store, it implies that the prices shown on-screen aren’t necessarily the same prices used internally to compute the total.
That could merit a heads-up post for people to double-check their totals, though not the suggestion of anything more nefarious.
Things misscan all the time, they are using a hot topic to make an agenda.
They could have spun it as a good story with the ending they got, but they choose to focus on a technical glitch that occurs with human cashiers as well.
Nah, this wasn’t an issue with the scanner, it’s an issue with the core design of the software. For whatever reason, it uses different value fields when determining the price to display for an item and the price used in the total, that means this problem can occur for any number of items and the only way to detect it is to manually total the receipt. It’s a fundamental problem with the software and their pricing change control process and a good PSA, the negative headline draws better attention than the positive, which is that anyone could be charged incorrectly. That the store was able to fix it is also good to include, but it is an expected responsibility of the store to do so, not some positive spin.
How is this an mis-scan? Everything was scanned into the system, all recognized, all properly entered. The problem came with the display of that information. There was nothing wrong with the scan.
That’s still a major software bug. What a POS.
It is indeed a Point of Sale, albeit a shitty one
Not major if it only impacts the price shown on the itemized price screen of clearance mangos in one store and the total price charged is correct.
Is this news?
It certainly doesn’t belong in /technology, right?
What’s even worse is 7News published the story.
instore
Not a word, my dude.
In-store is, and language is fluid. If you understood what I meant we succeeded in communicating, anything else is you just trying to be better than someone else.
Languageisfluid isacommon excusefor people whoare justwrong.
Except language is demonstrably fluid, meanwhile it seems like your grasping of prescriptive pedantry is coincidentally just a lazy reason to try and be correct when everyone knew what “instore” meant.
Do you say “God be with you” when departing, or just goodbye?
Of course it is. That doesn’t mean every missing or grammatical mistake is an example of language evolving. Usually it’s just carelessness or ignorance.
Carelessness or ignorance, believe it or not, evolve language. Have you heard of compound words?
I believe they are what people call a hypocrite, they have LOL in their username.
fyne wut evar ur rite having stan dardz sux u cant comlane cuz u no wat i mint
Thefact thatyour commentcan stillbe understood kindof disprovesyour point.
Beingpedantic aboutspaces andhyphens in anonline comment-section doesn’t makeyou a better-person.
Okay Luddite.
I apologize for knowing how to spell.
So where do we draw the line on when new words can’t be created anymore? Shakespeare? Wassup? Crunk? Your username even has LOL in it, I don’t think we should be taking language lessons from someone who parades that around….
An online forum lacking in content and engagement isn’t the place to make a stand against minor mistakes that don’t detract from the conversation.
What I’m making a stand against is the position that there’s no such thing as bad grammar because it’s all just language evolution.
Is gofuckyourself a word?
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“We’ve looked into this transaction and can confirm that the total of $17.90 was correct, however the mango price of 80 cents each that appeared on the screen was incorrect due to a technical error — they were on clearance for $1.90 each,” the Woolworths spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.
“We understand why this customer was concerned and we apologise for the confusion caused. Our team resolved this with the customer in-store, providing the mangoes free of charge.
Seems pretty straightforward and had a good resolution.
But, what kind of software do they have that uses one price source for the unit pricing display and another source for calculating the total? It seems that it is destined to create more problems like this one.
POS software is right up there with vehicle infotainment systems when it comes to reliability and usability. They get the dregs of the programming world because decent coders have a way better selection of companies to work for.
Even when they get decent coders for the base code, feature creep eventually wrecks the system. I know someone who helped write the POS system used in Disney parks, and according to them the system they originally built didn’t suck nearly as much as the system I used as a cast member, and it’s the hastily tacked on bullshit (causing the initial competent team to quit) that ultimately broke it. That said, I do realize that most people will not admit to shipping shoddy code in the first place.
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Unless you’re talking about Android Auto or CarPlay, I’d have to disagree. Even in high end luxury cars the OEM infotainment systems are a joke.
And before someone chimes in and says “But Tesla,” please understand that a clean and stylish user interface does not make for a good user experience. Tesla put simple but important functions behind an interface that often requires multiple clicks to find what, in any other car, is a single button, knob, or stalk away. Buttons and knobs make for a better user experience and safer driving because they don’t require you to take your eyes off the road to navigate a menu.
IDK, that seems like a really reasonable question tbh.
I imagine there’s code to do something like currency conversion or maybe rewards points calculation so the displayed amount is not actually the number used for the final total
Deductions should also appear as a line item though.
Seems pretty straightforward and had a good resolution.
Well, except for when the Redditor went home and spread
liestechnically factual statements presented in a misleading manner and omitting key details with the apparent goal of damaging the reputation of the store despite being treated with kindness and fairness by the manager.Lies? What lies? They went home and said “I found this situation annoying.” How is that a lie?…
But I want to be outraged
🫂
7news is like that for ya. Lots of petty drama news.
I’ve come to realise at least half of the stuff posted on Reddit these days, especially more so on the popular subs, are all designed to make you angry.
It’s things like posting incorrect info in the title, posting a comic / image that’s been deliberately designed to get you angry, someone really wanting their 5 minutes of fame like this guy, or some post from some bigot.
It’s so tiring. Have started to notice it on Lemmy too.
Ragebait had become the new tactic to generate engagement for a while now.
Hopefully people will soon catch on and become fed up with it because I am sure this tactic has been one of the biggest contributing factors in polarizing people against each other and making politics so toxic.
Facebook has started to do that and… it’s fucking annoying that it works. Lots of bullshit demonising trans people pushed to me 10+ times a day.
The news aggregator communities tend to post the clickbait titles verbatim because it’s generally frowned upon to editorialize them. However a few users do put a proper heading or a short summary in the post body which I appreciate.
We have our share of drama llamas here as you know, but we also have pictures of !crows@lemmy.ml, !cat@lemmy.world, !superbowl@lemmy.world.
If you follow !toronto@lemmy.ca and !vancouver@lemmy.ca you will see my picture posts of various cityscapes.
Lastly, beehaw.org is a bit closed off from some instances but their server is a bit more chill outside of their politics community.
Drama seeker article on drama seeker redditor
What a garbage article. I assume this is a bit reporting, otherwise please don’t post crap like this from bad news sources.
This is just how it works in the US and Canada, though.
$1.50 scanned.
Your total is $1.65.
Would you like to make a donation to a children’s charity?
- $1
- $2
- $5
- (other)
Please select a tip percentage:
- 18%
- 20%
- 25%
- 100%
- (other)
They want a tip at self-serve? That’s ridiculous!
I’ve never seen a tip prompt at the self-serve.
Not yet!
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They’re making a joke.
I’m not USA, I can never be 100% sure.
Tempest in a teapot.
Did they call someone over when they saw the discrepancy? Because, you know, mistakes happen.
I frequently have something not scan, or not come up right. There’s a button for help, there’s always someone right there anyway, hell, had a clerk walk up and help when he noticed I hit the wrong button. They pay attention.
“I was annoyed”… That a system misreported something? If I was annoyed every time that happened I’d never not be annoyed.
What’s with this sudden “self checkout rage bait” this week? Who’s pushing what agenda?
I think people are far more invested in trying to find some conspiracy instead of accepting that mistakes happen, be it in code, pricing, whatever.
The closest thing to a fix is ensuring your local consumer laws say the sticker price prevails and call it out to a supervisor if you find an issue.
I don’t get the weirdness of the spike of self-checkout hate lately. There’s a lot of “I deserve to have a human scan items” takes that are bafflingly stupid.
Or it might be that Coles and Woolies are already under investigation for price gouging all while unsurprisingly posting record profits. Most Australians have felt the really quick rise of the cost of living, and are rightly skeptical of both supermarkets which basically hold a duopoly over Australian shops. They already do a bunch of sketchy shit, what’s to stop them from doing more?
You do realize that price gouging and profiteering is a completely different problem than showing/honoring correct prices?
If you’re going to mash all the worlds problems into a single mistake here, might as well blame them for global warming too.
Aight bud, that was to show why there’s already distrust towards both corporations. It’s not hard to see why people would be inclined to believe that Coles/Woolies are trying to fuck them over yet again.
Funnily enough humans have been scamming them at checkouts for decades. Adding stuff to the the scales for example, wrong fruit codes, lots of options.
There’s a lot of "I deserve to have a human scan items” takes that are bafflingly stupid.
I know, right? People should be glad that prices are rising while wages are stagnating and now having to do additional work to reduce cost and increase profits for corporations.
I also don’t get the entitled assholes in restaurants. You wan’t to be waited on? Just go up to the cook directly yourself and tell them what you want to eat. And then bring it to your table that you’ve cleaned up yourself. In fact, restaurants should get rid of cooks as well. Just go to the restaurant and cook your own meal, you lazy bastards!
So you’re a fan of continuing to support an occupation that has a high incidence rate of RSI because you want to stick it to the man and make someone swipe your bag of chips.
You do you. That’s… really hurting the corporation there.
I’m a fan of stores hiring even more cashiers and them working fewer hours (without a paycut, ofcourse; sonething like 4 day workweek) to spread out the workload and having more people employed and reducing the long lines.
I am a fan of not replacing all the cashiers with selfcheckouts.
I am a fan of putting mechanisms in place that reduce the incidence of RSI. Not to mention the fact that there are occupations with a high incidence of much much harsher illnesses and injuries etc.
I am a fan of people having more free time after they get off work instead of having to spend it waiting in line for someone to finally check their items out and then having to spend a long time doing it themselves.
And I never said it was to hurt corporations but that your comment sounded like bootlicking. But, yeah, I want cashiers because everyone only goes to the store for a single item. Nice strawman you got there.
I stand by my original observation about the anti-self-checkout arguments since my point is being proven lol
You do realize that the elderly and disabled people go shopping too, right?
How is your point being proven? Also, read my comment again, I edited some stuff. Might edit it some more later, IDK. I mean, your only argument seems to be “high incidence of RSI and people are lazy hurr durr.”
Did they call someone over when they saw the discrepancy? Because, you know, mistakes happen.
Not in software. The software is doing exactly what it was programmed to do.
So no software has ever glitched before and output a wrong result? What world do you live in?
Or a HUMAN forgot to update the pricing. 😱
Fact is, I see this all the time with stuff that’s labelled for sale. More than half the time I need a clerk to correct things that have a sale sticker and price on them at the grocery store, because that stuff changes daily.
If there’re two different items calculations one “real” one and “display” that’s an intentional choice made because they know there can be discrepancies.
Most likely an oversight.
The real question would be how did the clerk/store handle it when pointed out?
I’ve never once had a grocery store quibble over a discrepancy - they’ve always just overrode the price, right then, and went on with their day. At most taking a minute.
Compare that to before there were barcodes, and just price stickers on things (yes, I’m that old). This was a LOT more hassle.
Ever see a sitcom where the clerk is calling for a price check over the intercom? Yep, that’s what they used to do. Most of the time we’d tell them nevermind, don’t bother, because it took too damn long and there was a line of 3+ filled, large carts behind us…because checkout took forever as the clerk rang in, manually, every item. Pulled out their sheets to verify prices, code, etc.
Can’t be just an oversight. This has to be an intentional design decision. The “simple” (and economical) way to build this system is to build it so that the scan reads the price from a database and that price is then displayed and used to sum the total.
Keeping two prices, a display and a real one, is a design decision that adds a complexity to the system, makes it more difficult to administer and is an intentional design decision, especially if the numbers are allowed to differ.
A coupon not being applied correctly could be a mistake with that coupon. A sale not being taken into account, a problem with that sale or that UPC entry in the database. Those could be issues with data entry and data management.
This is different. This is intentional. And I’d bet, we’ve just found someone either cheating the tax man or embezzling funds.
Yep rounding errors occur, manual changes need to be inputted sometimes, display errors, sales mistakes. Nothing weird about that. In fact their policy probably has specific points to deal with discrepancies between list, scanned and total prices.
Ignoring the price discount on the mangos, the answer here is sales tax, right? Because otherwise it would be $15.70. It’s a bad design that tax amounts don’t show up on the itemized screen (but probably on the final screen after that).
Tell me if anyone knows for sure, otherwise I’m going to assume that’s the issue…
EDIT: Thank you folks, asked and answered! Then, I’m back to being very confused…
Only the US adds sales tax after the original price, everywhere else it’s included in the price on the shelf.
Not just the US, Canada is like this too.
Unfortunately. Should be all-in price.
Itemized prices should already include tax.
Total will also include tax.
But receipts will outline how much of the total was tax.
Source: am Australian
Doesn’t Australia include the tax in the listed price of the item instead of adding it at the end?
Yes it does
Every country except the US and Canada does this
Does Australia charge tax on groceries?
Depends on what it is.
But most raw food is tax free
The last 4 scanned items listed on screen but “5” items scanned. I’d dare say the fifth items that isn’t shown on screen accounts for the difference?
According to the article the mangos were on sale for a higher price than what showed up on the screen, it totaled them correct but there was a mistake with it saying .80 cents per mango. They gave them the mangos for free apparently and apologized. Same thing would have happened whether or not it was a self checkout or a person, the item was entered incorrectly into the system.
Always verify what you are buying.
There’s 2 mangoes.
We are living in the future!
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Got to give it to the Somali Pirates… That’s some next level marketing:
“This appears to be an isolated incident at our MacArthur Metro store, involving the clearance price of a batch of our Calypso Mangoes.”
