Do-it-yourself bankruptcy

A big difference like that is easy to notice. It's the smaller discrepancies that are more likely to slip through unnoticed, like the thing you picked up because it appeared to be on special offer but you got charged the full price. I try to make a habit of getting a receipt and checking through it before leaving the shop. 🧐

I always get a receipt, but I don't always check it, and usually not before I get home, unless there is something clearly out of order. Every time I have checked, it has always been correct. I am always astounded that people do not always take a receipt, even more so for a charged purchase. ATMs often have a littering of discarded receipts scattered around on the floor. Machines do make mistakes, and they are much harder to complain about if you have no paperwork.

That's the common overcharging method. Although buy one get one free now seems to have been banned for some items I've had quite a few instances where what is displayed on the shelf is not the same as charged at the tills.

The big problem that I've seen in some retailers is with the contactless card reader where the card is read at the top of the machine. The retailer has the screen with the amount facing them and just presents the top back of the machine the customer. Worse is when the amount is typed in by the shop assistant and then hand held presented to the customer with the shop assistant covering the display. Most people seem to trust that the displayed amount is correct and just wave their card in the general direction of the card reader.

That only came into force this month ...

Website seems to be struggling at the moment ...

Lidl gives you a digital receipt - saves a lot of messing about, especially for returning things. So far, no problems with overcharging, or applying the layers of discounts.

Sainsbury's doesn't. But I had to take something back the other day, and had lost the receipt. In fairness they did offer a gift voucher, but in the event, as I'd used the Nectar card, they had a record of the purchase and credited my bank account.

I think this outlines the 'specified foods' affected:

HFSS = products high in fat, sugar or salt.

As a matter of interest, I was looking at the wine in Sainsbury's. There were a couple of special offers. One wine was offered "at Aldi price" and one as "Nectar Price". But there were a couple of wines labelled with a price with a "Part of Buy any 3 and get 25% off offer".

I didn't bother looking for what else was in the "Buy any 3" collection (I only wanted 1 bottle) but is the labelling I saw a "relevant special offer" as 5(3) which is permitted, or a multibuy offer not allowed under

What is wrong with multibuys anyway? For non-perishables it made it a longer interval before replenishing, and for perishables it would be one for today and one for the freezer (or 2 for the freezer if it was a "3 for the price of 2" offer). Either way, I got a better price for my multibuy than 2 (or 3) x single-price, so why am I being punished by this law update?

Finally, if the shop took 3 identical bottles of wine, tied them together with a band printed with "[wine name] Multipack, and priced it at a price which is 3xsingle-25% as the multipack price, is it then legal to sell it as a single item? After all, cans of lager are normally sold in supermarkets in packs of 4 or 6, so why not wine? And can wine shops continue to advertise "A case of mixed red wines"?

I would be interested in what others think.

Jim

But, you need a paper one to exit through the gate after the "scan it yourself" area

How do you receive this digital receipt if you have no 'smart' device on you, or you cannot remember your e-mail address?

I've not been "imprisoned" by one of those barriers yet, I hope one of them doesn't catch me in a bad mood ...

The buy one get one free is often not what it seems. The total price of a BOGOF in one supermarket is often exactly the same price that another supermarket charges for two off of the same item, but priced as single items. It's much the same as some supermarkets charging, say, £2 for a single punnet of fruit but then offer buy 2 for £3 whereas most other retailers are selling the punnet for £1.50 or less.

See my post above - 'specified foods' is what you should be looking for.

Some people are drawn to such offers, and that makes them consume more bad food/drink. In Scotland shop-bought alcohol went down by millions of litres a year when multiple product discounts were banned.

Yes.

Only if you are comparing the price in that one supermarket. You would probably find that the price of the single item elsewhere was your offer price divided by 3.

I tend not to enter a Tesco these days but have noticed on the rare occasions when I do go in that they price certain items at a ridiculously high price but then offer a large discount for loyalty card carrying customers. I guess may people that shop only at Tesco have little knowledge of prices charged elsewhere and erroneously believe that they are saving money with their club card discounts.

Blimey. Not reached my Sheffield shop yet, thankfully.

I'm surprised you can't scan your way out of your local Lidl. The receipts appear in the app almost instantly.

Ah yes, good point. You need their app. So in those cases, you can't.

If you opt for a digital receipt in my local Lidl the self service tills just give you a small payment receipt where one line says you paid for x items. The detailed breakdown of the items purchased, prices etc. are in the app on the smartphone.

If no mobile smart phone then no digital receipt and you get a paper receipt. It's the app on the smart phone that gives you the option to request a digital receipt. If you don't opt in to digital receipts on the smart phone you get a paper receipt. If you don't have the smart phone app the you probably get no offers such as spend £250 a calendar month and get 10% your next shop (valid for around a week or less). Often, via the app, Lidl target discounts on what you buy regularly. My last offer was 15% off the 2 litres of milk I buy on a regular basis.

Lidl don't offer a digital receipt via email.

It can be even worse than that. I have seen a "buy one, get one free" offer where the price per given weight for a larger size works out cheaper than for the offer.