Watch Out for Walgreens
Several weeks ago, I was in Walgreens to pick up a prescription. I grabbed a couple of other items including three packages of store brand cough drops. There was a big yellow sign on the cough drop display indicating that they were on sale at three packages for two dollars. The regular price was $0.99 per bag, meaning that I would save about a dollar.
After paying at the checkout I glanced at my receipt and noticed that I had been charged the regular price, not the sale price. I immediately protested but she had already started to ring up the next customer and I had to go. I did tell her that I felt Walgreens had stolen money from me just the same as if I had reached into the cash drawer and grabbed a handful of bills.
When I got home I went to the Walgreens website and filed a complaint. It took about a week, but I eventually received a phone call from the store manager. He apologized profusely. I said I didn't care so much about the apology, that what I wanted was some assurance that I could shop at Walgreens without fear that I would be ripped off again. I used the 'you are stealing from me' analogy yet again. All he could or would do was waffle and apologize. He offered no solution.
The problem of course is the automated scanning system. That sale had expired and the scanning system had reverted to the original price automatically but the store had not removed the sale promotion sign.
Lets think about this for a minute. Suppose they left the sale sign up one day too long and that 10 people were encouraged to buy cough drops. Each one was ripped off for $1.00. Let's say that two of the 10 noticed the mistake and got their dollar back, each waiting between 5 and 10 extra minutes for the manager to show up and make the correction. That means that the store pocketed (read stole) $8.00 that they were not entitled to.
There are 34 Walgreens locations in my county phone book. $8.00 times 34 stores is $272.00. Walgreen's has about 6000 stores nationwide so $8.00 times 6000 is $48,000. If this error occurred on one item per week per store it would generate $2,496,000 in undeserved revenue per year. I suspect that my estimate is extremely low and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the amount is 10 times $2.5 million per year.
Excerpt from the "Walgreens Creed":
"We believe that honest goods can be sold to honest people by honest methods. "
They have an interesting take on honesty.
Yesterday, I went to the same Walgreens again to pick up a prescription. I picked up a few other items. On checking out, I thought the total was a bit high so once again I checked my receipt. They had scanned the most expensive item ($6.00) twice. This time I stayed and got it corrected.
I do the grocery shopping for my family. This amounts to several hundred items per week bought in two or three separate transactions. I am vigilant in watching as the prices go up on the screen and I check my receipt to make sure that sale items ring up correctly. I rarely see errors like this at the grocery store.
Let me make clear that my ire is not directed at a simple mistake. We are human and we all make them. My ire is directed at the utter indifference displayed by management and their inability to offer even the suggestion that they will try to correct this problem.
I will close with this question. Were I to be caught stealing $8.00 worth of merchandise at Walgreens, do you think I would get off with an apology?
Remember, check your receipts, those dollars add up.
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Comments: 24
It seems the scanners were fine, the cough drop sale was technically over, but the employees that were in charge of maintaining the signs dropped the ball and did not change them. When I worked at a grocery store that happened to us from time to time. We would apologize and make a bee-line for that sign to see that it was taken down. Scanning an item twice is also a matter of human error, as is getting the wrong change. If different stores, managers, and staff continue to make mistakes that make the company appear unethical or dishonest it would best suit their mission to retrain these individuals or find new people better capable of accuracy.
They corrected the mistake and after I e-mailed them a letter, I got a telephone call from the store manger who apologized for the incident.
The first time it was a mistake. It is simply a matter of good management to insure that sale promotions are removed in a timely manner. It is correctable.
Try walking out with something you did not pay for and see if "sorry, it was just a mistake" works for you.
I usually get 1 or 2 items a year for free.
Here is how to fix the problem. Put an expiration date on all the sale placards. Tell customers that if they find a placard on the shelf after the expiration date that they can bring it to the front of the store and it will be treated as a $1.00 off any purchase coupon. Problem solved.
I am not convinced that they want to correct this. I think leaving those signs up a day too long generates millions in additional revenue and most people don't ever notice they have been screwed.
If the phrase 'False Advertising' is used with the store employee, it usually gets results more quickly. And some stores say they will give the item free if it rings up wrong. If the sale sign has not been removed, the item price in the computer is wrong unless it still says the sale price. Some employees will argue with this, but they are wrong if they do.
Now if the price was wrong due to a expired tag then they do owe you a refund. Heck, I work retail and we'd honor the price or give back the difference with an apology. There are people that will check it, although my wife is a lot better at it than I am! I wouldn't doubt there are businesses out there in all of retail that take advantage of customers. Most people may not notice or not care. If the store doesn't take the tags down intentionally, then that's wrong and illegal.
On the other hand, I can personally say that some tags are going to get missed in any store in retail, either through unintentional negligence (they missed it when they pulled the old ones) or because it's in an odd spot and may be missed. Nobody's perfect. The $1 coupon may be a good idea but even if you have a good crew something will be missed although the $1 idea provides incentive. The employee pulling the sign may have missed it and the manager missed the sign when walking through the store. That is human error.
I don't think blaming the store's management is the right thing, unless they have a lot of tags that stay up due to indifference or inaction. I can't see most managers saying 'hey, let's leave it up and screw the customer so the store/business can get richer'. The store manager can take action, but as I said above it won't be 100% perfect.
Just my 2 cents on the issue...
I also took a moment to compliment the staff of his pharmacy. They helped me resolve a problem with a prescription. They were not responsible for the problem but their able and willing assistance helped to get the problem resolved promptly.
It is important to speak up when you are dissatisfied with good reason. It is equally important to be equally as vocal when you receive service that is exemplary.
I have worked in customer service and sales management for nearly 25 years. I want to hear from customers that are dissatisfied with good reason. I cannot correct a problem that I do not know about and I do want to correct problems that lead to dissatisfied customers. I also want to hear about what we do well and I readily share positive feedback with those that have earned it. When it comes to our work most of us want to be noticed for what we do right as readily as we are chastised for what we do wrong.
Thanks to all that have commented. Be vigilent, pay attention.
Where there are humans working, there are going to be errors. Next time pay attention. Be more vigilent. lol
Don't get me wrong. I totally agree that something should have been said so that the problem could be corrected, but to say they 'ripped you off' or insinuating they were being 'dishonest' ...or they 'stole from you' when it was merely human error was a bit much.
You go from being pissed off about their indifference and accepting the incident as being human error. But as you respond to the comments you seem to you actually think they were ripping you off. If you were that bent out of shape about the cough drop error, then why didn't you stick around until the other lady was finished checking out. You should have stayed there and brought the problem to the store manager RIGHT THEN. You would have gotten your apology and money back or given the opportunity to return everything. Don't automatically jump to conclusions that you're being screwed.
Customers have a responsibilty too.
Because i was on my way to an event for which I needed to be on time.
"....when it was merely human error was a bit much. "
We do not know if it was human error, deliberateness, laziness or negligence. Nor do we know if there is a procedure in place to minimize or prevent these mistakes.
I also have to point out - Walgreens - ALL of the Walgreens stores, hire as few people as possible. The cashiers, besides dealing with customers, checking prices, etc, also have to stock large portions of the store, face the store, take down and put up advertisements, check expiration dates, keep track of what we're running low of, retrieve carts from the parking lot, vacuum, take out the trash, organize credit/debit/coupon receipts, and put back all of the returned items. Hell, today, not only was I on register one, but I was also running the photo department! Its a lot of work for not very much money. No one can be perfect, and you're expecting it of a store that is so cheap that they won't hire people specifically for stocking.