The sales week at the Hillmomba Country Mart starts on Wednesday. I check out the new items online. Mainly to see if I can get Farmer H's Diet Mountain Dew at a price less than $4.33 per six-pack of 16 oz bottles. That's outrageous! Even Farmer H doesn't want to pay that. It's cheaper than buying one bottle at Casey's with his donuts, but that's different...
Anyhoo... his soda is still 3-for-$10, which is their next-to-cheapest offer on it. Sometimes I can grab it 3-for-$9. Also on the sale this week was SLAW and potato salad. Of course I buy slaw there. It's usually about $3.79. Yes. The prices are high, but it beats the price of gas to drive to the Devil's Playground and limp myself around for slaw that's less tasty. I also like the Red Skin Potato Salad. It's not mustard-based like my homemade kind, but more mayonnaise and garlic flavored.
Anyhoo... the online ad said the slaw and potato salad of this brand I always get were on sale for $2.50 each. When I got to the open cooler trough at the back of the store, I peered inside and saw my targets. Taped to the back of the trough were bright red signs signifying the sales, listing This Brand Slaw for $2.50, This Brand Mustard Potato Salad for $2.50, and This Brand Potato Salad for $2.50. Regular $3.79 was on all the red signs.
I got my slaw, after checking the dates. You gotta watch them here! Then I sought out my Red Skin Potato Salad. The store sticker on the top said $4.79! That had to be a mistake! I never pay that for it. It's always the same as the slaw. I figured it didn't matter anyway, because even though the slaw had a store sticker for $3.79, it was clearly on sale, as per the ad and the red signs.
You know what happened, right? I paid and took my groceries home and then got to looking at the receipt:
They had charged me $4.79 for the Red Skin Potato Salad! The sale started on the 3rd, and you can see that they gave me the sale price on the slaw. It was not a cashier error, because all they do is scan the items. So something was up with the register not reading the sale price. I was NOT happy!
This is a picture of the receipt I took on Saturday, when I was back to buy more of Hick's soda. I blocked out the town and phone number and actual name of the store using Paint later.
After I checked out with that nice little Potato/Tomato Dude, I asked him about my receipt.
"On Thursday, I bought the potato salad on sale, and was charged the regular price. What can I do about that?"
"Oh. I don't know. I really don't know."
"Is there somebody here I could talk to?"
"I don't know who that would be. I'm sorry."
"I'll just try over here at the service desk."
Seriously. They need to train that little guy a bit more! The service desk lady was ringing up an employee purchase for the other cashier who was taking a break. They got it done without extra chit-chat so she could see what my problem was, heh, heh.
"Here's my receipt from Thursday. I thought I was buying the potato salad on sale, but I got charged the regular price. In fact, I think it's higher than the regular price usually is."
"Let's see. Huh. So you thought it was the $2.50?"
"Yes. That's what the ad said online, and the signs at the back where I got it."
"Was it the Red Skin Potato Salad?"
"Yes! It WAS the Red Skin Potato Salad."
"They usually don't put that on sale."
"Oh. Well. There wasn't a sign actually saying RED SKIN. Just a general Potato Salad, and a Mustard Potato Salad. Next time I'll know."
"I'm going to give you a refund."
"Oh, I don't want it if I'm not due a refund. I just thought it was on sale. Nothing said it was excluded."
"I know! They do that, and then people come back asking why they got overcharged. It's very deceptive. I don't think it's right. I'm giving you a refund."
"Thank you! Everyone is so nice here!"
"Oh, thank you. That means a lot. Now, here is $2.42 cents back."
"I feel bad. I made a big deal about this refund, and now I'm going to go over and put it in the lottery machine!"
"Are those bills good enough? Do you need better ones?"
"They look fine. Thank you! Next time I'll ask the price on that potato salad before I have them scan it."
Well. Unless I have that Potato/Tomato Dude.
4 comments:
You know, you blacked out part of the receipt, but if someone was frothing at the mouth to take one of your tours, they had lost their flyer and were trying to track you down, the store number would help them out. Then they could check all the store numbers that claim "hometown fresh" and then they could start driving aimlessly around, on all the six-lane and four-lane and two-lane highways and all the country roads... and then they would probably STILL be looking for your estate...
Be more careful next time. Black out ALL the identifying details. People these days are desperate for entertainment...
Sioux,
Thanks so much for giving that idea to people it might never have occurred to, Madam! You're a peach. A peach that might be returned to the fruit stand, and result in the buyer being banned from further peach purchases...
I remember checking sales catalogues and often enough when a sale was only on certain items, the fine print would read "excluding..whatever wasn't included" and we cashiers would keep a copy handy to show customers who queried the prices. Usually for things like salads there was only one type or brand of potato salad or coleslaw anyway.
I'm glad you got a refund, did you get any luck by putting it in the lottery machine?
River,
They ARE deceptive at this store. I ALWAYS check the dates on the sale items, too. A couple weeks ago the pickle brand on sale had BEST BY dates in 2020! They were probably still okay, being pickles, but I know it's against the law to sell outdated items in your country.
I added a dollar two those two refund dollars, and bought a $3 ticket. It won $3. So I can play again!
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