Undercharged... Did I need to be more persistent?

amother

Sun, Jan 02 2011, 10:48 pm

Ok, I went shopping this evening at a big chain supermarket. Just needed a few basics, including pareve milk which all my kids drink since we don't do dairy and I always buy by the case because we go through it so fast anyhow and then they give me a 10% discount for buying the case.

Ok, so I grabbed 8 boxes of milk from the shelf. 12 make a case, but they only had 8. Then I got my few other little items.

Went to the cashier. Told her I want to buy a case, but you only have 8 boxes of milk on the shelf. They checked the back, there was no more. So she said she'd give me the case discount anyhow. Which is very nice.

So she rings everything up, I slide my credit card through, and as she hands me the receipt it clicks in my mind that there is no way she rang up the sale right, because it was only about $18. The milk is $3.50 a box; $3.15 with the discount. So even just the milk alone without my other couple items should have been over $18. Sure enough, I look at the receipt she handed me and she only charged me $3.15. ONE box.

Well, I wanted to do the right thing. A chance to do a kiddush Hashem. And my little boy is with me, even more reason to do the right thing.

Well, when I told her she undercharged me, she insisted that she did not. I showed her the receipt and she still argued. I said flat out, "listen, you're letting me walk out of here with 8 boxes of milk for the price of 1!!! I'm trying to be honest here and pay for all my milk." The cashier just got more annoyed with me insisting I was wrong. She even offered me a rain-check to come pick up the remaining 4 boxes of the case when they get another delivery of the milk. OY! So now this no-brain cashier is trying to give me 4 more free boxes of milk. And she is totally annoyed with me for "not understanding."

Well at that point I had had it and just said okay, thank you, good evening. I really didn't want to have her call over the manager and get her into big trouble. But now I'm wondering if that would have been the right thing to do. Who knows how much free stuff she gives away every day. What would you have done in that situation???

toastedbagel

Mon, Jan 03 2011, 9:28 am

stuff like that happens to my father all the time and he always explains til he is blue in the face (although sometimes he catches them overcharging as well)
stuff like that happens to my sister too, and noone ever believes her
once it happened to her when I sent her shopping for some things for me, and on her way home while going over the receipt she saw that they hadn't charged for what I had asked her to pick up, a big electric frying pan (she bought quite a few larger size items/toys, which is prob how it was missed) - it was december 24th in the afternoon, the store was now closed, was staying closed for the next two days, the 25-26th, and the 27th I think was shabbos, and the sale would be over and it would be much more money, so I thought I might not be able to pay at the sale price and would be forced to pay the higher price, even though it was bought on a sale day.
I called our Rav.
he said:
if it was a jewish store I have to go pay the money because of stealing
if it is a non-Jewish store but it could be known/realized that a jewish person ended up with this uncharged for item, I have to go pay because of chillul hashem
If it is a non-Jewish store where they know me and my jewishness, or can understand that I am jewish, and it will make a Kiddush hashem if I go to pay even though they didn't and can't know about it, I should go to pay.
If it is just a chain store where I am the next person in line, not nec make a kiddush hashem as where I live ppl don't even know what jews are half the time, then I don't have to go back and pay.
Since it fell into the last category (it was from our equivalent of walmart), I had a free electric frying pan which serves me well.

Simple1

Mon, Jan 03 2011, 10:29 am

brooklyn wrote:

What is the diff if it is a jewish store or not, if you dont pay then it is stealing.

She didn't steal, the store made a mistake. (Ta-us Akum)
Personally I feel it's a big hassle to have to correct a mistake a store made, and the store on their own should let it go. In fact, if a store overcharges me, and it's just a few dollars, I don't bother to go back, it was hard for me to go even the first time around.