10 PENCE OVERCHARGES AT WAITROSE: Part 2

I know, I know, I know. It's only ten pence that I have been overcharged at Waitrose when redeeming Daily Mail vouchers but it should not have happened. And it may have happened to YOU! In my 24 August 2022 post, I reported on my experience. But it happened again and here is my cordial exchange of emails with Waitrose since then. If you have been similarly overcharged and you can prove it then you should be reimbursed. This is not a matter of discretion. It is a right.

 

Me to Waitrose

I refer to my message below.* Thereafter, you telephoned me to justify the charge of 10 pence on the ground that the cover price had increased by that amount and suggested the charge would only be made if I was purchasing an item other than the newspaper in the same transaction. It transpires that this was mainly nonsense. Yesterday, I was charged 10 pence without another cash purchase at your Havant store and today, in the same situation, no charge was made.

 

I have spoken to the Mail. I am assured that the charge should not have been made which can only mean that you have wrongly benefited by 10 pence on each of the transactions in question and my understanding is that this situation has arisen because you have failed to adjust all your tills at the branch to reflect the price change. It may well be that this failure relates to all your stores and that the aggregate overcharge nationally is substantial.

 

Will you undertake not to wrongfully demand 10 pence from me or any other of your other customers in the above situation in the future and will you explain why you misled me during our telephone conversation.

 

* I set out my original message of complaint

 

 

Waitrose to me  

I am sorry that you were unhappy with my explanation but, as the price of the newspaper was scanned at the checkout the price was shown as 90p which is 10p more that you voucher you produced so you would have been charged the 10p. 

I am sorry that you misunderstood my communication and I do hope that you will accept my apologies for this. 

 

Me to Waitrose 

Thank you for your most economical message. Would you now please do me the courtesy of answering most of the matters I raised in my message of 08 September 2020 which you have ignored: in particular, I seek to know why you are making a charge that is apparently unlawful when you know or should know that you will be reimbursed by the publisher for the 10pence inclusive value of the tokens; why you have not adjusted all your tills; what you intend to do about reimbursement of overcharged amounts; and what you say about the undertakings to which I referred. If you are not prepared to personally respond, please pass this matter to your CEO and /or legal department.    

 

Waitrose to me

 

Thank you for your further email, I have spoken with our technical team in relation to you being charged for the extra 10p, They have advised that a till refresh should have been activated to resolve this problem on Saturday 10th but after speaking with the Havant branch this may have been unsuccessful so this resulted in you being charged the extra 10p. I have spoken with the branch and requested that they report this issue and get this resolved. so this does not happen again.  The branch are also able to arrange an additional coupon manually to prevent you from paying the extra amount. I have arranged to sent you a £15 gift card as a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused and this will be sent via email and will be with you within the next 24-48 hours.

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how I've dealt with your Case. Your comments are really valuable to us and if you'd like to share your views, please click on the following link to take part in our quick survey (link provided).

 

Me to Waitrose

 

Thank you. For the avoidance of any doubt, I was overcharged more than once and I think on different tills but I cannot be absolutely certain on that point. I will, of course, accept your very reasonable gesture but I must make it clear that I did not embark on this complaint for personal financial gain but to ensure that right was done for me and your other customers who, like me, have been wrongly overcharged and it is on this latter point that I must dwell. Will other wrongly overcharged customers at all your branches be reimbursed for the overcharge and what steps are being taken to ensure that this does not happen at other branches?

 

Waitrose to me 

Thank you for your email, my colleague is out of the office today, I hope you don't mind me replying on her behalf. I am sorry to hear of your recent experience, I can see that my colleague has been in contact with our technical team who have been refreshing the till software to ensure that this does not happen again. Once again thank you for taking the time to contact us and we do look forward to seeing you again soon.

 

Me to Waitrose 

Come off it! You have not answered my question as to whether or not you will reimburse those other customers you have wrongly overcharged. Let’s have a straight answer to that straight question, please, and no more evasion. Also, I assume that it is the tills at all branches of Waitrose that are being corrected where necessary. Otherwise, thank you for communicating and my commiserations on having to pick this up.

 

Waitrose to me 

Thank you for you further email. I am afraid that I am unable to answer the question with regards to other customers being refunded. It is quite possible that the branches would have used their discretion in refunding customers if this overcharge happened. I have been advised that this overcharge should not happen again as all tills have been updated to reflect the price increase when the coupon is presented.