Most of the time, a transaction with a specific desired result at the grocery store goes smoothly… Then there is that time when EVERYTHING goes wrong and you are left standing at the register trying to figure out what to do. This happened to me last night at Kroger.
I was exhausted from taking my Mom to the airport at 4am and wanted to go to bed, but of course, we needed milk and I wanted to see what unadvertised Mega Event deals they had for you guys. It was 10pm and I was planning on 10 minutes in the store, 45 minutes later I get to the front and all they have are 2 self checkouts open. This always bugs me, as I do a lot of BIG shopping at night because I won’t have kids with me. Fine. I start checking my stuff out, sadly I only had a few coupons with me but it turned out better because I am not sure this trip could have taken a lot of coupon to deal with!
I was expecting a Tide catalina to print, I wanted to have it to take a picture for you. When I was done paying nothing printed out of the catalina machine. Upon further inspection, the “out of paper” light was blinking. AWESOME. I called over the lady managing the self check out. She didn’t know what to do. I suggested putting in new paper. Then I explained I was supposed to get a catalina, again she had no idea what to do. As she was trying to change the paper, I noticed on my receipt that NONE of the Mega Event items were the right price, rather the Mega Event $4 off each 10 did NOT come off. That was $16!
At this point there were now 10 people either checking out or waiting to check out, all at the self checkout. The one cashier was getting frazzled, so I kept telling her to help them and I could wait. One cashier who was not working but came in to buy something noticed she needed help and walked over to help her manage the self check outs (I thought that was nice!) he was also the same kid that checked us out when we were there for the EC show.
Now a regular manager shows up and I explain what happened. He gets the off – duty kid to show him how to refund me the Mega Event $16, we still can’t figure out why it didn’t come off. The nice cashier lady tried explaining to me how a Mega Event worked and that I didn’t buy in 10’s. I did, I kept nicely telling her, so check your receipts guys!
Then the manager hands me $2 in cash and says it is for the catalina. Now, I seriously did not want to be a pain in the butt, but I really wanted the catalina and not the cash. He looked at me like I was crazy, and tried explaining that he gave me cash, which I know is probably the more desired result! BUT I REALLY wanted to see the catalina! I suggested returning the Tide and ringing up the Tide again, but as I said it I realized I wouldn’t get the right price because it was a Mega Event item and I didn’t want them to have to return 10 items and ring 10 back up.
What a mess. I was irritated because many cashiers and managers never have any idea what to if something doesn’t ring up right. Especially with catalinas, you are better off calling the catalina company and taking care of it there. I have no idea why the mega event money didn’t come off, and I won’t be able to verify the Tide catalina without buying 10 more mega event items, which I will do for you guys this morning!
What can you do if your transaction gets messed up:
- Stay CALM!
- Ask for help
- Make sure it isn’t your error (I double and triple checked that I put in my Kroger number)
- Make sure the catalina event is still running
- Ask for a manager that can help you further if the cashier seems confused
- Ask to void the transaction and start over if you need to
- Have a store ad with you to verify prices
- Don’t worry about everyone behind you, if you need to, suspend that transaction and take your in question items up to the customer service counter
Catalina can be reached at 888-826-8766 and press 3. I have this number in my phone do I don’t forget to call if there is a problem. They can look up the transaction by receipt and clubcard number.
Things like this will happen, but for the most part everything goes smoothly!
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Tiffany, Thanks so much for this post. I also needed the reminder that I can call the Catalina company.
If I am not mistaken it is a Kroger policy if you check out and pay for it and the item has rung up wrong you will get the item FREE plus your money back. That’s how they are where I live.
A lot of people don’t know this, but my Fry’s in Arizona has a policy that says if the prices are wrong in the system (from what they say in the ad) when they ring up and you bring this to the attention of customer service or management you are to get that first item for free, and any other item that rings up wrong you get at 50%. I haven’t seen the actual policy in writing, but I was told by an employee that works at Fry’s a few years ago. So check your receipts after you check out and be sure to bring it to customer service. It has happened to me at several stores….but watch out they are sneaky and if you don’t know this policy they will only refund you the difference!
I have known about the refund for many years. However, just recently, two different stores rang up items incorrectly and I went to customer’s service to get the correct price. Each one started to give me the difference from what was rung up and the correct price. Each time I mentioned the full refund (no charge for first wrong ring up), the clerks behind the counter said “Oh that’s right, I forgot.” (They must have been mother and daughter – they used same phrase!). Each of the items were either on close out or clearance. The first was a mis-ring typed in by the checkout clerk (typed in $7.09, should have been $2.09). I got my money back and free food. The second was on a manager’s close out and the C.S. lady told me that this policy doesn’t apply to manager’s specials or close outs but she would do it this one time. Now I have to watch for correct prices on regular priced items, manager’s specials and close outs? This is just wrong. I believe she just didn’t want to be bothered but had to deal with me anyway.
Yesterday I made a trip to my friendly Kroger in Baytown where I purchased (1) Tide because I had a catalina for $1.50 off. With that purchase I recieved a $2 catalina for my next Tide purchase. Since Tide was still on sale I stopped by today; picked up a few more things and used my catalina for one more Tide…I now have a $3 catalina for my next visit …humm I may go back tomorrow 🙂 Blessings2all!
It was the clear top tide right?
I am so glad you posted this! It can be so hard to remain calm and polite instead of getting frustrated and rude when things go horribly wrong. If you are a good customer first and are always friendly and treat the cashiers and managers with respect, they’ll be happy to help you out when something like this happens. You may catch a few flies with vinegar, but you’ll catch a lot more with honey. 🙂
i have had so many problems at kroger’s that i dont really shop there anymore. they wont accept a coupon on a buy 1, get 1 free, if the coupon is more than the item half price (they split the price), they wont accept a coupon if it is more than the item, even if you tell them you dont want the money back, it can be just .o1 and still wont accept, i was to get 500 points for shopping, i was .02 from the amount needed and they would not accept it. i had over 25.00 dollars of coupons stolen out of my cart, the man was in a riding cart, stood up when my back was turned, took the coupons, i knew who it was b/c he had been following me around the store, kroger’s refused to do anything, the latest is the receipt did not print, i needed it for a rebate, i was in the store shopping for almost an hr, it took another 90 min. for the store mgr to try to get another receipt which he did not know how to do, i emailed kroger’s no response, i have found the best way to get a company to respond is post on facebook, if they are not willing to respond or help you…..and twitter as well. there have been more incidents, refused to write raincheck, said no one in store could do it, come back tmrw, i told them i lived 52 miles away rtrip, said sorry, no help.
Wow Sandy that is really bad. I wished you lived closer to another one that would treat you better. You are doing the right thing to try and make your store better but it sounds like there is just not anything you can do.
oh yes, i had trouble on a pepsi coupoun-it was supposed to be for one free litter and you could load it to your card. and when i was in the store the product rang up at it’s regular price. And on top of that the cashier was very nice about it. as if i was trying to swiddle the store on a bottle of pepsi.
The few times they’ve rang up items wrong and I took them to customer service, I got the entire amount back. It seems to happen a lot at kroger, so I’ve become an avid receipt checker before I even leave the store. Kind of a pain, but I’m not gonna complain about free groceries 😛