Cold Storage weighing machine that overcharges...

Shoppers, be warned! The weighing machines at Cold Storage outlets are not totally reliable as blogger Lucy Tan (Food Fuels Me To Talk) found out recently.

The one she went to at Chancery Lane overcharged her for a daikon. And she discovered it only because she had pre-weighed the white radish at the self-service machine.

Fortunately for her, she also happened to check her bill at the check-out counter and spotted the discrepany.

She has written to Alan Stephen Nementzik, a big shot in the company, to complain. Here's her letter:

"Dear Mr Nementzik:

It's been a while since I wrote to you. I've not been checking my Cold Storage bills over the months, mostly because there's always such a crush of people at CS outlets.

Also, I found that other places overcharge too and if I complained every time it happened, to every single shop, I would be doing nothing else!

However, very unfortunately for CS Chancery Lane, I saw a neighbour shopping there this afternoon and noticed she weighed all her mango purhases at the self-service weighing machine.

Since I wasn't buying much stuff this afternoon, I decided to emulate her and weighed the three or four items in my shopping list that were priced on a per 100 gm basis.

To cut a long story short, after I paid my bill, I noticed that the single daikon I bought was charged as one full kg ($5.40) when I distinctly remembered it as being well under 500gm when I pre-weighed.

I queried the cashier and she nonchantly said that's what the scanner showed. When I disagreed, she told another cashier to refund me. Which he duly did. And took back the daikon.

When I asked that he weighed it to prove that I wasn't mistaken, he did so. It weighed just 320gm. Then he asked whether I wanted to buy it. I said of course and I was charged $1.70!!!

Picture this to yourself: The $5.40 I was charged originally represents some 8% of my total bill. The difference between the actual price of $1.70 and what was charged originally is $3.70.

If all your customers are regularly overcharged some 5-6%, how much this must be adding to CS' profits? Even tho I've been overcharged elsewhere too, it just doesn't make it right to happen at CS, does it?

Yours sincerely
Lucy Tan"

Moral of the story: Make it a point to pre-weigh your purchases and check the figure against that on the bill at the check-out counter.