Is This Stealing?
I was talking to a friend the other day when she told me an interesting story. 
My friend pressed the finish checkout button, saw her total was around $7 (she had gotten two pizzas that were on sale 3/$10) and continued checking out. She paid, grabbed her bags and left.
Do you see anything wrong with that scenario? Instead of correcting the price of the ice cream to the sale price, the clerk removed the ice cream completely. My friend didn’t get charged at all for the ice cream.
I asked her what she did when she realized that she didn’t get charged, and she told me she didn’t do anything. It was the clerk who made the mistake.
Now, I have an opinion on whether or not this is right but I don’t want to share because I want you to tell me your opinion without being swayed.
What do you think: is this stealing, or did my friend do the right thing by blaming the clerk?
image from ulterior_epicure
Many stores have a policy that if an item rings up incorrectly you get it for free (up to a certain amount), so that may be why she didn’t get charged for the ice cream. In fact, this is actually the law in some states.
Assuming this isn’t the case, I would say unless she didn’t notice it until after she left the store, this is stealing. In either case I’d say she should go to the customer service desk on her next visit and offer to pay for the item. They’ll likely tell her not to worry about it, and she will have a clear conscience about the thing.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
BillyOceansEleven- I didn’t even think about that! Great point.
I think your solution here is awesome!
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If she was aware of the error I consider it stealing. At least that is what I told my kids when something like this happened and they were whining as we headed back to the store to pay. Now, I realize this is a small thing but stealing is stealing. I am only responsible for my own actions and I could not justify taking something I knew I had not paid for just because of somebody else’s mistake. Plus I got to set a great example for my kids.
I have debated this idea with some friends a few times. I am also adamant about returning the change if a clerk gives me back too much. I would expect them to reopen the drawer if they shorted me so why wouldn’t I give them back the excess? It amazes me how people justify taking/keeping something that isn’t rightfully theirs.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Tia- I agree. I work at a bank and if we give out too much money, we get in trouble. We definitely appreciate the people that bring it back when that happens!
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I would say that the clerk was just following procedure. If an item doesn’t ring up correctly at our local grocery stores, then the item is free. I probably would have questioned the clerk if I was not sure of the protocol.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Catherine- I hadn’t even thought of that. I’m glad you guys pointed it out!
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I wouldn’t call it “stealing,” but at the same time, I’m not sure that it’s right not to at least question the clerk about it.
On the other hand, the other day a clerk rang up my asparagus as green onion and I let it slide. Hey, asparagus is expensive! =/
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Vee- I would have at least questioned it too.
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I’ve also heard that if a price scans incorrectly the item will be free. That’s another great reason to keep an eye on the price that pops up.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Michele- I think that may have been the case. The next time I go to the store that she went to I’m going to ask what the policy is.
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In many stores, if a product rings up at the wrong price the customer then gets it for free. I’m not sure why your friend didn’t speak up and ask, but if that was the case, it wasn’t stealing.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Annette- I didn’t even think of that when I wrote this. I think she should have at least questioned it to be safe though.
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I agree with Catherine and Annette that, if the store policy kicks in because the item rang up wrong, then it’s OK. However, we don’t have that information. If that is not the case, then, yes, this was stealing if she realized what had happened.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Sage- I am going to find out from the store she went to myself what the policy is. I think she should have at least questioned it to find out so she was sure it wasn’t an error.
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I’ve been programmed with an anti-lie personality — even lies of omission are not possible! As such, I definitely would have pointed it out at least. Perhaps the clerk would have mentioned the policy is that the item is free if you point out an incorrect price, but like Sage says, you don’t know that in this case because the question wasn’t asked.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
RainyDaySaver- I agree! I cannot lie either. I would have asked the clerk too. Better safe than sorry!
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If the clerk ‘corrected’ the price for her and put in $0, then I don’t think this is stealing. She asked for assistance from someone who worked in the store. The assistant is the one who didn’t want to take the time to find out the sale price, and instead allowed your friend to get the item for free. This might be store policy, but I’m guessing that the clerk was too busy to walk to the freezer section!
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Little House- I think she removed it entirely. I am going to have to find out now if that’s the store policy. I’m too curious!
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Some stores have a policy that if it rings up wrong, it’s free. Maybe the store has that policy?
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
me in millions- I’m going to have to find out. Now I’m too curious!
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The way it works at the stores I shop – if the cashier catches the mistake and corrects it, no “free” item. But if I find the mistake on my receipt and go to customer service, then I get the item free. Now here comes the ethical part… if I *see* that the item rang up, because I try to watch the prices as they go by, and I don’t point it out, but wait to go to customer service, is THAT stealing? Because sometimes with the store “rewards” card the item discount doesn’t show up until the bottom, so it’s kind of hard to tell until I have the receipt in my hand. One time I was undercharged for meat and I didn’t want to short the store so I went to customer service and the clerk was baffled. She didn’t know what to do, and basically just waved me out of the store like she didn’t want to be bothered.
The other thing, about the store giving the item for free – I think it’s supposed to be like a “reward” for showing the store that their scanner is wrong, because if they go back right now and change the item information then the rest of that product priced wrong will get scan correctly. Otherwise they are losing out on money, or charging too much. The store probably cares less about overcharging though. ;-) But I have gone back to a store week after week getting an item free that was scanning wrong again and again. I told the lady at customer service this had happened several times, she didn’t seem to care. But at most stores they make the change immediately.
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BillyOceansEleven Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I’d say it isn’t stealing since this behavior is encouraged by the way their policy is written/applied. If the cashier doesn’t catch the mistake based on their policy you should get it for free, and the idea that if you point it out to them at the point of sale the policy doesn’t apply is stupid. You still caught the error, not the cashier, and if you need to keep your mouth shut until you get to customer service so be it. Also consider that if you have the cashier correct it (no free item) there is no incentive for them to correct the error and other less observant customers will likely be overcharged. If you bring it to customer service and make them give it to you free, they’ll consider fixing the price in the system to keep from having to give the item away again.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Mrs. A & BillyOceansEleven- I agree with this! It is interesting to see what different stores do. I’m going to have to pay closer attention to their policies!
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If I didn’t notice in the store, not stealing. Noticing t the register…not so cool. Isn’t it the same s getting more change than what one is owed? Is that stealing? Yes, if you don’t speak up when you notice it.
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Mrs Money Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 10:40 am
wifeish- I agree!
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