Two supermarkets to give free products for cash register pricing errors under new deal
Shoppers who find a pricing error on their receipt at Nettorama or Hoogvliet will now get the product for free or receive a voucher, under new agreements Dutch consumer association Consumentenbond reached with the supermarket chains, the association reports.
The move follows repeated complaints about incorrect prices appearing on receipts. The Consumentenbond warned in April, after conducting a sample check, that several supermarkets were listing items incorrectly. The companies promised improvements, but when the association reviewed prices again in August, it found that special-offer items at Nettorama, Hoogvliet and DekaMarkt were still often entered incorrectly.
“Because we saw too little improvement at Nettorama, Hoogvliet and DekaMarkt, we ordered them to stop the receipt errors and held them liable for the damage consumers suffer,” Consumentenbond director Sandra Molenaar said. “Based on that, we made further agreements, such as a price guarantee.”
The supermarkets also pledged to hire external mystery shoppers to monitor pricing. Hoogvliet, which has stores in Den Bosch and Hedel that previously relied heavily on paper advertising signs, has now installed numerous electronic shelf labels meant to display accurate prices automatically.
The Consumentenbond had earlier identified similar receipt errors at larger chains such as Jumbo, Albert Heijn and PLUS. According to the association, such mistakes now hardly occur at those companies.
Earlier this year, it became public that Jumbo, Albert Heijn and PLUS jointly donated 1.8 million euros to charities as a symbolic repayment for receipt errors made in the past. Nettorama, Hoogvliet and DekaMarkt have not yet made such a gesture. “We will discuss that with them,” Molenaar said.
