25 June 2008

Buyer Beware

I went shopping in the Sogo Food Hall at Plaza Indonesia (the photo is of the Plaza Senayan Sogo though) earlier this evening on my way home from a meeting in the Grand Hyatt. Shopping is usually me walking in with a shopping list and leaving via the check out with most of the stuff on the shopping list and a whole lot of stuff that was not!

Anyway, the caveat emptor or buyer beware angle is make sure you are paying attention at the check out when the goods are being scanned.

I picked up some tuna in a can (Greenseas) and some Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Now, I am pretty good at knowing when stuff is cheap or on special. My mum has taught me well. Once I had gone through the check out and paid using the trusty old credit card. I thought the bill seemed a little expensive but still around where I thought it might be. I checked the print out and the tuna was more than 7,000 rupes more than the tag on the shelf and the bitter lemon was more than 2,000 more expensive than the advertised price. By this stage I was already in the taxi and getting ready to make a b-line home.

The moral of this story -- stay aware!

8 comments:

Rishardana said...

This happened several time to me. In Supermarket like Giant and Hero, once I bought a khong guan biscuit and they count it twice. Uncool.

I haven't had any problem in Carrefour though. They're quite quick updating the prices on the shelf and the counter.

rimafauzi said...

wow, and this happened in SOGO.
But hey.. what do you expect Rob, it is Indonesia. The corruption mentality capital of Asia.

Rob Baiton said...

Rishardana...

It has probably happened to me many times before and it was just yesterday I was having a moment or something!

The double swiping of goods is a common one. But it is one I do not understand because the cashier gets nothing from it!

Rima...

Although this might be fairly construed as corruption, I think it is more to do with laziness and arrogance.

Simply, the store cannot be bothered (laziness) and the store does not care (arrogance).

Oh well!

Rishardana said...

Pak Rob, I was wondering about the benefit for the cashier too, unless they got commission out of the number of transaction they handled everyday, hm ...

Anyway, I also got a tip from someone working in a reputable bank in here. He asked me to beware of doing transaction using debit card in a vendor.

Because they would often count the transaction twice or swapping the debit card twice saying the first didn't get through.

Although we could always claim the money back, but it will need 20 more days, and I could imagine they got some profit out of the many transactions that weren't claimed and from the interest in the 20 or so days.

Anyways :) maybe not all supermarket and vendor in here are doing it but better be careful I guess.

Finally Woken said...

Yep, always check before you leave. The laziness is also for us the customers; we're too proud to go back and fight for our right (7,000? ah, I can afford to loose it), and too lazy to argue (just for 7,000?).

I usually protest if my change is not right, even if it's only Rp 100 short or if they give me candies rather than money. I keep saying to the cashier, 100rupiahs x 1,000 customers x 30 days x 12 months means 36 millions, tax free goes to owner's pocket. All it takes is keep having 100 change short from each customer! Or is it ok if I pay them with candies rather than money. Usually s/he won't argue but pouts and does what s/he have to. Bastard.

Rob Baiton said...

Anita...

I am glad I have finally written something that you wanted to comment on.

Yep, point taken on "we" the customers being too lazy to check or not being bothered to go back and endure the hassle.

On the lolly front...the math makes for a good argument! I ussually say similar things without the math and when not even the lollies are forthcoming I usually mutter something about stealing. This usually garners a response.

Rishardana...

Not just debit cards also credit cards! Scary prospect!

Bram Adimas said...

that's bad enough for plasa senayan. i thought it was the upper-class shopping centre, but they could provide such a tservice.

Rob Baiton said...

AB...

Does not matter what level of shopping class we are talking about...it is across the board!