Target: Paying $4 Million for Overcharging Customers (Mostly Due to Expired Shelf Tags)
Yikes! Target is paying a whopping $4 million for overcharging customers. Apparently, Target has been caught charging customers more at the register than the posted price on the shelf due to expired shelf tags that were not been removed. Click here for more information.
Have you experienced this when shopping at Target or other stores? If so, did you catch the mistake in store and how did you handle it?
(Thanks, Ben!)
Usually I’m vigilant about my prices. I’ve been overcharged many times. When I tell cashier they always check and adjust the price. But I wonder how many times I’m in a rush and forget or how often my husband is overcharged. They’re really not getting good press lately. Between the credit cards being compromised and now this, I’m sure they’re losing business.
I have shopped at target for years. The price tags listed on items were not the price I was charged at the register. I have brought in coupons to discount items and the have not scanned them. They were slid to the side thinking I would not notice. I am a very thrifty shopper but I have limited my shopping at target for these reasons alone. I do believe we all should be reimbursed.
If I have a deal that’s really complicated I head straight to the service desk. This includes cartwheel substitutes and price matching as well as some complicated stacks.
Normally the regular cashiers do alright but I find they don’t get enough training on coupons or their own ads so it saves a headache.
I also double check the reciepts, out of the way, before I go.
Having worked retail I know there are plenty of steps where something can get mucked up and plenty of customers who switch signs and will put clearance tickets on none clearance items so I scan everything outside of the norm. The out of date labels are either poor team leads or lack of training or staff. It’s easy to prevent most labeling mistakes and just as easy to fix them.
In the end it’s my money so I make sure I leave with everything correct, which is not easy with 2 small kids but that’s life. 🙂 Hang in there fellow deal shoppers!
I have had mistakes occure, but at this point in the game (I have learned so much from Hip2Save that its hard to get one past me..LOL) I know what is supposed to happen. occasionally, a cashier is trying to be too fast, or a price doesnt come up right.. I generally take care of it right then and there. I’ll have them call a manager if I have to. I do have to say, I have ALWAYS had the problem resolved one way or another. When it comes to Cartwheels…I always take care of them at the customer service desk since it doesnt show up until I have the reciept. Customer service always takes care of it. All in all…I find that Target is by far the best at resolving problems. I was there today and the origional, pre coupon price was $97…left the store paying $33. I’m completely fine with that for what I purchased. I pray this incident doesnt cause them too many problems. I havent read the story yet, but tbh…I doubt there was cause to sue the store. It was probaby a lawyer using a class act suit and the lawyer will be the only one to benefit. All other parties involved will get a $5 check and he’ll walk away withe $3 Million. Its sad..
I got some products that were buy 2 get one free, and the free one did not come off. I caught it and she ended up taking off the most expensive one for me.
Happens all the time. Either an expired tag or the wrong price tag in general.
Best Buy usually leaves old tags up. With their only one register open, if you find a wrong price, you hold up the line (embarassing).
My Walgreens had a deal with the Velveeta ($2 with $2RR). I spotted a tag the day after the sale ended. They told me no way possible to give me the $2RR but they would honor the $2 sale price.
Walmart changed their tags for the Hormell compleats. Some says 1.98 others say 2.18. Reagrdless, all were ringing up 2.18. The cashier thought I was a real pain for pointing out the tags were wrong. She told me at the end of the transaction, that I would “sleep better at night now”. How rude.
I was overcharged 3 times in the past two weeks at my local Target. Each time I pointed out that the shelf price was lower and I was given the shelf price. This is ok if you are not in a hurry, but if you are and/or if you have a lot of items it’s easy to miss these errors. (Note: Two of the over charges were almost double the shelf price. That’s a lot.)
Walmart does it too, much more in my experience. Is anyone going after them?
I agree. It has happened to me much more at Walmart. Have never really had a problem at my local Targets.
Someone would have to sue Walmart about the overcharges. Target is a (pardon the pun) smaller target than WM and more likely to get hit. WM probably has a small city’s worth of legal on their side.
Yes! I was overcharged a few different times between Christmas and now. It wasn’t old price tags, it was new price tags but the price wasn’t ronging up right. I always caught it and went to customer service and it was easily fixed.
I am not kidding when I say this: Every time I shop at Target, I am charged the wrong price or double charged for something on my order. One time I was overcharged $40!! I rarely go there because of this.
I like Target a lot however I have been over charged several times and to make matters worse their receipts are super confusing.
Yes I have noticed this at target as well as Walmart. It is so aggravating. In fact just today I lost about 2.50 because of items not ringing up the price on the shelf! I usually am in a hurry and do not have time to go stand in the customer service line to deal with it once I realize it.
Whenever I go in Target this happens all the time and I make the remark, ” If this was Publix I would have gotten so much stuff for free!!” ( due to the publix promise) Am I right, publix shoppers?!
Finally! I love Target, but my store is super awful about their shelf tags! I went one day and bought about 6 things, of which 4 were overpriced. The cashier freaked out, “they can’t all be wrong!” I told and her and the supervisor to go check the shelf tags. Sure enough …
I just bought milk 5 days and it was wrong!
I have had this happen many times. Most cashiers will just Change the price but it still bothers me because I’m not always looking and then I forget to say something the next time I go back. Also they clearly aren’t alerting someone to to the mistake so how many other people are getting overcharged? This annoys me as it happens in a lot pf stores. Especially cost plus world market. They are the worst!
This has happened quite a few times to me lately. Was even told that the sale price was not for the product I purchased – the same exact product shown in their current ad.
Every time it happens and go back in they tell me “just this once we can reimburse you”…really?
I’ve held up the line multiple times due to disputing a price.
I keep an eye on the register and check receipts. I have actually had no negative experiences at target, would have to say Walmart is bad for this and Walgreens is the worst (typically sale/RR tags) when it’s not the right size, variety, etc. I love target!
Katy, I agree with you. Walgreen is the worst. The points, RR and store coupon are confusing
Happens a lot, if they won’t honor I won’t buy.
This happened to me recently. I went to purchase some coffee and saw the shelf said $4.68 but rang up at $4.98. I took a picture of the tag (with the item description easily visible) but when I told the cashier she just changed it without asking to see the picture. She said it was such a small amount that it wasn’t a big deal to change it. Then yesterday I went to purchase the Ziploc containers priced 2/$2.88 but they rang up as $2.60 each! I only wanted them because they would have been free after coupons, but I forgot to use a Target coupon anyway so I’m just going to return one tomorrow. I’ve always had good experiences with returns at Customer Service at least.
Yeah, the ziplock thing happened to me yesterday. Didn’t figure it out til I was home. may be returning them .
Who gets the $4 mil? Can I expect a check?
This only happened to me once and they honored the price for me. I LOVE Target. We have 4 in our county and they all bend over backwards to make sure I get a good deal.
this happened to me yesterday with dog food. I didn’t ask for a refund because I didn’t see it until I got in my car. It was about $8 overpriced at the register. Target and Walgreens have been the biggest issues with having correct prices.
I worked for a very large retail company for 7 years in several different stores. I have to say that these things do happen but from my experience it truly is a mistake. Still wrong and their responsibility to make it right but a mistake none the less. Someone is busy and changes the price in the system but doesn’t change a tag or changes a tag but doesn’t accept a price change in the system. Management was always very focused on reminding employees to do price changes correctly. In my state, companies are visited by the department of agriculture on a regular basis for these investigations. They come in and check a certain percentage of items and whether its priced too high or too low, if prices aren’t tagged appropriately on a certain number of items the company will be fined. Such as this $4 mil at Target. Its considered fraud and no company wants to fail one of these inspections. There are huge ramifications to stores’ reputations with customers, management, and employees responsible when this happens. Unfortunately, I’ve seen companies want to spend less overhead, ie. wages which means less employees, in order to make more profit and this results in overworked and overwhelmed employees that just don’t get everything done. Its awful that customers ultimately pay the price, but I’ve never seen anyone that intentionally wanted to overcharge a customer and I’ve known many people that would do anything possible to raise profits. So, while we as customers deserve accurate pricing, I just felt a need to explain that these errors aren’t usually intentional. These investigations and fines are set up to deter companies from overcharging customers and in my experience its an effective motivator, however, there will always be human error. And no matter how much money they make, they care tremendously about that $4 mil. These companies care about every penny! I’m sure there are quite a few people heartbroken over the loss and some the fact that they are now unemployed. I hope that helps with some of the questions.
It seems to me that Target always charges tax on the price before coupons, not after
That’s state sales tax laws/policies, not Target. Where I live (Florida), tax is charged on the price after store coupons are deducted but before manufacturer coupons.
As you all have stated. $4 million to Target is nothing. We paid them that money by not returning to get our money back. What would get Target to change this practice would be if 4 million people stopped shopping there. I understand that mistakes are made, a few tags get missed. But it seems that Target is grossly negligent about this. I guess to them it is cheaper to have some customers come back and spend their time waiting on line again to receive the correct price of an item that they excepted initially at the register than pay an employee to change tags. Not sure if there is a law about false pricing.
Most times I tell them but one Sunday 1 month ago the advertised Christmas items for 70% off. The rand up full price and only let 3 items go. I was told thats all I could get, I had to pick up the rst and put it all back about $35.00 worth. On my budget I can not only not afford Christmas but trying to get ahead for next year was impossible. I won’t do that again!
At my local targets, they have the scanning machines when I scan it shows the price that will ring at the cash register. When I’m walking by I just swipe some quick items, but I’ve never found any markups. Just clearance stickers are placed but not scanning correctly. When I Purchase I Head Over To The Front Desk And They Correct it, If Not I Just Return it.
I love Target. I don’t think I have shopped in any store where 100% of my purchase prices were always right. People have to go and change the price tags and people make mistakes. It’s not like if you bring it to their attention that they won’t give you the correct price. I hate to see all of these legal settlements because it ends up hurting consumers in the long run. The lawyers are the only ones getting rich!
Since I have become a couponer the last year I am more aware of prices because my transactions have to work out perfectly…lol I used to wave it off and not feel like going up to customer service and “fight it out”…but now anything I can save is important to me…I would rather that penny go in MY pocket than theirs…
This only seem to happen to me at walmart.. i ws jst thete yday and purchased two sports bras @ 11.97 each. And 2 puppy toys for .97 . The casher said it was …READY..?. 77.98… R U KIDDING ME?????’.i told her there was a mistake. She ws so mean.. she told me i was wrong . And if i didnt like it ..i didnt have to shop there..I wasnt going to pay . She kept telling me to just hurry up ..I told her to cancel the sale.. she said she had to many f-ups this week. She really said that..I started to walk away .she stared to follow me saying she was calling the mgr..like i ws taking the items ..i was just walking away. Called mgr ..after they checked me..holding nothing.!!! I told him what happened. The mgr said ..sorry she must be having a bad day..REALLY?? I WILL NEVER SHOP THERE AGAIN..Thx 4 the rant..ladies.
Funny, I just noticed that Target overcharged me yesterday, now I will have to get my money back when I am by there this afternoon. Walmart over charges me all of the time from what the shelf tag says and the register rings up.
Target it’s not the only one with that kind of mistakes, many other stores like Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger and many more too.That’s why I love to shopping in two particular places PUBLIX and CVS.(They are always very nice, even with couponers : )
I wonder how much money I’ve been giving away for all these years without ever even realizing it. From now on I will definitely be checking the tags and watching every item get rung up. Sometimes I purchase a lot of things at once so I’m thinking maybe a little notebook would be a good idea to help me keep track. It’s kind of pathetic that we have to double check that they are charging us what they say they will though!
Kmart is the worst but I have caught Target doing this several times. On one occassion I called the customer server 1800 number and a man told me it would be too hard to look up a upc to see if I was overcharged and to call the store. I then called the store and they told me the bag was in the wrong spot so I just let it go but I know I was right and they forgot to take down the sign.
It is not the customers fault if they leave up sale flyers all over the store with small letters of the bottom stating the dates for the sale.
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. They had some shirts that was on clearance for $1.90. They charged $4.90, I was told that was the original clearance price and then they were mark down again. I didn’t notice the mistake until I got home when I took the shirts back with the tags still on them and the receipt, I was told it was after two weeks and that they won’t do the adjustment and the associates were really nasty, I ask for the manager and explained the problem and she did the returned. I didn’t get a sorry for the inconvenience from the manager either.
ShaneKaht, you have to be very careful, there are other customers who will switch clearance stickers. I always scan them before hand to check (if your store has price checkers they are wonderful) I also check the pockets of jackets and pants for items people were setting up to steal as well.
The clearance ticket is a sticker so it’s best to go off the scanner, especially when they don’t always get to updating the clearance stickers. (I normally find that the actual price is less than the sticker).
It sucks but the only way to really protect yourself is to check the receipt before you leave. I do this at any store since there always seems to be something that doesn’t ring up right and I detest having to head back to the store with my kids for anything less than $10.
If that Target location didn’t work with you or was really defensive I’d find another one. I have a Target I love and a backup Target and I know what Target to just flat avoid. )= It’s sad since you shouldn’t have to but it seems like a shitty manager dooms a store. I’d suggest leaving message to Target on their facebook about the incident so they know that something needs to be done at that location. Even if the manager returned the item you’re right they should have apologized since you had to drive all the way back to the store. )=
i think it’s happened to me before, but sometimes it’s worked in my favor, so i feel like it has all evened out for me in the long run.
I have had to point out errors at Target, but I didnt know it was such a problem. I am not sure if it because they are short on staff or what. From reading these posts, I will be more viligiante.
I have been charged wrong prices at the stroke off of Abrams/Royal in Dallas in the Lake Highlands area. They either correct it at the register or fix it at customer service. I shop there a lot, and have noticed the customer service there is awesome. I’m sorry Target can be a pain for some, but my Target is really nice. You have to be on top of it though.
FWIW, the target I shop at has changed a bit. When I moved here two hours ago, it was a different manager and things were different.
It has changed for the better. 🙂
This happened just the other day with the 6 pk Motts Applesauce. Went to Guest Services to get it fixed. She ended up putting in a Store coupon for $4 which was a little more than I was suppose to get back, because she did not want to deal with re ringing it up again because I had coupons and used cartwheel.
This happened to me on the Motts applesauce. I brought the ticket up to the cashier to show her. She corrected it right away.
I’ve had it happen too and usually customer service is really good about adjustments. Never thought about taking pix of the tags although I do scan most everything before I buy it. I will definitely start taking pictures… Or putting sticky notes with the shelf price on items!! That’d be faster for me!!
I would just like to give a viewpoint from a Target Team Member. I work at a Target, and yes, we deal with wrong prices every now and then and are more than happy to fix them. While I do realize that every price should come up correctly the first time, when we have thousands of sale items each week, it is often hard for the person at headquarters to key in each number exactly correct each time. While I’m not making excuses, I do know that many Target Team Members are sincerely sorry that this has been going on, and typically- while inconvenient for the guest, we are more than happy to change the price. I hope this gives a little insight into what is truly happening, and we are so thankful for all of our wonderful guests!
Target’s employee ( most of the time) are very generous with correcting the problems w/o all the fuss. I normally heads to the return desk right after since other shoppers in line will roll their eyes ( till they pops out)
Hope U R not penalize us for the returns. See more often on Sat. before Sunday price roll out. Don’t Target have system that computer change system prices at 12:01 on Sat night?
Yes, Target’s system does change the prices at 12:01, or at least that’s what we all assume. Since Target isn’t open 24 hours, we only know that the sale prices are up and running by 8 am, which is when Target opens.
At least at my store, we are are pretty willing to work with just about anybody and their missed coupons or other issues. The only times I am less eager to work with somebody is when we know who they are, we have a few distinct guests who are known for buying items with coupons and returning them the very next day for store credit, which is theft.
Whole Food CA, I think is having class action for charging Tax on the retail price instead of actual price after coupons. I am in WA, I though that’s the way it suppose to be.
Sometime, my sale tax came up more that the actual price of products after coupon, sale and discounts. What / How are you guys paying in your states?
I’m in ohio…we always are responsible for the retail tax. Even if a coupon takes the price to $0.00…we owe the tax on the origional price.
Its happened many times i always go over my receipt once i get to my car so if its anything drastic i can just get a refund. target is not the only store guilty of this. smaller stores you think would do better do worse.
I just noticed that the fan I bought at Target on Saturday was $10 higher on the register. Can I still go in with my receipt and the tag from the shelves? On the shelves it reads $54.99 but my receipt says $64.99…
I am astonished at how many times I am charged the wrong price at a local store called HEB. I can think of five times it has happened in the past month. I always look very closely at my receipt from there. I wonder who the lawyer is that instigated this lawsuit. I have another one that they could easily take. The funny thing is that HEB is very proud of their low prices… or are they?
My friend and I just laugh at how often we get overcharged at Target! It’s ridiculous. That said, I have to check my receipts from other stores have found that Kroger frequently overcharges as well! Most of the time, I try to go back and get my money but oftentimes, I can’t check my receipt until later (usually shopping on my lunch break) and it’s just not worth it to go back. So yea, they have gotten plenty of extra $ from me! Sadly, I’m sure as customers we will get little to no money back. The lawyers will take it all!
Good news that Target got fined!! I just saw this news last Friday and I went shopping Friday evening in Target. Guess what? I bought 8 Mott’s apple sauce in two transactions. Before I walked out of the door, I noticed that I was charged $1.99 each instead of the sale price 3 for $5 ($1.67 each). I went to the CS and they adjusted the price for me.
I noticed some price errors when I shopped in Target before or sometimes the cartwheel didn’t work, but it is funny that it happened on the same day when I saw the news. I guess I have to be more cautious when I shop in the future. But sometimes you won’t look at the receipt when you are in a hurry.
My mom has trained me since I was little to always check what you are being charged as you’re being wrang up. They have to honor an advertised price or it is considered false advertising, and could be grounds for a law suit if it is found to be purpousful.