Woolworths shopper calls out supermarket over 'dodgy' checkout mishap

As tensions between supermarkets and shoppers continue to boil over, Aussies continue to look for ways to save in-store — and one way to count your dollars is by scanning your receipt to ensure you've been charged correctly.

But one eagle-eyed shopper was shocked by the price of a single garlic in her recent shop at Woolworths, claiming she was incorrectly charged based on weight. The shopper claims the checkout scales overweighed her garlic at 0.127kg and charged $3.68 ($29/kg) when it was actually significantly less.

The woman, from Mandurah, WA, realised after weighing the item herself on a small kitchen scale at home. A photo shared on social media shows the single garlic sitting on the scale with a weight of 0.068kg — a difference of 0.059kg.

"[It's] not our scales, [the] chicken we bought weighed correctly, it is the checkout scales," she said on Thursday. "With groceries so expensive how much extra are we paying at the check out with dodgy scales or customer service personnel not weighing correctly?"

Shockingly, others admitted that they too have noticed a difference in weight on some purchased items. "I had the same thing happen with a watermelon," one said. While another revealed, "yeah, my groceries are usually coming up different too."

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Woolworths responds

Despite customers' claims, it's understood every Woolworths store conducts in-depth checks weekly across all manned checkout and automated checkout scales to ensure accurate measurement. There's also daily testing to ensure they're working correctly.

If any self-checkout or manned checkout scale appears to be reading incorrectly, the checkout is closed immediately and re-calibrated before customers can use it again.

"We are committed to ensuring the accuracy of all trade measurement scales across our stores in line with strict regulations and test our checkout scales daily," a spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo News Australia.

"We strongly encourage this customer to reach out to our customer care team or the store directly, in order for us to investigate the items in the transaction and see what has caused the discrepancy."

The woman's gripe follows a string of supermarket complaints by Aussies amid accusations of price gouging as the cost of groceries continues to be a sore point for many. Previously, shoppers have shared their frustrations over the weight of mince seemingly being less than the package weight.

How customers can score refunds

Customers who believe they've been charged incorrectly are encouraged to raise the issue in-store.

Under Woolworths’ price-scan policy, if an item scans at a higher price than the ticketed price in-store, customers can receive that item free. This covers all scannable products at Woolies, including items with a barcode, items with a Price Look Up number and items that have been marked down for sale.

This is known as the Supermarket Code of Practice. Coles offers the same policy to its customers under its Our Promise on Price Scanning policy.

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