Group: California check-out scanners overcharge
October 30, 1997
Web posted at: 11:47 p.m. EST (0447 GMT)
From Correspondent Don Knapp
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- A consumer group claims check-out
price scanners overcharge California shoppers by millions of
dollars a year -- the same scanners that are used in stores
nationwide.
The California Public Interest Research Group, or CALPIRG,
says state figures show that 2.2 percent of all items that go
through the scanners are overcharged.
"Even if you subtract the 1.5 percent of all items that are
undercharged, that still leaves $250 million that cost the
consumers last year in overcharges," says Angie Farleigh of
CALPIRG.
The group claims that figures in some California counties
show that scanners overcharge as many as one in every 25
items.
Retailers were quick to dispute the study.
"The only thing correct about CALPIRG's study is that human
errors occur. And nobody can stop human errors," said Bill
Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers
Association.
Dombrowski says scanner accuracy averages about 98 percent,
and he believes that is about as close to perfect as
retailers can get. Most stores will refund any overcharges,
and some even offer a bonus to customers who find them.
"Yes, there are errors, but they are a very small
percentage," said Peter Larkin, president of the California
Grocers Association. "And the systems are set up so that
there is a higher likelihood of a consumer being undercharged
than they are overcharged."
CALPIRG says that while there have been cases of deliberate
scanner scams by retailers, the real problems are human error
and lack of regular government inspections of the equipment.
The man charged with regulating scanners in San Francisco
agrees.
"We're doing it on a complaint basis only. Currently the
program is not funded," said David Frieders, San Francisco's
director of weights and measures. "There's no funding at the
local level to enforce the program."