Shopping? Watch Those Price Scanners
MIAMI (CBS4) - How do you know, as you rush through your Christmas shopping, that the scanners virtually every store uses are clicking off the right price? If you believe state consumer investigators, they are doing a pretty good lob.
Every year, the state Department of Agriculture, which handle's Florida's consumer concerns, sends inspectors into stores looking for that $1.98 package of batteries that rings up as $19.98. It still happens, the state says, but this year, not so much.
The inspection blitz found that, overall, price scanners have an error rate of 1.8 percent. That means for every 1 thousand transactions, almost 18 people would be charged the wrong price. Not always higher, just wrong.
Inspectors went to 54 stores in 24 cities and scanned 2,989 items. They found 28 overcharges and 26 undercharges. That means if you are the victim of a wacked-out scanner, your odds are about 50-50 of getting a break instead of an overcharge.
That result was slightly better than the acceptable accuracy rate of 98 percent set by the National Conference on Weights and Measures.
That does not mean the state didn't find some alleged hanky-panky going on at the registers of some stores. Four stores found with excessive overcharges face administrative sanctions ranging from warning letters to fines of up to $5,000 for repeat violations.
Many stores offer to give you items for free if you report a price that scans differently than marked on the shelf.
While it may seem undercharges are less important, the state still sees that as evidence those stores are not as careful checking prices as they should be. Those with excessive undercharges will be inspected more often until they meet the accuracy standard.
What do you think of price scanners in your favorite store? Leave us a comment below.
