Overcharged things at checkout? You might be able to make it for free

Key takeaways: 

• Competing retailers allow compensation for overcharging consumers on specific things.
• Reviewing your bill before you leave the shop could save you more cash than you think, acknowledgements to Canada’s voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code.

Retailers’ might give some overpriced items for free: 

Preparing to spend long this vacation season after last year’s lockdowns? It pays to review your bill before leaving the shop. 

Not only might you catch an error, but if you were overcharged for a thing, you may also be able to get it for free or at a reduction.

Almost 7,000 retail shops in Canada — including several big chains — are members of the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code.

Led by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), the law mandates that when customers are overcharged for several things looked at at checkout, they’re allowed compensation.

“I love it,” said Roxanne Joshua, of Newcastle, Ont., who learned about the code more than a decade ago. Over the years, she says she’s been compensated about 150 times after catching pricing errors at the till. Source – cbc.ca

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“It’s great for a couple of reasons,” she said. “One I get free items or discounted items. But two, it also keeps the stores accountable.” Source – cbc.ca

Whence to get your cut

Canada’s Price Accuracy Scanner Code has been about for almost two decades, however, various customers still don’t know about it. The code was founded in 2002 by retail companies to promote customer trust as stores started to use scanning methods at checkout.

“There was an element of lack of trust of machines reading barcodes,” stated Greg Wilson, the Retail Council of Canada’s director of government relations in B.C. Source – cbc.ca

The law refers to competing retailers over the nation, but in Quebec, which has rural regulations including retail pricing mistakes.