“Are your scales accurate?”: A loyal Woolworths customer shares his concerning experience at his local store
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A loyal Woolworths shopper has shared a frustrating experience at his local store while purchasing a piece of fruit.
The customer took to Twitter to share the details of the concerning incident, revealing that he paid for a watermelon — which is priced per weight — through a manned checkout and a self-serve checkout at the same St Kilda West Metro store.
He said that despite the fact they used the same piece of fruit for both checkouts, the weights and prices of the same fruit came in different on both registers.
The shopper claimed that the watermelon weighed 1.575kg and cost $5.51 at the self-serve checkout while it weighed 1.62kg and cost 16 cents more at the manned checkout.
The same piece of watermelon weighed 1.575kg and cost $5.51 at the self-serve checkout while it weighed 1.62kg and cost 16 cents more at the manned checkout. Credit: Twitter.
The Twitter user wrote: “I have been a customer of Woolies for more than five years."
“And I have noticed multiple times that the weight of fruits and vegetables vary at the human-operated checkout and self-checkout machines."
“Today I bought a cut watermelon which cost me $5.67 at the counter. Whereas it cost me $5.51 at the self-checkout machine."
“It is not about the $0.16 difference, but I am afraid to imagine how many customers unknowingly lose their money every day in this process of weighing."
“Are your scales accurate?”
In his post, the loyal Woolworths shopper also shared a series of photos of his receipts and the self-serve checkout screen, showing the price and weight discrepancies.
He also shared a photo of a docket to show that the store refunded him 17 cents for the price difference.
The shopper was refunded 17 cents for the price difference. Credit: Twitter.
Woolworths responds
A Woolworths spokesperson said that the incident is an isolated case as they regularly check and calibrate their scales, citing that the discrepancies are caused by "human error".
The spokesperson said: “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."
“We have since resolved this with the customer and apologise for the discrepancy, which appears to be the result of an isolated human error. Following this customer’s complaint, all scales in our St Kilda West Metro store have been thoroughly checked to ensure their accuracy.”
It is understood that Woolworths conducts weekly in-depth checks of all manned checkouts and automated checkout scales across all of their stores nationwide to ensure accurate measurements.
According to Woolworths, the management immediately closes and re-calibrates scales that appear to be reading incorrectly before making it available for customers again.