Unwanted withdrawals? Check your till slip

Published Aug 1, 2014

Share

Do you check your supermarket till slip, or just toss it without a glance?

It’s not nearly as engaging a habit as checking Facebook or Twitter, but the practice is more likely to benefit you in a tangible way.

Earlier this month, Davy Ivins wrote to Consumer Watch about the two incidents which converted him into a dedicated till-slip interrogator.

In the space of two weeks he had two near-identical experiences at two different branches of Pick n Pay, involving unauthorised cash “withdrawals”.

Many consumers choose to get “cashback” at the supermarket till rather than joining a separate queue at a bank’s ATM. Their chosen amount of cash is added to the till total.

Ivins’ first incident happened at Pick n Pay in Northgate. His groceries amounted to R210 and the cashier activated an unrequested cash withdrawal of R1 000, which he noticed immediately.

“I was then given the option of taking the cash or reversing the transaction,” he said. “The cashier, and subsequently a manager at the store, explained that the Pick n Pay till system is susceptible to unintentionally capturing such unauthorised withdrawals and that their system developers are aware of the problem.

“He said the unrequested withdrawals happen regularly and are caught at the end of the day when cashiers don’t balance, at which point they apparently know to look for cashbacks and then contact the respective customers.”

A week later, in Pick n Pay’s Woodmead store, Ivins had a R50 cash withdrawal added to his grocery total without request. Again, he noticed.

“I took it up with the manager on duty and was promised that the issue would be addressed.”

When he hadn’t had any feedback two weeks later, Ivins tweeted about his experience, which sparked an immediate response and investigation by the two branches.

“I was asked for copies of the till slips, both branches kept me informed about steps they had taken, and I received an apology,” he said.

“My concern is that Pick n Pay may have a till system that is prone to defrauding customers, that they are apparently aware of, but that does not appear to be getting fixed very quickly.

“Or cashiers have found a way to easily steal money from unsuspecting customers via the cash withdrawal system.”

Responding, Pick n Pay’s busi- ness intelligence general manager, John Swanepoel, told Consumer Watch that a thorough investigation of the incidents had revealed that it wasn’t the system which was at fault, but rather “a case of two cashiers making the same mistake”.

“That doesn’t mean that we take this lightly, and we will be making some tweaks to our tills to make sure that the cashback key is not inadvertently selected by the cashier, which is what happened here.

“We are grateful for the warning, and while we would advise all customers to always check their till slips wherever they shop, there is no system error, but rather a case of human error.

“We have communicated to our staff that they need to be extra vigilant in this regard.”

A search of the Consumer Watch inbox revealed an earlier complaint about the same issue, from a consumer who asked to remain anonymous. His wife bought R420 worth of groceries at Pick n Pay’s Cape Town Waterfront branch in February, using her debit card.

“On checking her till slip, she noticed that she’d been debited an amount of R1 170, which included R750 recorded as cashback, which she had neither requested or been given.

“On pointing this out, she was then given the R750 in cash as it was not possible, she was told, to reverse the transaction.

Moral of the story: take a good look at your till slip, and your credit card slip, while you’re still in the store.

Once you’ve left the store, it will be much harder – and more time consuming – to prove that you didn’t get the “cashback” you were charged for.

Related Topics: