Home Australia Woolworths shopper’s urgent warning about self-serve checkout glitch

Woolworths shopper’s urgent warning about self-serve checkout glitch

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Bek, 33 (pictured), said if she hadn't double-checked the price she was charged for the coloring book, she would have paid $48 for the $6 item.

A Woolworths shopper urged customers to be vigilant at the self-checkout after she was charged eight times for a coloring book.

Bek, 33, was shocked to discover her bill was an abnormally high $80 after scanning just a few items at her local Woolworths store on Tuesday.

She discovered she had been charged $48 for a $6 Gabby Dollhouse coloring book for her son.

The young mother shared her experience on TikTok to warn other shoppers about how easily they can be overcharged.

“You have to be very careful when shopping at Woolworths… and I urge you to check absolutely everything you are scanning,” Bek said.

‘We have a book of pencils…as you can see, quantity 8 for $6 each (which came to be) $48. We scan one and it scans 8 (times).

“If we hadn’t known to check that the price was $48, we would have paid $48 for a $6 book.”

‘I called the staff and they tried to enter it manually and kept changing it to eight. “They couldn’t understand why,” he said. Yahoo News.

Dozens of Australians said they had experienced the same problem at other Woolworths stores, with some spotting the problem too late.

“Exactly that happened to me too… it was a coloring book with pencils,” one person wrote.

“Exactly the same thing happened to me, but I didn’t realize it until I left,” another person wrote.

“Happened to me on the big W. $18 item scanned at $168, all codes unchanged,” added a third.

Others explained that the problem occurs when staff enter the wrong quantity at the inventory stage.

“I work at Woolies, it’s a barcode issue… not an issue those on the floor would know about, but those in the store offices when they set up the barcodes,” one person wrote.

‘It’s a barcode error. The barcode on the unit is probably registering as a cardboard box,” another person wrote.

A Coles shopper said they had experienced a similar problem.

Bek, 33 (pictured), said if she hadn’t double-checked the price she was charged for the coloring book, she would have paid $48 for the $6 item.

‘That happened to me at Coles. “I bought a monster energy drink, just one can and it came out like a four pack,” one person wrote.

Several commenters thanked Bek for pointing out the issue and reminded them to watch out for unusual prices at checkout.

The young mother said the problem has made her more cautious when shopping and she would like to see more checkout staff available in stores.

Others urged shoppers to check their receipts before leaving a supermarket.

A Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the issue was an “isolated issue” related to the barcode on pencil sets sold in stores.

“The scanning error for this barcode has since been corrected to ensure it does not occur again,” the spokesperson said.

“We are glad to see that our team was able to quickly resolve this issue in-store and that the customer was only charged the correct amount.”

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for further comment.

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