I took the sausage up to the checkout along with a couple of other items I had picked up and headed for the “U-Scan” self-serve check out.  I swiped my “Shopper’s Card” which entitles me to sale prices and began scanning my items.  When I scanned the breakfast sausage, the scanner recorded $3.99, the full price, not the Manager’s Special price of $2.99.  I finished checking out my order, paid for it with cash and checked my receipt.  Sure enough, I had been charged full-price for the breakfast sausage despite the label offering one dollar off.

I took the sausage and my receipt to the Customer Service counter and pointed out that I had been charged more than the price marked on the item.  The clerk reached into the cash register, pulled out a dollar bill and handed it to me.  I asked “Aren’t I entitled to a bounty for the overcharge?”  She replied “You were the one who scanned it.”  I agreed but pointed out that it was the store that charged more than the price marked on the item.  At that point she had me fill out a form with my name and address and she handed me five dollars.  With the five dollars in my hand, I decided I would go back and get a tube of biscuits to go along with my breakfast sausage.

What had happened was that while the meat manager had put a “Dollar off” label on the top of the package, he had forgotten to cross out the original pricing bar code on the bottom of the package.  The scanner picked up the original label first and ignored the second label.

Michigan law protects consumers who use automated scanners at checkouts, regardless of who scans the item.  If a merchant charges more than the price marked on the item, the consumer is entitled to the difference between the price charged and the price marked, as well as a bounty of ten times the difference; not less than one dollar and not more than five dollars.

Let’s say that you are overcharged by twenty five cents on a jar of spaghetti sauce.  You would be entitled to the twenty five cents, as well as a bounty of two dollars and fifty cents.

There are a couple of important rules:  First, the price must be marked on the item.  This shouldn’t be a problem since with very few exceptions, Michigan Law requires merchants to mark the prices on all of their items.  Second, the consumer must actually pay for the items for which they had been overcharged.  If the consumer does not pay for the item, the consumer was not actually overcharged by the merchant.  That means that even if you see an item has been scanned at the wrong price, stopping the cashier and correcting the price is the wrong thing to do.

Consumers are sometimes hesitant about claiming the bounty, but it is legally your right.  Most merchants know the law and are ready to comply. By pointing out the error, you protect other customers.  In my case, after I got my bounty, as I was walking to the dairy cooler to get my biscuits, I heard the Customer Service Clerk page the meat manager to get him to fix the overcharging problem with the breakfast sausages.  That is what the law was intended to do.

Clinton Andrews

   Cyberspace is full of them:  opinions, rants, emotional outpouring, and sometimes even useful information.  Everything   you need to know, from book reports to dating advice, from politics to porn. Need consumer information?  It’s available: new car ratings, nutrition counseling, bed sheet thread counts refrigerator best buys.  Why Michigan Consumer?

   This blog is affiliated with the Michigan Consumer Federation, http://www.michiganconsumer.org which was founded by consumer leaders from around Michigan in 1992 to ensure that consumers have a strong voice in the legislative process.

   We fill a void.  There is no blog directed specifically to the needs and voices of Michigan consumers.  Our state protection laws are among the best in the nation… if you know about them and if they are enforced by state agents.  Where can you get that information?  The consumer agencies to provide it no longer exist.  Are the laws enforced?  Who knows?
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy, recognizing our special needs, named the four rights of consumers:

THE RIGHT TO BE INFORMED – to be given accurate information you need to make wise choices, and to be protected from mislabeling and misrepresentation.

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE – to have reasonable access to a variety of products at reasonable prices.

THE RIGHT TO SAFETY – to be protected against illness or injury.

THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD – to express your needs and interests as consumers, and to be assured that government and business will be aware of us.
   Are those the rights of Michigan consumers?  This state’s Item Pricing and Advertising Act is the best in the nation.  It establishes the RIGHT TO KNOW a price before we select a product.  Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act outlaws fraudulent and misleading advertising.  Are they enforced?  Rarely.  You can take action on your own behalf—if you know where to go and how to do it.

   Those four rights will be the basis of future postings.  The one you can exercise now is the RIGHT TO BE HEARD.  Do you feel that your consumer rights have been violated?  If so, tell us how you would like to see your rights protected.  This blog can be your voice.

USE IT.

Esther K. Shapiro
Susan A. Titus
Clinton R. Andrews

Detroit, Michigan, March 23, 2006