One after the other offers and discount sales are running in most of the showrooms and super markets across Kuwait. People are always attracted to the word "Sale" which varies from 50 to 75 percent! But how many of us really care to check what price we are paying at the counter of these shops?
One of the customer narrates her experience of how customers are taken for granted at one of the major shopping centres in Kuwait during their recent sale period. The customer who bought a Make Up remover from a famous showroom at their Salmiya branch located at Salem Al Mubarak Street, was originally priced at 4.000 KD and offered at a discounted price of 3.400 Kd. Later at home while the customer was checking the invoice, it was noticed that the same item was charged at 4.500 KD. The customer went back to the store to enquire about the mistake and the store officials politely apologised for the system error and returned the excess amount charged.
In a normal scenario, a shopper will take it as a system error and the story will end there. But surprisingly, the same customer happened to visit Al Rai showroom of the same store to buy a pair of sandals which was priced differently at Salmiya outlet. The sandal which was priced at KD 5.100 was billed as KD 5.950 in the invoice! Sensing the cheating, the same customer went to another branch of the same store at Grand Avenues to experience the same story. A Ladies top which was on offer for 2.900 KD was billed as 5.000 KD at the counter!!
"After a series of debate with the store people, I finally met the higher management of the store. They realized they were guilty and they agreed to go through their system to correct any price discrepancies in future. But what about the large number of people who had already made their purchases at these stores?" asked the customer.
If this has been the experience of an alert customer, how many more have been made victims to this unethical negligence. How many of us really check the price we pay at the counter for each item and cross check with the price tags on the items? Even if we notice such discrepancies when we are buying only a few items, we all must have settled it there itself with their 'Sorry, a system error' kind of response. Is it really a “chance system error” if it has been happening for a long time!!!!!