UK consumers lose £1.6bn a year in unwanted subscriptions

[ebikeerwidnes]

That's my point, if the shopkeeper is an employee and therefore an ambassador of the business, they shouldn't be trying to "get away" with anything. For the sake of this point I am ruling out dishonesty from individuals. But this is exactly what some businesses are doing, trying to get away with taking money where the contract isn't explicitly explained. So in other words, the onus should be on the seller/provider to make the terms clear so no "checking" should be required by the customer.

It has always been like this

My Mum was famous (?) in the supermarket 2 doors down from our house in the 1960s/70s

She found out from an old employee that when they trained till staff they were told to always sneak a few extra charges onto bills - especially if people were buying a lot or had kids to distract them
Of course, in those days your "bill" was just a list of prices
the till staff had to know the price of every item the shop sold
so it was difficult to work out what was what unless you were alert and knew the price

Except for Mum - she knew exactly what is should cost and how much everything should be
so the till staff were trained - then when they started they were sat next to an experienced worked who main job was to point out
"That is Mrs Price - NEVER try to slip any extras onto her bill EVER"

It still happened from time to time and she would just very politely and nicely say they must have made a mistake
if necessary she would make them put everything through again
even at Christmas


Must have saved us a fortune over the years


but it has been going on for many decades - the way they do it has changed - but the attitude to customer has always been the same

 

[Electric_Andy]

the way they do it has changed - but the attitude to customer has always been the same

Oh I agree, but a big company website is far easier to audit than an individual on the checkout. We can't make everyone charge people honestly, but when it's web-based it should not be trying to trick people into additional services they might not have wanted. It all depends on how you define "tricked" though. I've had this with Amazon where my Dad bought something and unknowingly left the "subsribe and save" button checked. It's not actually conning or stealing, as my Dad should have checked, but I don't see any harm in enforcing a standard where extras are laid out explicitly so you can't opt-in through negligence.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Of course, in those days your "bill" was just a list of prices
the till staff had to know the price of every item the shop sold

Must have been a dodgy convenience store. In the major supermarkets in those days, every item had to have the price on it from the labelling guns. There was no game of guess the price.

 

[cyberknight]

mini ck 1 had some online CV made up , they charged £9 i think for a one off but it somehow snuck a direct debit in which i didn’t authorise so when mrs ck saw it on the statement i rang the bank up and i got over £100 back .

 

[Beebo]

. And of course those Red-letter style vouchers which are bought as presents are very often not redeemed.

My wife spent a few hundred on a gift experience for a friend which was never used.
I has cast a bit of a shadow over their relationship.