The Real Deal on alleged “SM Price Cheating”

By Sai

I am a certified and loyal SM buyer and I was really surprised when I read something online about how SM manipulates their prices. There were emails being forwarded to different email groups, blog posts about the forwarded email and private messages in online groups that tackles the alleged price manipulation in certain SM establishments.

I’ve worked in a fashion retail store before and it gives me a background of possible things that could have happened in this price discrepancy issue. I believe this is not intentional. In my own opinion, people should always think about this: Computers can, sometimes, fail us.

The original email came from a Ms. Olivares. She was complaining about price tag discrepancies. The price tag did not match the actual price encoded in the cash register – making her pay more.

In my experience at this fashion retail store, if we have new prices for our merchandise, we upload a file in our POS and it will automatically update all the prices. But there are still some instances where the price tags were not updated. I think this is the same thing that might have happened in Ms. Olivares’ particular purchase.

SM is actually in the process of fixing this problem. This issue has been addressed properly so I think we can expect this to be settled. SM also said that they are constantly updating their price tags to avoid this scenario again, to provide the best shopping experience for their customers and to improve their services.

Also, I think it’s good that SM is opening their lines for any concern regarding the issue. Contact numbers posted in most if not all SM official receipts in case anyone wants to voice out their experience.

In an article I read on Inquirer.net they mentioned this: “We have also been doing regular checking and monitoring of the display alignment, completeness and correctness of the shelf tags,” Bang Manalad, operations head for the supermarket group, said.

Here’s the actual article that was featured last Sept 1 in Inquirer.net that says this issue is being settled:

Credit card widening the divide between haves and have- nots?

DateFirst Posted 22:05:00 09/01/2010

A few weeks ago, somebody forwarded an e-mail alleging cheating in SM and Savemore branches. And, as with most e-mail these days, people are still forwarding to me the same message.

The person who originally sent out the e-mail complained about discrepancies in prices—tags did not match costs encoded in cash machines, so she paid more for her purchases.

I did my own forwarding of the message to Millie Dizon of the SM group for comment and/or action, who forwarded the same to those in charge of the department store and supermarket group. I am happy to report that the issue has been addressed and the original sender reassured, so people can stop forwarding the message.

Both department store and supermarket people contacted the source of the e-mail, a Ms. Olivares, and assured her they were constantly updating price tags to ensure they matched those in the cash register. “We have also been doing regular checking and monitoring of the display alignment, completeness and correctness of the shelf tags,” Bang Manalad, operations head for the supermarket group, said.

Manalad thanked the customer for calling their attention to the problem so it could be addressed and service could be further improved.

On her part, Millie said the whole SM chain was doing its best to minimize the problem of price discrepancies despite the difficulty, especially in the supermarket where prices of products could change very quickly.

She added that in instances when two prices were listed for one item, the company policywas to charge the customer the lower price.

Source: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/homeandentertaining/homeandentertaining/view/20100901-289818/Credit-card-widening-the-divide-between-haves-and-have-nots

Besides, I know that in situations like these, SM has a policy wherein the consumer is charged the lower price!