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Council refuses to name Brighton and Hove supermarkets which overcharge customers

2:10pm Friday 29th January 2010


Supermarkets charging customers the wrong amount at the tills will not be named and shamed by a council.

Research by Brighton and Hove Trading Standards has shown that every supermarket visited by officials produced an incorrect bill total for a group of items picked off the shelves.

The Argus revealed last month that the worst offending store in the city had almost half of its goods incorrectly priced.

But despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act Brighton and Hove City Council is still refusing to name the guilty shops.

The Argus will now report the local authority to the Information Commissioner in London for withholding information in the public interest.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information criticised the council for failing to provide a valid reason for withholding the information.

A council spokesman said the local authority would not name the offending supermarkets as all those involved had agreed to take action to prevent further mistakes.


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chroma, hove says...
2:15pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Absolutely incredible.
I have always viewed Trading Standards as being a complete waste of time, and this confirms it. Were this a kebab shop, or a £shop, or a sex shop, they'd have the business name on their press release, but as well know, whether it comes to granting planning permissions for supermarkets the size of small towns, or granting 24hour booze licences, the council will always favour the retail giants.
As they say, every little hurts.

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Brightonscouse2, brighton says...
3:08pm Fri 29 Jan 10

chroma wrote:
Absolutely incredible. I have always viewed Trading Standards as being a complete waste of time, and this confirms it. Were this a kebab shop, or a £shop, or a sex shop, they'd have the business name on their press release, but as well know, whether it comes to granting planning permissions for supermarkets the size of small towns, or granting 24hour booze licences, the council will always favour the retail giants. As they say, every little hurts.
Trading Standards weren't the ones to refuse to name the supermarkets involved, B&H.C.C were. It seems that the council will bend over backwards to accomodate supermarkets.

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Tye, Pembroke says...
3:28pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Supermarkets have always been allowed to get away with things that local shops are routinely prosecuted for so this comes as no surprise.

The only surprise is the croccodile tears of the councils for local shops and the death of town centres

Money talks - I just wonder how loud

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Gaz the great, Brighton says...
3:34pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Yet another great idea from B&H cc. Protect the poor supermarkets, struggling to make ends meet, whilst the affluent customers complain when they get charged a penny or two over the shelf label price. Who cares, the great B&H public with some of the highest wages outside of London can easily afford it.

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keiter, peacehaven says...
3:57pm Fri 29 Jan 10

I understand this price manipulation was illegal. If so, am I a little simple? What was the point of the exercise?

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Gaz the great, Brighton says...
4:20pm Fri 29 Jan 10

keiter wrote:
I understand this price manipulation was illegal. If so, am I a little simple? What was the point of the exercise?
I do-It keeps people in jobs! No teeth or they would publish the information off their own backs, on their website!

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BringBackGoodGrammar, The Posh part of Hove says...
4:30pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Isn't Heather Mills doing anything today?

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yorkie44, Woodingdean says...
4:57pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Does the incorrect pricing mean that it was always higher than the true cost? Everybody seems to assume this was the case.

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Acheron, Hove says...
5:17pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Great, so not only do the council feel fine about us being overcharged (yes I know the council has said the supermarkets are dealing with the problem but I'm not holding my breath), but now they are going to risk costing us more money by getting fined by the information commissioner for refusing the release the information under the FOI act!

Would hate to think what things would be like if the council came out and said they were not going to act in the voters interests!

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gingersandy38, brighton says...
5:33pm Fri 29 Jan 10

wonder what the point of the exercise was. When the general public are not told the name of the offending Supermarkets. Obviously it means they are allowed to get away with this. Makes you realise how much the public are kept in the dark

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Living in the real world, Brighton says...
5:37pm Fri 29 Jan 10

The reason they would not tell is this was MADE UP just to make it look like they do something, they may even have invented the story and fed it to the Argus to stop another story being reported or am i being cynical

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garyc, worthing says...
5:42pm Fri 29 Jan 10

tesco,always overcharge

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kayotic, hove says...
6:18pm Fri 29 Jan 10

If this story is correct, it's scandalous that these big conglomerates should get away with overcharging. The whole premise of shopping at supermarkets rather than your local trader is that you should save money,not pay more than the goods are advertised at. They already 'con' the public with their bogus special offers. Only last week I noticed that my local Tesco put all the prices of their wines up by a substantial amount. They always do this when one of their "40% off" promotions is in the offing, which means that the 40% is discounted from a vastly inflated price. The true discount works out at a miserly 5% on the original price on the bottles of wine included in their "special" promotion.

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davyboy, abingdon, oxon says...
8:08pm Fri 29 Jan 10

we have caught out our local supermarket on various occasions, where the price at the till does not reflect the offer shown on the shelf. once pointed out, it has been sorted straight away, and the price refunded! we once bought two toys, as a BOGOF, but it didn't show on the till and we were charged for 2. when this was queried, they refunded the price of both, so we got them free!!! overcharging is commonplace, and offenders should be named. you all elected the council, so when it comes to voting time, you know what to do.

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another 1, brighton says...
10:24pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Well, I know from now on that I'll be calculating my OWN total before getting to the tills from now on.

This is DISGUSTING. As if the truth would leave the Supermarkets in question so out of pocket.. Although, they're obviously close to B&H councils heart - what with there being one on every **** corner.

If these Supermarkets were named & shamed then surely those of us effected could check our receipts (yes some of us DO keep them for our records as advised) & get a refund.. Even an apology from the offenders would do.

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kkj, Brighton says...
12:01am Sat 30 Jan 10

As stated in the report, every supermarket visited got it wrong. For the sake of convenience, just assume that they visited every supermarket in Brighton & Hove and you probably won't be far wrong.

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Christophe Hawtree, Hove says...
9:44am Sat 30 Jan 10

It appears that the Councillors have not been aloowed any say in this. Again it is the officers running the show.

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Granny, Brighton says...
2:17pm Sat 30 Jan 10

Heather Mills is busy today on a two page spread in the Daily Mail. It would appear that the writer of the article doesn't like her either. Back to the story, is it possible the supermarket concerned has promised something to the council?

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Thumper Hove, Hove says...
3:06pm Sat 30 Jan 10

Waitrose is one supermarket overcharging customers - have you seen their prices?????

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Gaz the great, Brighton says...
3:30pm Sat 30 Jan 10

Just to remember to check your receipt before you leave. Have often gotten rewards for pointing out their mistakes like money off vouchers ect.

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