Overcharged customers 'should get items for free'

Every supermarket that overcharges for items should allow the customers to have them for free, the grocery commissioner says.

Kiwis may be losing tens of millions of dollars a year due to supermarket pricing errors, according to the Grocery Commission.

It's planning to force the major players to publicise customer complaints saying it will create a commercial incentive for supermarkets to make fewer mistakes.

The biggest number of complaints to the Commerce Commission was from supermarket shoppers and most centred on overpricing, commissioner Pierre van Heerden said.

The groceries sector was a $25 billion industry and had had years to perfect its system for charging, he told Morning Report.

Examples of errors included charging normal prices for items on special or overcharging on multibuys (where there's meant to be an incentive for buying two or more of the same product).

"It's the responsibility of the boards and the senior managers to train all their staff and to get this right. It's just not good enough for Kiwi consumers."

One spur for more robust pricing policies would be free groceries once a shopper pointed out they had been overcharged.

At present the supermarkets only refund the difference in the amount.

The refund policies needed to be more generous and supermarkets needed to be "stung" to get it right.

"They charge the wrong price and you get it for free. That should just be standard."

He had forced their hand by "calling this out" and expected to hear back soon from the three retailers, Woolworth, Pak n' Save and New World. All three had said they would review their policies.

Van Heerden was also highly critical of the supermarkets' policy on recording errors which should be part and parcel of doing business.

"You want to know what's happening in your stores."

Technology was now available so that every mistake at the till was recorded.

While one consumer might pick up a wrong price, there was the potential for dozens to go through the checkout and be charged the wrong price in a single day.

"I want it fixed at source."

Under the Fair Trading Act, the price advertised must be charged so the onus was on the operators to get it right.

Van Heerden said loyalty schemes would be delved into at a later date because consumers were giving away a lot of information in return for the cards.

RNZ is approaching both supermarket operators, Woolworths and Foodstuffs, for comment.