I was in Giant, Ampang Point branch yesterday trying to buy myself a cup of coffee before heading out for an interview. Imagine my glee and surprise when I realised they were selling a can of Nescafe for 99 cents! I picked up a can and eagerly went to the counter, handing over my RM1 note excitedly.
The cashier girl picks up the can, scans it, takes my money and then looks at me expectedly. I look back at her, a little dense. Then I turn my head to the right to look at the price display from the scanner.
It read RM1.70.
Honestly, I was not surprised, and for a moment I wondered if I could have misread the label on the shelf (as it does frequently in Malaysia. The items are often mismatched in the supermarket stores with the price, so you really have to read the label description before buying an item). Then I recalled that it very clearly stated RM 0.99 on the shelf. I told the girl so, and she looked at me as though I was insane for trying to argue with the gods of the scanned price.
So both of us trudged back towards the related shelf, and there you have it! The price was written as RM 0.99 and NOT RM1.70 as she had scanned it in. Her colleague (who was removing some items from the shelves) said that the shelf price was right, and there was a Kak Ju who would know how to handle such transactions. The cashier girl replied that Kak Ju was off and then fairly stormed off to her station. I followed her.
At the cashier, she turned to another senior who tried to get me to pay the higher price. I pointed out that there was a scanning integrity poster right on her cashier counter, one that promised that in the case of discrepancy, the customer need only pay the lower price. Theoretically this meant that I only needed to pay RM0.99 instead of RM1.70.
The senior then waved my concerns away by saying that sometimes the staff took the notice down late. My immediate response (that stayed in my head) was, “And that’s my problem, how?”
In the end, I took my money back from her and went instead of my interview. So be warned. Giant Hypermarket is very unscrupulous, even if they claim to be cheap. They have promises printed in black and white but refuse to honour them (hmm… sounds like some politicians we know, right?).
And in case you were wondering? I’m not shopping there ever again.
To be fair I think you met some staff who just wanted to avoid doing something troublesome.
I’ve encountered quite a few instances like that where the price was wrong. But they’ve always honored the price for me. 😡
I got that aura from her too, but I don’t agree with such attitude. 😛 I wasn’t even rushing her and when I asked for my money back she simply gave it back to me without attempting to even try to make the arrangement. Her senior, IMO was worse. She completely dismissed my protests and had a very tulan face.
Also, was it in Giant? I know that Carefour at least honours their prices.
Yeah Giant. Forgot to specify.
I almost always shop there before. (Now I go to MyDin cause it’s cheaper. hurr) The instances I mentioned were almost all in Giant. You met some really lousy staff. :/
Hahaha.
Perhaps I did meet some lousy staff, but blergh. Still going to avoid Giant for the next few months at least.
Yeah. Definitely understandable. 8( *patpat*
I totally agree with you on Giant. Sometimes I wonder if they are the biggest con job or their backend system is really screwed up. The staff look like they would rather be some place else than in Giant serving its customers. they did honour the price but it’s such a painful experience having to explain and wait for them to walk slowly to check on the price.
After being over charged by Giant several times, I’ve left a Foursquare tip to warn others http://foursquare.com/venue/340483
I have just recently had an incident quite similar to yours; only mine was related to a total of RM2,300 ringgit worth of hampers.
It was in Giant Hypermarket Teluk Intan.
That’s quite a big amount!
I saw a Giant cashier (guy) throw a huge temper tantrum, screaming and shouting at a customer and banging on the table and (attempting to) flip the cash machine coz of a similar situation when this girl challenged her about the price. Security came over and the girl said she wanted to speak to the management. I would have expected the cashier to be fired at least but he was still there the next day, and last I was at Giant (this is Giant LDP) he was still working there.
Hmm…
Anyway I think I told you this story before when I was your neighbor. 🙂
They rarely fire the staff. I think the management hopes that the girl will go away and not do business with them anymore.
You know, I’d really be so pleased to see you post in a column of news or magazine or whatsoever that people can take notice of. I’m well aware of the above incident you had in a supermarket, not just Giant Hypermarket, a lot of supermarkets are like that and everytime this happens, I can’t help but relates to my experience in Japan how they would ask me to pay lower price and apologize for mistakes. (though some young staff nowadays don’t do that, the restaurant i worked in treats customers very importantly)
I think it’s sometimes a case of training. :s Most supermarkets don’t really care because they know that people will still visit them, so they continue such silly practice.
Reminds me of the time I bought a RM10 box of pocky…that cost RM35.
We should bring up these sort of things to the Consumers Association. :\
This is a new experience for me so I decided not to do so, but if it still continues then I think I’ll go make a complaint. Giant seems to be notorious at doing this.
I have encountered similar problems with pricing at Giant Taiping. So far my problems with pricing is always honoured. I lived close by to Giant so I visit Giant almost everyday, or at least used to, I encountered this pricing almost everytime I visit Giant and then have to go to Customer Services, fill up a form & get my refund. After awhile it got fed up of doing this, I just do my grocery shopping at a sundry shop not to far away, at least I know I wont get “price tricked” at the sundry shop. Recently I purchased almost RM200 so I could make use of Giant’s PWP (purchase with purchase) items which was really cheap only to find out that they didnt have stock eventhough it was within the time frame given in the brochure. The Cashier very confidently telling me since no stock I cannot purchase it on a later date when the stock arrive, however, I made a fuss and the supervisor & manager came & attended to my problem. I was told to leave my name & mobile no at the Customer Service Counter and I will be notified when the stock arrives. It has been almost a month now and I havent heard from them. I called up the supervisor today and as expected He was busy. I stopped doing my grocery shopping at Giant since the last “PWP” incident. I once paid RM15 extra, but b’cos being a regular I checked the price and got my refund. Imagine how many people who shop at Giant without checking the price and end up paying a higher price. I wonder if this is Giant’s way of making money “by conning the consumer”…
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Not enough people take note of the price, and those that do often decide not to do anything about it cause it’s too “troublesome.” :S
i just bought a hot plate. it didn’t work after two months. the plate got swollen and it did not get hot. so i took it to giant and after two months time, they had it repaired.
after a few months, again, same problem happened. it was only 8 months after buying the product. so still under warranty. they took it. then after three weeks, they told me i have to pay 50 RM for repairing because it was the second time. i argued and they did not accept. after all, i accepted to pay. then after two more weeks, i called to see if it was ready. surprisingly, they told me we are waiting for you to come and pay for the item, thennnnn they will repair it for you.
they are crazy. i was not in that town. so i told them, i already agreed to pay. why didn’t you tell it to me already????
so the lady told me that she will send it for repair again. after nearly two months, i went there and asked about the item. they told me we were waiting for you to pay, then the office will send it to this branch which will normally take one week.
i got crazy. i told them i want to see the big boss and they never paid attention. when i called later to talk to the customer service officer, she hang phone off on me.
they are cheaters. the products they sell is of lowwwww quality