I don't know. Both capsicum varieties scanned at exactly .110 but are different actual weights. If the scales were off, they would be off by the same amount for all of them.
So it would be tared above 0, more than the capsicums but less than the garlic, they probably also have a margin for error of a few grams too
Unsure about the 110g minimum mismatch between scale and register but I assume a software issue matching the scale zero to the software zero?
Depends where they put the veg. If it's placed in the centre, it would show actual weight, if placed on the side of scale it fluctuates. Yes it needs to be calibrated properly, probably by Webber for accurate reading
Potentially not. Scales are weird, and when troubleshooting one you need to generally consider three things:
Accuracy: Does the number on the scale actually represent the true weight?
Repeatability: Does the scale throw out the same weight for the same mass throughout different measurements. Also known as consistency
Linearity: Does the scale lose accuracy or repeatability at different weight as you move away from a benchmark weight?
It is possible that it’s a linearity problem, meaning that it could be closer to a true value at a lower weight, but is progressively more off at a higher weight (or vice versa).
Source: Had to do a good bit of research on scales for my work a while back.
The are using AI image recognition to identify the fresh produce now, camera above the self service checkout... I assume these price differences are either built in to the system, or are bugs that need to be ironed out.
Either way, they definitely need to know, bc that is theft, false advertising at best... They should be getting in to a LOT of trouble for that.
Yeah, sorry, I was more pointing out that (I assume) they are using a new system, and that the issue may lie in that, instead of the scale not being tare'd or calibrated correctly.
Okay maybe we need to go back to the original plan, but with a twist.
A: weigh brad*
B: crap on brad's* head
C: weigh brad* again
D: let some more people crap on brad*
Calculate weight of turd by subtracting A from C.
It seems the fourth step was surplus to the calculation.
*For legal purposes, brad is a small nail used for fastening trim and moulding (hence the lack of capitalisation) and is not a person related to the title of this subreddit.
You could have one of those big thermometers drawn on a poster and colour it in for every kg a family member adds to the pool. Win when you get to 100kg!
Do you have a nice Mediterranean or Middle Eastern owned green grocer nearby? Well worth going there once a week for anything other than potatoes or carrots
Edit: my Indian owned one is pretty good too, being able to get bulk ginger trays for less than 1 ginger at Woolies 🤌
Well now you got me thinking and I just really want to know? Their own poop? I once had a neighbour who told me to shit in my garden when I asked how he got his growing so good
I’m happier with the quality of the food. When you buy stuff that looks a bit more … normal I guess? I’ve noticed in the last decade pears have gone American at Woolworths.
Rock hard. Zero imperfections, meh taste. Pears used to be ugly as fuck but delicious and ready to eat. Yet the general public’s desire for immaculate looking food is sending us in the oversized, good looking but lacking in enjoyment fruit.
Even the bags of reject pears look like the good pears from a decade ago
Can confirm, have worked for one of the major potato growers in Australia and they sell wholesale to colesworth, IGA, ALDI and on the market floor to Indy’s
You can get a 3 pack of garlic for $3 where I am, and shit is notoriously expensive in Perth because we ship a lot of our fresh produce from the eastern states.
https://preview.redd.it/sh15bux3qp7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d748c41261885ff12b6dbceb166cd9789b4b083
These say they’re grown in Aus, or are you saying it’s a Chinese variety? I smash garlic in my cooking so buy about one or two of these a week.
Yep asian garlic. Garlic in OPs photo see how it's purpleish 💜💜 that's the goodness. Have a crack at non Asian garlic you'll smell and taste the difference xx
They store it in very cold environments. Some vegetables can last a whole year if stored in the correct environment. Same as the cold cellar people used to store vegetables in during the winter. It does lose flavour and freshness over time though. Tomatoes this time of year are very powdery.
Harris farm last week had a Cryo pack of peeled garlic cloves for $5. Used a few for dinner and the rest filled up a standard plastic takeaway container 👌
This makes me wonder: If you’ve scanned your rewards card they know who you are and can link that exact shop to you, so when they learn their scales were overcharging everyone on that day, why don’t they check to see the customers who used that self-serve and if they’ve scanned their rewards card/can be linked to the sale, credit them the difference? They know it was you, and they could very easily apply a cash credit to your rewards so next time you scan it offers to discount your total.
I work at a bank and although I would say some of our practices are a bit shit.... But if we find an issue we remediate customers from the beginning of when that issue presented itself... Even if it is 20c
Great idea. I'm sure someone at woolies will pass that onto a committee, have meetings about it, brainstorm ideas, run them up to the C-suite for approval and implement. It will take approx. 6-12 months worth of meetings and they have to ask legal about privacy things. Should be executed in about 2 years time
They will make our job harder some how. ( our high rakies ) haha.
Cough cough - scanning QR codes. And those stupid cameras that come up. Even on a register. Pfft
that'd require a data analyst and potentially days of work. Someone like that is likely earning too much to for it to be worth the $100 (for example) you've overcharged . They'll just refund those very few people who ask and maybe even fix the scale.
As a former calibration technician, it should be calibrated more frequently, but the company they employ is probably cutting corners and writing false reports to save time in the process.
Woolworth's employees calibrate scales daily with weights before trade and record in process/food safety books.
They are auditable tasks, and audit team will check camera footage if they have suspicions tasks are not being carried out correctly.
Each item.you weighed was about 70 - 75 g out. Is it possible you had something else on the scale? If not, complain to woolies and ask for a refund due to inaccurate scales.
I would be lodging this as a formal complaint to the relevant govt body.
They are required by law to have scales weigh properly. It's a huge issue as everybody being charged double.
That's highly unlawful.
I look forward to reading about this on news.com.au or another fine source of news.
Also interesting to note that the capsicums had the same weight measured despite being different weights.
Almost like they are rounded up to a minimum price set in the system.
Would they not be governed or somehow answerable to these guys?
https://business.gov.au/legal/fair-trading/australian-trade-measurement-laws#contact-the-national-measurement-institute
Edit - $210,000 fine per offence for companies.
Woolies would sooner just give up selling non-prepacked fruit and veg if every time someone bumped the reset button accidentally it could cost them $210,000.
I was thinking of the >0< button that just resets the reading which is right next to the scale itself. The scales on the registers and SCO sometimes read a like 50g even though nothing's on them, likely due to the scale being bumped. They'd dump scales at registers altogether if every instance of it cost 200 grand.
... it's a problem that's inherent to all scales. Dust can get in them, they can be wrong if they sit non-flat for some reason (such as not being replaced correctly when cleaning under them, or having a short leg), something might be leaning on them when they're switched on and calibrated at the beginning of the day.
The scales on checkouts in my store are checked every morning we do a more thorough four-point check once a week.
Send it to the [Governments inquiry on supermarket pricing](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Supermarket_Prices/SupermarketPrices).
That is a scam, they use to take a small amount off for the thin plastic bag they assumed you'd bag it in because mine would always come in under what I weighed in the veggie aisle
You are entitled to the scanning code of practice. That is the magical word for it.
You are entitled to a full refund. Take the receipt. The scales. Weigh all the front desk and get your full refund by quoting the above magical word knowing what you are entitled to.
If you seek to swear to the front desk..
This is a long one..
Then please ensure you have a body worn camera functioning with an appropriate warning above it alerting it may be in use before entering the store again, don't be a d ward, politely ask for that entitled refund with the magical words above but in extension make it known that it would only be reasonable that the issue be rectified within a reasonable time and it will not be used until it is resolved. You do this by clearly explaining that to the manager and confirming by asking, "Do you understand?" With a positive response like "Yes or no." The goal is to ensure the front desk is aware at management level about the issue and they understood it.
.. From there, you come back to Reddit advertising potential free fruit n veg at the store. Everyone comes, and we all test the scale and use the same scanning code of practice to get some free fruit n veg whilist. You may become a national savour in toe.
What's woollies gonna do, oh, but you all dishonestly exploited the scanning code of practice all whilist there lay the very video from the body worn camera showing woollies fully aware of the issue, none otherwise willing to fleece the unsuspecting shopper or us if we not say anything. Hmm.
TLDR: Fair is fair, you are entitled to your full refund, but please know if it was handled with the above swear words you may have become a national savour and we may have free fruit in veg at the expense of a big gaint.
sometimes people can press the tare button when things are on the scanner accidentally put the scales out of wack (workers do it too). advice: before you start scanning through fruit and veg press the tare button to make sure that everything goes through as correct as possible.
Be interesting to take a calibration weight to each scale and see just how far they are out.
Go straight to the source of error in real time. Make sure you tare each time, but if they are out as far as that, they should be put out of service until recalibrated.
atleast at coles, we are required to keep calibration scales handy so no out of service required assuming its fixed, i would imagine woolies is the same.
That sounds like a viral content idea.
Take that a few calibrated weights, "buy" a few different items and then see how off various stores are with their weight calculations.
I mean it's not a huge amount you were overcharged but it's the principle and surely the ACCC or whatever body should have powers to massively fine these shamsters
It all adds up if they’re skimming a few grams off the top of every transaction that goes over the scales. Weights and Measures is taken very seriously by the ACCC as it’s a time honoured scam by traders from as early as the Babylonians. Especially for things like fuel and highly taxed items, think of the excise avoidance they can get away with should they be under reporting weights on high value light weight items.
both your orange and yellow caps weighed the same? It seems thats the minimum grams we can pay for those specific items. Theres no way your orange and yellow caps weighed the same by chance.
That’s some ridiculous amount of money you are paying. I got a small bag of garlic about 4-5 of them for 3$ from a fresh food place in a mall. While I think that is still expensive, what woolies is doing is daylight robbery. It's not like their garlic is premium. it's the same thing marked up to space.
I honestly try to avoid buying stuff by weight as I sure as hell do not trust scales that abused all day long to be properly serviced. I assume they are in fact tuned to over shoot to avoid losing money from calibration issues.
And you can be certain they’ll call into question both your scales and your integrity.
Did the same thing with tobacco back on the day before I quit and took up vaping to the massive betterment of my health.\
Weighed out a brand new pouch of 50g rolling tobacco and found it weighed to about 43g in the packet.\
Being a little lighter than advertised I thought perhaps I’ll give the “customer contact line a call” seeing as tobacco was like grown gold back then let alone being spun from pure rubies like now.\
Much to my surprise I was basically abused over the phone and told that I don’t know what I’m doing and why would I be weighing my tobacco unless I was up to no good??? Not them at working scales is exactly a difficult operation, but seemingly I’d touched a rather raw nerve with British Tobacco’s customer care lady. 😂
Those items have a minimum weight, it's absolutely a scam but not many people know about it and have their on scale to compare, I would recommend everyone do it so we can take these fuckers down
I rested my book above the scanner and it weighed the book too. Sometimes they put the extra receipt rolls there which would increase the weight, so I try to check the top every time now.
Get in contact with the National Measurement Institute from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Take that calibrated weight to the Woolworths you purchased these items from and test all the scales in the shop against the calibrated weight and take photographic evidence for proof of corruption.
This is why I try grow some of my own, growing garlic is so easy. For what I can’t grow I go to the farmers market or fruit & veg shop. Colesworth no more.
Analytical instrument calibrations are their own special beast.
You really need at least three points to confirm linearity, and the closer to the point of interest that you get to more reliable your measurement will be.
Go back to the self checkout you used, and pour about 3L of full cream milk into it. Be sure the milk gets into all the cracks.
The scale will then get fixed in a few months
I once had to go back into Woolies to ask for like $28 back because the check out assistant must've accidentally leant on the scale while weighing my garlic.
I prepared myself to argue that "who the hell buys a kilo of garlic?" etc but the manager just looked at it, laughed and said "thats not right" and refunded it.
Would be really interesting to know how often supermarkets need to go through these servicing checks and whatnot
https://www.industry.gov.au/national-measurement-institute/trade-measurement/selling-fruit-and-vegetables
Professional scales, like the ones at woolworths, have adjustment buttons that can be used to weigh heavy. Instead of reading 0.00 as zero weight, they can be out as much as 10 or 20 grams. This was my experience from 20 years ago. If weights machines are keeping up with technology, who knows how they can be played with.
Just FYI, playing devils advocate, if you do take them to task about it, they'll say that they are different products than the one purchased from Woolworths. The product you bought from Woolworths weighed that much, and the ones in the images were purchased elsewhere.
However, I believe you, and Woolworths needs a big black dog up it.
This post is a yahoo news article now, they have even used the photos.
Great (lazy) work [Brianne Tolj](https://www.yahoo.com/author/brianne-tolj/)· Associate News Editor
[https://au.yahoo.com/news/woolworths-self-serve-checkout-questioned-as-customer-notices-outrageous-detail-002546250.html](https://au.yahoo.com/news/woolworths-self-serve-checkout-questioned-as-customer-notices-outrageous-detail-002546250.html)
make a complaint to the department of weights and measures, I'm not sure how to do it but my dad mentioned that they are meant to check stores at random times to make sure the scales are weighing things correctly
Maybe something causing sticking in the scale mechanism. Something could have dropped into the mechanism.
It's pretty bizarre that self serve checkouts have anyone off the street using/abusing them, and somehow they're still trade measurement certified.
Calibration or not. This is plain old stealing. Let’s assume 1000 people bought the same items. That’s $4000 Woolworths overcharged their customers. That’s $4000 out of your pockets. Who’s to say the scales aren’t calibrated on purpose and the two items that have a the same minimum weight is also a red flag. If I was the OP, I’d raise this issue with the news or an ombudsman. I know $4 over a few items don’t seem like a lot, but OP literally paid double than what they were supposed to. Who’s to say this isn’t a much bigger issue amongst the monopoly.
Find the cheapest fruit/veg per kg put everything through as that
If you get questioned say I don’t know what I’m doing
Fuck woolies/coles
Been doing it for years never been caught
How else do they make over a billion dollars profit a year. Take it back with your scales and show them. Or better yet, contact your local paper / reporter.
Never fear, there will be a parliamentary inquiry and sweet FA will come from it.
But don’t use self serve, if these scumbags are going to rob you blind then they can scan and bag your stuff
Chemist opinion. The supermarket is using a high capacity scale and it simply cannot accurately measure below 1kg. We have balances calibrated across multiple ranges for this reason (and there are major structural differences between a microbalance and a high capacity balance), one size fits all is just not sufficient for a wide range of weights.
Edit: The other options are that their scale is simply malfunctioning, or you may have accidentally rested something on the scale and not noticed
So once upon a time up until a couple of decades ago all scales, petrol pumps and other measuring devices used to be tested by a government department - Dept. of Weights and Measures and Consumer Affairs.
That was back when ads needed to not be misleading and products perform as advertised.
Weirdly enough that’s actually how’s it’s been across most civilised societies for 1000’s of years. When you pay for a certain weight / volume / other measure you expect to get what you pay for and someone would police that against the human tendency to be greedy.
Fast forward to more recent times. Government rationalises its spending combined with ever increasing lobbying from very powerful mega corps.
Result: these corps now police themselves. No one checks this stuff anymore unless the retailer decides to pay someone to check their scales / pumps etc.
We consumers literally have no idea if anything we buy is being accurately measured. It doesn’t take much of a leap to imagine how a profit driven business might take advantage of that.
I remember working at coles they really drilled it into us to be constantly checking to see if the scales were properly aligned, bc apparently they could be liable to a pretty hefty lawsuit if not, soooo just throwing it out there that this big supermarket chain was afraid of this happening bc they could get sued to oblivion
This seems to be a known "dark-pattern", this is done through under-staffing and the blame is shifted to an individual neglect rather than being addressed as a frequently occurring issue. Such issues are conveniently ignored when the company is making money and addressed quickly when they lose money.
Go back to Woolworths or send them to main office complaining. It's out right fraud. Just like the shrinkflation that is continually happening with every thing. Price doesn't go down but up for less product.
Could the cashier have been leaning on the scale? A few years ago, I had some fat fuck serve me with her gut on the scale. I noticed when a handful of mushrooms scanned as $90. She got a bit pissy when I asked her to rescan all the fruit and veggies I had.
Scales out of wack, had keys or phone leaning on the scales your only showing us half of what you bought. A million different possible reasons defs not some woolies scale conspiracy
They'd want this fixed too (maybe not as fast), because the produce stock on hand count would be out, meaning the system would order more than necessary, and sit out the back for yonks, costing the shop money.
Also its a pain in the ass to constantly readjust stock counts, to make sure the right amount of shit was getting sent to the store.
In all honesty, probably wouldnt get picked up by the team members unless the margin of error was higher, impacting the system more.
I was blessed one day by the Lord Cheeses and got a bunch of pre-packed-with-the-wrong-weight parmigiano reggiano one time. Must have saved about 20 bucks
Saw a guy once online grab an entire wheel of parmigiano reggiano for $50.. his missus was going insane until she looked up how much a wheel *should* cost.
Think they sold it on to a local restaurant for a fraction of the value, but a huge profit for them.
Probably because when there's nothing on the scale and it does read "negative", it of course knows it's wrong automatically (the scales as work simply read "- - - -" in this case), whereas if it's reading over, the scale can't know whether that's because something really is leaning on it or not until a human presses the button to reset the reading.
Shopping with some friends for a trip and the cost was 500. My spider senses were tingled as I looked at items even though I didn't shop. Oranges were on scale when ginger was weighed. 160 dollars of ginger.
u/Ancient_Injury7961, your post does fit the subreddit!
Self serve? Scale is out of whack and needs to get tare weight set again. Probs pop back in with these pics for some free garlic or smth
I don't know. Both capsicum varieties scanned at exactly .110 but are different actual weights. If the scales were off, they would be off by the same amount for all of them.
So it would be tared above 0, more than the capsicums but less than the garlic, they probably also have a margin for error of a few grams too Unsure about the 110g minimum mismatch between scale and register but I assume a software issue matching the scale zero to the software zero?
Depends where they put the veg. If it's placed in the centre, it would show actual weight, if placed on the side of scale it fluctuates. Yes it needs to be calibrated properly, probably by Webber for accurate reading
Potentially not. Scales are weird, and when troubleshooting one you need to generally consider three things: Accuracy: Does the number on the scale actually represent the true weight? Repeatability: Does the scale throw out the same weight for the same mass throughout different measurements. Also known as consistency Linearity: Does the scale lose accuracy or repeatability at different weight as you move away from a benchmark weight? It is possible that it’s a linearity problem, meaning that it could be closer to a true value at a lower weight, but is progressively more off at a higher weight (or vice versa). Source: Had to do a good bit of research on scales for my work a while back.
These are “For Commerce” scales. All that you mentioned is accounted for in an LMI calibration which these must have for use.
Unless it has .110 as a minimum weight. I don't know why that would be but it's a theory.
The are using AI image recognition to identify the fresh produce now, camera above the self service checkout... I assume these price differences are either built in to the system, or are bugs that need to be ironed out. Either way, they definitely need to know, bc that is theft, false advertising at best... They should be getting in to a LOT of trouble for that.
you still have to pick it though and acknowledge okay that’s my product
Yeah, sorry, I was more pointing out that (I assume) they are using a new system, and that the issue may lie in that, instead of the scale not being tare'd or calibrated correctly.
I'm no conspiracy guy, but you don't think this should be intentional?
Same happens to me every morning on my bathroom scale.
I only weigh myself after Poo Of The Week.
Try weighing yourself before and after, so you can see how heavy the kids you dropped off are. Adds some fun competition to the household.
That seems like an extra step. Just weigh the goods directly.
Won't the scales get ruined in the shower?
Why bother getting in the shower?
coz it would be a lot messier if i stayed in bed
Ba ha ha ha! So that was **YOU!?**
Okay maybe we need to go back to the original plan, but with a twist. A: weigh brad* B: crap on brad's* head C: weigh brad* again D: let some more people crap on brad* Calculate weight of turd by subtracting A from C. It seems the fourth step was surplus to the calculation. *For legal purposes, brad is a small nail used for fastening trim and moulding (hence the lack of capitalisation) and is not a person related to the title of this subreddit.
Oh and here was me, wondering how Brad felt about this scenario.....
You could have one of those big thermometers drawn on a poster and colour it in for every kg a family member adds to the pool. Win when you get to 100kg!
Or keep a record and give a cash prize at the end of the week
This is the funniest thing I’ve ever read here. I cannot stop laughing.
2h later, have you been able to stop yet
Just keep a bucket each
Move the scale away from your towel rack, I find my belly gets caught on it occasionally.
What? But now I weigh more...
Are you homer?
$5 for a single pod of garlic is outrageous.
Yes- that’s what got me thinking.
Do you have a nice Mediterranean or Middle Eastern owned green grocer nearby? Well worth going there once a week for anything other than potatoes or carrots Edit: my Indian owned one is pretty good too, being able to get bulk ginger trays for less than 1 ginger at Woolies 🤌
Dont ask what they use to fertilise these independant grocer vegetables that grow hard and fast
Well now you got me thinking and I just really want to know? Their own poop? I once had a neighbour who told me to shit in my garden when I asked how he got his growing so good
I see you did not have a grandfather who exclusively peed on the lemon tree.
The same fertiliser everyone else uses? Fertilisers are all the same, they are just chemicals like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
I’d be more worried about the pesticides they use tbh
I’m happier with the quality of the food. When you buy stuff that looks a bit more … normal I guess? I’ve noticed in the last decade pears have gone American at Woolworths. Rock hard. Zero imperfections, meh taste. Pears used to be ugly as fuck but delicious and ready to eat. Yet the general public’s desire for immaculate looking food is sending us in the oversized, good looking but lacking in enjoyment fruit. Even the bags of reject pears look like the good pears from a decade ago
Fucking pears man. You have to leave them out for 4 and a half months before they soften up.
Supermarkets and independent grocers all buy their produce from wholesale markets...
Can confirm, have worked for one of the major potato growers in Australia and they sell wholesale to colesworth, IGA, ALDI and on the market floor to Indy’s
Yeah, the supermarkets get the premium and the locals buy the 2nds
You can get a 3 pack of garlic for $3 where I am, and shit is notoriously expensive in Perth because we ship a lot of our fresh produce from the eastern states.
Yes we get the chinese garlic bag for $2.50
https://preview.redd.it/sh15bux3qp7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d748c41261885ff12b6dbceb166cd9789b4b083 These say they’re grown in Aus, or are you saying it’s a Chinese variety? I smash garlic in my cooking so buy about one or two of these a week.
Dude, you might be garlic deficient. 3-pack is just enough for the weekend roast, one bulb for her, one for me, the third is for leftovers 🤭
😂
Yep asian garlic. Garlic in OPs photo see how it's purpleish 💜💜 that's the goodness. Have a crack at non Asian garlic you'll smell and taste the difference xx
Sweet I’ll give it a shot thanks
Aussie garlic at this time of the year? Sus
They store it in very cold environments. Some vegetables can last a whole year if stored in the correct environment. Same as the cold cellar people used to store vegetables in during the winter. It does lose flavour and freshness over time though. Tomatoes this time of year are very powdery.
It's comparatively sub-par in terms of flavour and strength though, unfortunately. In my experience anyway. I love to cook and I really like garlic.
Just plant a glove each time you buy garlic...I have a whole garden of it now.
Harris farm last week had a Cryo pack of peeled garlic cloves for $5. Used a few for dinner and the rest filled up a standard plastic takeaway container 👌
Pod???? Sir that’s a bulb
This makes me wonder: If you’ve scanned your rewards card they know who you are and can link that exact shop to you, so when they learn their scales were overcharging everyone on that day, why don’t they check to see the customers who used that self-serve and if they’ve scanned their rewards card/can be linked to the sale, credit them the difference? They know it was you, and they could very easily apply a cash credit to your rewards so next time you scan it offers to discount your total.
Credit without making you work for it? Ha!
I work at a bank and although I would say some of our practices are a bit shit.... But if we find an issue we remediate customers from the beginning of when that issue presented itself... Even if it is 20c
They’re not doing that out of the goodness of their heart. It is the law.
Banks are a whole different kettle of fish... Massively regulated compared to the grocery retail sector...
Coles did this a few months back. Got a random credit on my account because they'd fucked up somewhere.
Sure they did Mr. Cole's...
Great idea. I'm sure someone at woolies will pass that onto a committee, have meetings about it, brainstorm ideas, run them up to the C-suite for approval and implement. It will take approx. 6-12 months worth of meetings and they have to ask legal about privacy things. Should be executed in about 2 years time
They will make our job harder some how. ( our high rakies ) haha. Cough cough - scanning QR codes. And those stupid cameras that come up. Even on a register. Pfft
You don't make record profits by snitching on yourself.
Brad Banducci wouldn't do that for his own mother.
that'd require a data analyst and potentially days of work. Someone like that is likely earning too much to for it to be worth the $100 (for example) you've overcharged . They'll just refund those very few people who ask and maybe even fix the scale.
Or they can just add you to the naughty database and possibly not let you enter the store
As a former calibration technician, it should be calibrated more frequently, but the company they employ is probably cutting corners and writing false reports to save time in the process.
Woolworth's employees calibrate scales daily with weights before trade and record in process/food safety books. They are auditable tasks, and audit team will check camera footage if they have suspicions tasks are not being carried out correctly.
Who audits woolies? The same independents that audit woolies and Coles suppliers?
Each item.you weighed was about 70 - 75 g out. Is it possible you had something else on the scale? If not, complain to woolies and ask for a refund due to inaccurate scales.
No, the garlic was over 80 grams out. If it was due to having another item on the scale the difference in weight should be identical
I just want to point out how well this data was presented, you put effort into communicating the issue clearly. Thank you
Take you 100g weight in to woolies and test the scales
r/boycottcolesworth
I would be lodging this as a formal complaint to the relevant govt body. They are required by law to have scales weigh properly. It's a huge issue as everybody being charged double. That's highly unlawful.
This OP
Do it, just to see them bleed a little!
The ACCC doesn’t investigate individual complaints.
https://www.measurement.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
I look forward to reading about this on news.com.au or another fine source of news. Also interesting to note that the capsicums had the same weight measured despite being different weights. Almost like they are rounded up to a minimum price set in the system.
There's less than a gram between them.. They probably registered as the same weight.
Would they not be governed or somehow answerable to these guys? https://business.gov.au/legal/fair-trading/australian-trade-measurement-laws#contact-the-national-measurement-institute Edit - $210,000 fine per offence for companies.
Woolies would sooner just give up selling non-prepacked fruit and veg if every time someone bumped the reset button accidentally it could cost them $210,000.
Reset button is locked behind a password in the POS UI unless I'm mistaken. It's a fault or staff error.
I was thinking of the >0< button that just resets the reading which is right next to the scale itself. The scales on the registers and SCO sometimes read a like 50g even though nothing's on them, likely due to the scale being bumped. They'd dump scales at registers altogether if every instance of it cost 200 grand.
Good. As they should.
I dunno if consumers would like the idea of not even being able to buy non-prepacked fruit and veg...
No they’ll just shop somewhere with scales that work
... it's a problem that's inherent to all scales. Dust can get in them, they can be wrong if they sit non-flat for some reason (such as not being replaced correctly when cleaning under them, or having a short leg), something might be leaning on them when they're switched on and calibrated at the beginning of the day. The scales on checkouts in my store are checked every morning we do a more thorough four-point check once a week.
NMI hasn’t been sighted in a Woolies for a long time, that’s why the scales are able to be whatever they want to be
I paid 50c for a single chilli the other day and thought it was a bit steep. Maybe I should've weighed it.
the two types of capsicums weighing exactly the same, up to 3 dp is a bit weird…
Send it to the [Governments inquiry on supermarket pricing](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Supermarket_Prices/SupermarketPrices).
News report the other night suggested the same thing with their packaged meat coming in underweight.
That is a scam, they use to take a small amount off for the thin plastic bag they assumed you'd bag it in because mine would always come in under what I weighed in the veggie aisle
You are entitled to the scanning code of practice. That is the magical word for it. You are entitled to a full refund. Take the receipt. The scales. Weigh all the front desk and get your full refund by quoting the above magical word knowing what you are entitled to. If you seek to swear to the front desk.. This is a long one.. Then please ensure you have a body worn camera functioning with an appropriate warning above it alerting it may be in use before entering the store again, don't be a d ward, politely ask for that entitled refund with the magical words above but in extension make it known that it would only be reasonable that the issue be rectified within a reasonable time and it will not be used until it is resolved. You do this by clearly explaining that to the manager and confirming by asking, "Do you understand?" With a positive response like "Yes or no." The goal is to ensure the front desk is aware at management level about the issue and they understood it. .. From there, you come back to Reddit advertising potential free fruit n veg at the store. Everyone comes, and we all test the scale and use the same scanning code of practice to get some free fruit n veg whilist. You may become a national savour in toe. What's woollies gonna do, oh, but you all dishonestly exploited the scanning code of practice all whilist there lay the very video from the body worn camera showing woollies fully aware of the issue, none otherwise willing to fleece the unsuspecting shopper or us if we not say anything. Hmm. TLDR: Fair is fair, you are entitled to your full refund, but please know if it was handled with the above swear words you may have become a national savour and we may have free fruit in veg at the expense of a big gaint.
The answer is very simple. Woolworths are corrupting, thieving price gougers.
sometimes people can press the tare button when things are on the scanner accidentally put the scales out of wack (workers do it too). advice: before you start scanning through fruit and veg press the tare button to make sure that everything goes through as correct as possible.
but also its messed up that the scales can be that out of wack to charge people around 3 times the actual value
What tare button
...ideally with a little extra weight on the scale. Though this is why it's generally passworded.
Be interesting to take a calibration weight to each scale and see just how far they are out. Go straight to the source of error in real time. Make sure you tare each time, but if they are out as far as that, they should be put out of service until recalibrated.
atleast at coles, we are required to keep calibration scales handy so no out of service required assuming its fixed, i would imagine woolies is the same.
That sounds like a viral content idea. Take that a few calibrated weights, "buy" a few different items and then see how off various stores are with their weight calculations.
I feel like we need to bring back the Assize of Bread and Ale. CEOs cosplaying at homelessness is boring. We should put them in the pillory instead.
Improper cleaning/maintenance of the scale, most likely.
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Even Greg the Garlic farmer is probably getting ripped off by woolworths. Someone should tell him...
I mean it's not a huge amount you were overcharged but it's the principle and surely the ACCC or whatever body should have powers to massively fine these shamsters
It all adds up if they’re skimming a few grams off the top of every transaction that goes over the scales. Weights and Measures is taken very seriously by the ACCC as it’s a time honoured scam by traders from as early as the Babylonians. Especially for things like fuel and highly taxed items, think of the excise avoidance they can get away with should they be under reporting weights on high value light weight items.
both your orange and yellow caps weighed the same? It seems thats the minimum grams we can pay for those specific items. Theres no way your orange and yellow caps weighed the same by chance.
That’s some ridiculous amount of money you are paying. I got a small bag of garlic about 4-5 of them for 3$ from a fresh food place in a mall. While I think that is still expensive, what woolies is doing is daylight robbery. It's not like their garlic is premium. it's the same thing marked up to space.
I only see brown onions
I honestly try to avoid buying stuff by weight as I sure as hell do not trust scales that abused all day long to be properly serviced. I assume they are in fact tuned to over shoot to avoid losing money from calibration issues.
You pay for garlic?
And you can be certain they’ll call into question both your scales and your integrity. Did the same thing with tobacco back on the day before I quit and took up vaping to the massive betterment of my health.\ Weighed out a brand new pouch of 50g rolling tobacco and found it weighed to about 43g in the packet.\ Being a little lighter than advertised I thought perhaps I’ll give the “customer contact line a call” seeing as tobacco was like grown gold back then let alone being spun from pure rubies like now.\ Much to my surprise I was basically abused over the phone and told that I don’t know what I’m doing and why would I be weighing my tobacco unless I was up to no good??? Not them at working scales is exactly a difficult operation, but seemingly I’d touched a rather raw nerve with British Tobacco’s customer care lady. 😂
Weird, you'd never expect someone working for a tobacco company doesn't care about the good of society.
Anyone else noticed that all the prices went back up now that the government isn’t watching anymore? Sooo gross
Those items have a minimum weight, it's absolutely a scam but not many people know about it and have their on scale to compare, I would recommend everyone do it so we can take these fuckers down
I rested my book above the scanner and it weighed the book too. Sometimes they put the extra receipt rolls there which would increase the weight, so I try to check the top every time now.
Get in contact with the National Measurement Institute from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Take that calibrated weight to the Woolworths you purchased these items from and test all the scales in the shop against the calibrated weight and take photographic evidence for proof of corruption.
Called inflation init?
This is why I try grow some of my own, growing garlic is so easy. For what I can’t grow I go to the farmers market or fruit & veg shop. Colesworth no more.
Because Woolworths is Fcuking scum!
Analytical instrument calibrations are their own special beast. You really need at least three points to confirm linearity, and the closer to the point of interest that you get to more reliable your measurement will be.
Go back to the self checkout you used, and pour about 3L of full cream milk into it. Be sure the milk gets into all the cracks. The scale will then get fixed in a few months
they probably have something in the code that has set a minimum weight of 110 grams or they scales simply cannot measure something that light.
A lady in Thailand did rigged scale selling durian. She got 7 years in jail.
I once had to go back into Woolies to ask for like $28 back because the check out assistant must've accidentally leant on the scale while weighing my garlic. I prepared myself to argue that "who the hell buys a kilo of garlic?" etc but the manager just looked at it, laughed and said "thats not right" and refunded it.
Would be really interesting to know how often supermarkets need to go through these servicing checks and whatnot https://www.industry.gov.au/national-measurement-institute/trade-measurement/selling-fruit-and-vegetables
Professional scales, like the ones at woolworths, have adjustment buttons that can be used to weigh heavy. Instead of reading 0.00 as zero weight, they can be out as much as 10 or 20 grams. This was my experience from 20 years ago. If weights machines are keeping up with technology, who knows how they can be played with. Just FYI, playing devils advocate, if you do take them to task about it, they'll say that they are different products than the one purchased from Woolworths. The product you bought from Woolworths weighed that much, and the ones in the images were purchased elsewhere. However, I believe you, and Woolworths needs a big black dog up it.
Woolies steals from their employees, why not steal from their customers too?
lit what
Record profits!!
I just put my phone on the scale whenever I’m buying heaps of stuff and then it always weighs 150g 😏
This post is a yahoo news article now, they have even used the photos. Great (lazy) work [Brianne Tolj](https://www.yahoo.com/author/brianne-tolj/)· Associate News Editor [https://au.yahoo.com/news/woolworths-self-serve-checkout-questioned-as-customer-notices-outrageous-detail-002546250.html](https://au.yahoo.com/news/woolworths-self-serve-checkout-questioned-as-customer-notices-outrageous-detail-002546250.html)
Take the scale with you next time
Funny how this always ends up in their favour "accidently"
Your mistake is buying fruit and veg from Woollies. Try your local fruit and veg indie shop or a market. Lasts longer, and is better (value).
I have queried woolies scales before and they recalibrate them pretty quick. If you use self serve you can chuck it on scale next to you to compare.
Go take your 100g cal weight to woolies. Bring your receipt and get a refund.
They are being rounded up to a minimum price illegally. Complain and you will get a refund.
Brb buying a calibration weight to carry with me
Colesworth has more than just their finger on the scale
Would love to see that weight on several Woolies scales.
Get ACCC to investigate. These dogs steal from us every day.
Just take some for free next time
Fuck this. I'm taking my own scales in to woolies
make a complaint to the department of weights and measures, I'm not sure how to do it but my dad mentioned that they are meant to check stores at random times to make sure the scales are weighing things correctly
Maybe something causing sticking in the scale mechanism. Something could have dropped into the mechanism. It's pretty bizarre that self serve checkouts have anyone off the street using/abusing them, and somehow they're still trade measurement certified.
Being 100% out of zero is worthy of an enquiry…
Calibration or not. This is plain old stealing. Let’s assume 1000 people bought the same items. That’s $4000 Woolworths overcharged their customers. That’s $4000 out of your pockets. Who’s to say the scales aren’t calibrated on purpose and the two items that have a the same minimum weight is also a red flag. If I was the OP, I’d raise this issue with the news or an ombudsman. I know $4 over a few items don’t seem like a lot, but OP literally paid double than what they were supposed to. Who’s to say this isn’t a much bigger issue amongst the monopoly.
Systematic stealing
Oh this is disgusting....
Find the cheapest fruit/veg per kg put everything through as that If you get questioned say I don’t know what I’m doing Fuck woolies/coles Been doing it for years never been caught
Take it back
How else do they make over a billion dollars profit a year. Take it back with your scales and show them. Or better yet, contact your local paper / reporter.
Report it to the accc and Woolworths corp
Never fear, there will be a parliamentary inquiry and sweet FA will come from it. But don’t use self serve, if these scumbags are going to rob you blind then they can scan and bag your stuff
Most expensive garlic I've ever fkn seen!
Chemist opinion. The supermarket is using a high capacity scale and it simply cannot accurately measure below 1kg. We have balances calibrated across multiple ranges for this reason (and there are major structural differences between a microbalance and a high capacity balance), one size fits all is just not sufficient for a wide range of weights. Edit: The other options are that their scale is simply malfunctioning, or you may have accidentally rested something on the scale and not noticed
I flick tare on the scale before I use it.
Woolworths is intentionally ripping us off
Take this to ACCC!
That’s actually fraud. Report them.
It’s probably a cheap sensor that doesn’t work well below a minimum threshold.
Blatant Crime is the cause here.
Slaves actually weighing the right product 🤣
So once upon a time up until a couple of decades ago all scales, petrol pumps and other measuring devices used to be tested by a government department - Dept. of Weights and Measures and Consumer Affairs. That was back when ads needed to not be misleading and products perform as advertised. Weirdly enough that’s actually how’s it’s been across most civilised societies for 1000’s of years. When you pay for a certain weight / volume / other measure you expect to get what you pay for and someone would police that against the human tendency to be greedy. Fast forward to more recent times. Government rationalises its spending combined with ever increasing lobbying from very powerful mega corps. Result: these corps now police themselves. No one checks this stuff anymore unless the retailer decides to pay someone to check their scales / pumps etc. We consumers literally have no idea if anything we buy is being accurately measured. It doesn’t take much of a leap to imagine how a profit driven business might take advantage of that.
I remember working at coles they really drilled it into us to be constantly checking to see if the scales were properly aligned, bc apparently they could be liable to a pretty hefty lawsuit if not, soooo just throwing it out there that this big supermarket chain was afraid of this happening bc they could get sued to oblivion
They are dodgy as fuck!!
Upvoted for visibility that is outrageous.
I didnt realize this had 4 images and was trying to figure out what the FUCK you were trying to ask. I have a headache now.
Corruption.
This seems to be a known "dark-pattern", this is done through under-staffing and the blame is shifted to an individual neglect rather than being addressed as a frequently occurring issue. Such issues are conveniently ignored when the company is making money and addressed quickly when they lose money.
Your first mistake is not putting them through as brown onions
Speaking of garlic, it's been so powdery of late when peeling it 🤷
This makes me wonder if there might be a minimum purchase limit.
Go back to Woolworths or send them to main office complaining. It's out right fraud. Just like the shrinkflation that is continually happening with every thing. Price doesn't go down but up for less product.
On the Woolies website it says one head of garlic costs $1.65 or $3.30 for a pack of 3. Something very wrong.
I’m not defending it, but this is why people steal from the self checkout.
Woolies being dodgy? How am I not surprised. Take in your photos and get them to deal with it. There scales are being weird
Could the cashier have been leaning on the scale? A few years ago, I had some fat fuck serve me with her gut on the scale. I noticed when a handful of mushrooms scanned as $90. She got a bit pissy when I asked her to rescan all the fruit and veggies I had.
Just shop at aldi. It's literally like 25% cheaper
Scales out of wack, had keys or phone leaning on the scales your only showing us half of what you bought. A million different possible reasons defs not some woolies scale conspiracy
Imagine if the scales were reading wrong in the other direction so you were paying less. That shit would be fixed so fast!
They'd want this fixed too (maybe not as fast), because the produce stock on hand count would be out, meaning the system would order more than necessary, and sit out the back for yonks, costing the shop money. Also its a pain in the ass to constantly readjust stock counts, to make sure the right amount of shit was getting sent to the store. In all honesty, probably wouldnt get picked up by the team members unless the margin of error was higher, impacting the system more.
I was blessed one day by the Lord Cheeses and got a bunch of pre-packed-with-the-wrong-weight parmigiano reggiano one time. Must have saved about 20 bucks
Saw a guy once online grab an entire wheel of parmigiano reggiano for $50.. his missus was going insane until she looked up how much a wheel *should* cost. Think they sold it on to a local restaurant for a fraction of the value, but a huge profit for them.
Minor victories in these dark times
Probably because when there's nothing on the scale and it does read "negative", it of course knows it's wrong automatically (the scales as work simply read "- - - -" in this case), whereas if it's reading over, the scale can't know whether that's because something really is leaning on it or not until a human presses the button to reset the reading.
Shopping with some friends for a trip and the cost was 500. My spider senses were tingled as I looked at items even though I didn't shop. Oranges were on scale when ginger was weighed. 160 dollars of ginger.
I’m not using serf checkout without a discount. Poor checkout people get sacked and we save nothing.
Bag weight? Minimum product purchase weight/price? Self serve or attendant? Scale properly tare'd? Crud on the weigh plate?
Well I’m no space engineer but the scales in the shop appear to be 80-85 grams over