Cincinnati – We are all grocery shopping when something goes wrong.
Usually it’s a few cents, sometimes not a dollar – $12,000 (you read that right: twelve thousand dollars).
Chase Dillingham Loves Kroger’s Online Grocery Pickup (formerly Clicklist), at least until earlier this week, when it bounced its checking account.
“We noticed that some of our bills were not being paid with our checking account,” Dillingham said. “So I checked and saw that our pickup order was charged over $12,000.”
Dillingham looked at the receipt and found that he had bought oranges at the cost of a diamond ring at a Kroger store in Liberty Township, Ohio, 30 miles north of Cincinnati.
“We got a quantity of three oranges, so the receipt showed they were $4,000 and 99 cents each,” Dillingham said.
When the automated system added them, “it was all over $12,000.”
WCPO
Grocery pickup and debit cards meant no human cashiers
Since it was all digital, Dillingham said, he never saw the total amount before taking his order, and the amount was then immediately charged to his debit card. Obviously, if someone is shopping in a store and an orange rings up at $4,000, they’re not going to pay it, because any cashier will quickly cancel the fee.
Dillingham went back to the store, where he said a manager apologized and began the refund process.
WCPO 9 contacted Kroger’s media relations department, where a spokesperson told us that “Found this to be a separate systematic issue. Upon discovering the error, Kroger store leadership met with the customer …. to process the refund back to the account that was used to make the purchase. Kroger also donated to The Shepard’s Crook, a West Chester nonprofit with which customers often volunteer, as a courtesy for the troubles they experienced with the order. We will continue to monitor to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” The full statement can be found below.
how to protect yourself
So what can you do to make sure that such an error never happens to you?
Dillingham said he would always check his order carefully before using the pickup. His advice to others?
“If you’re getting a pickup order, make sure you get a digital receipt, as you don’t get a paper receipt.”
This is another reminder to provide the extra security credit cards vs debit cards provide.
With a credit card, you can dispute any wild or fraudulent charges before they affect your bank account.
With a debit, it enters your account immediately, and one wrong charge can easily lead to an overdraft.
Finally, Dillingham suggests that you watch what you eat, showing that he still has a sense of humor about the whole thing.
“Unfortunately, my daughter ate one,” Dillingham said. “It was the most expensive orange in the history of the world.”
So go through those receipts carefully, and don’t waste your money.
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full kroger statement
“Upon reviewing the customer experience with Pickup from Liberty Township Kroger, we found this to be an isolated systematic issue where the customer was incorrectly charged for oranges purchased on October 6. Upon detection of the error, Kroger store leadership interviewed the customer and worked with our customer care team to process the refund back to the account used to make the purchase.Kroger also donated to the West Chester non-profit, The Shepard’s Crook And donated which customers often volunteer with, as a courtesy to the troubles they experienced with the order.
Kroger has actively researched this issue over the past few days and has found that no other customers have been affected when purchasing the product. We will continue to monitor to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” – Kroger spokesperson
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