Misleading unit prices on Tesco’s website

Pack of 4*38g tubes of smarties £1.49 unit price 98p per 100g

A single tube of 38g smarties 60p unit price 60p per pack

I should also point out that the 4*38g description is mine the Tesco website is listing it as pack of 4 (152g). Multipacks don’t always have the same size in them as single items, but in this case it seems they do.

Quaker Oat So Simple Original Porridge 18 X 27G… £2.99
Quaker Oat So Simple Original Porridge 324G… 2 for £4.00 (Special Offer)

??

Princess Tuna chunks in various liquids 160g tin each £1.00 unit price showing as 89p apart from the tomato sauce tin still listed as the same price / weight but with the correct unit price of 62.5p ( well they’ve rounded it to 63p)

Seems like if its not tomato sauce they’ve used the drained weight of 112g

Tesco say “we would like to reassure customers that no one would have been charged more than the item price for any product they’ve bought on tesco.com”

That’s as maybe but what will they be doing for people who bought a more expensive item per unit of measure because it incorrectly showed a lower unit price? And as usual Tesco have missed the point.

The Tesco problem with unit prices online is only a reflection of what has been happening on the physical shelves for years. Sometimes a quick mental calculation indicates that it is the retention of a figure from before a change in pack size but often it just shows that the HQ staff just cannot do sums! On one occasion there was a 1kg pack of parsnips priced at £1.00 and a unit price of £1.30 per kilo! From talking to staff in my local store, it is not that they don’t notice but that their feedback to HQ is ignored and local staff cannot print corrected labels – the system allows them to print only the authorised incorrect one and they are forbidden to alter them manually.
Another thing which needs watching is that even in the absence of special offers the pricing of different sized packs of the same thing can be illogical and as the cheapest can be any one of the sizes on the shelf, it is important not to assume that the largest pack will be the cheapest. I’ve found this problem on anything from Horlicks to toilet rolls and the saving can be more than just pence. On Horlicks a “refill” pack (400g in a plastic bag) is often the most expensive way of buying it, as it is often priced at only a few pence less than a 500g canister. The only safe motto is “Caveat emptor”!
Why do I still shop there? -the alternative to find a large supermarket with a wide range is to add about 10 miles to my round trip.

Maltesers bag were 135g now 121g yet the unit pricing is still based on the 135g size, so it’s WRONG

Twix Mix bag were 140g now 126g yet the unit pricing is still based on the 140g size, so it’s WRONG.

These were spotted 9th August, so it doesn’t look like Tesco are urgently looking at the “technical” issues.

Tesco put different sizes of toilet rolls of the same brand in different places hoping you won’t notice their pricing.

Cushelle Toilet Rolls
9 pack 30p per 100 sheets £4.85
4 pack 28.8 per 100 sheets £2.00

Must be how they get their money back when they give vouchers for the product thinking most people will buy the 9-pack to make the most of their vouchers.

Hoist by their own petard. Tesco’s £250 million profit shortfall is allegedly the result of corrupted business practices, according to the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/tsco/11125723/Tesco-could-be-forced-to-restate-accounts.html

Don’t say we didn’t warn you, Tesco!

I may have gone off road but I experienced a further example of Tesco’s ineptitude when I used a store receipt to get my discount off fuel when filling up at one of their outlets. The receipt stated that my savings were 5p off every litre but was told that the discount was only in 2p increments and I therefore only qualified for 4p off.
Bemused, I rang the relevant Tesco department and I was told that the 5p figure indicated that I was on my way to the higher discount of 6p but by how much would mean me totting up previous receipts to find how much more I needed to buy to reach the £50 qualifying amount.
Confused? I certainly was and the Tesco advisor apologised for the complexity of the offer and said I was not the only one who had questioned this misleading information on receipts. I afterwards read the T& C on their website where the offer needed the longest paragraph I have ever seen to explain the process.
Next to get to grips with the seasonal minefield of points, coupons and voucher ‘benefits’ which we lucky Clubcard members qualify for and which require a IQ of at least 140.
I wonder if the person responsible for all these surreal concepts is among those who have recently been asked to resign?

I order fairly regularly from Tesco online and over the years have occasionally had a pricing policy issue with the price quoted in the online store not being held when the food has been delivered. However, the bizarrest situation happened a week ago when my online order was as follows;
2 Tesco Courgettes Loose £0.50 £1.00
1 Tesco Charlotte Potatoes 1Kg £1.00 £1.00
2 Tesco Low Calorie Indian Tonic Water With Lemon 1Ltr £0.45 £0.90
4 Tesco Everyday Value Unsweetened Soya Drink 1 Litre £0.65 £2.60
2 Tesco Meat Free Vegetarian Mince 454G £1.75 £3.50
1 Counter Salmon Side £10.00 £10.00
3 Tesco Everyday Value Noodles Spice Curry Flavoured 70G £0.35 £1.05
1 Tesco Boneless Sea Bass Fillets £5.76 £5.76
1 Tesco Everyday Value Bananas Min 8 Pack £1.15 £1.15
2 Tesco Aubergine Each £0.75 £1.50
1 Yutaka Tofu 349G £1.59 £1.59
1 Tesco Everyday Value Italian Style Hard Cheese 200G £2.30 £2.30
2 Tesco Meat Free Meat Style Balls 400G £1.75 £3.50
1 Tesco Everyday Value Closed Cup Mushrooms 350G £0.79 £0.79
2 Tesco Meat Free Beef Style Strips 300G £1.75 £3.50
1 Tesco Meat Free Thai Green Curry 1Kg £3.00 £3.00
1 Linda Mccartney 2 Vegetarian Deep Dish Country Pies 380G £2.00 £2.00
Total: £46.59 and no substitutions requested.
Upon delivery, when I looked at the bill presented with the food, and started to unpack, I had been charged £19.30 for salmon which should have cost £10, and £1.53 for courgettes which should have been £1.00 or thereabouts as loose, but was charged £1.53.
I rang Tescos and have received a refund for the difference on the salmon, but not for the courgettes as yet, but this was a £10 overcharge on an account which should have cost £46.59!!
Also, with my previous order to this one, I ordered some sea bass but it wasn’t delivered. I did get a refund, after I brought it to their attention, but essentially Tescos, this is nothing short of theft in my opinion and countless others are probably being ripped off as well.

Let’s not get obsessive-compulsive about 0.0001p errors which will understandably lead to the shutters going down on communications with supermarkets. I dislike the .99p psychology that permeates the retail industry and I always round up the price in my mind. Keeping pricing clear and plain is the way forward to avoiding misleading customers and creating trust.

I just compared Tesco online prices of own brand oranges (1.50 per bag) and Jaffa oranges on sale (1.85, two bags for 2.50). The unit price given for the Jaffa oranges is based on the sale price, not on the unit price for oranges in a single bag.

Sorry Wave your right…………Getting my decimal whatsits all messed up……….You got the picture though

I know this thread started in 2014 but 4 years later, I am still experiencing very misleading unit pricing at my local store in Epping. I’ve written to Trading Standards and would urge anyone else with the same experience to do so as well.