Topic
Topic ID 6067
07/07/2011 by James007
Scan what you buy
I am not posting this to alarm anyone but if you have an iPhone or Blackberry you should get this application called Red Laser which is a barcode scanner..
On Monday afternoon I bought some ciggies from a well known independent retailer in Hertford and they showed up as 'liquid hair cream' and some chewy sweets that showed up as 'ink-jet'.
I won't name the 'liquid hair cream and ink-jet' shop but I have informed Trading Standards.
I am sure some parliament figure in the government will answer my question as to how why this is the case, either that or it will be a waste of time and I will be asked to wash my hands of the whole episode.
Let's see what happens.
Replies
Reply ID 82123
07/07/2011 by Andrew
Just curious, but why does this matter? I can think of a number of occassions when items I have bought have been scanned as something else, as long as the right price is charged, surely the issue is with the shop's stock control rather than for the customer?
Reply ID 82124
07/07/2011 by James007
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
Just curious, but why does this matter? I can think of a number of occassions when items I have bought have been scanned as something else, as long as the right price is charged, surely the issue is with the shop's stock control rather than for the customer?
Depends what you want to put in or on your body, especially if you buy from an independent retailer, which I do regularly.
Reply ID 82125
07/07/2011 by Leo Densian
Have you tried to scan the items more than once? I dont think its an exact science - any blur etc may affect the result.
Reply ID 82127
07/07/2011 by shunt
Is there a likelyhood that an unsuspecting greaser may try to rub cigarettes into his barnet as a result of the fault in the barcode, or is the concern the different taxation levels on tobacco and hair cream?
As far as the app itself is concerned, I don't get how it works. A barcode is just a number. Unless the retailer assigns a stock description to that number, it has no meaning. How would the BB know which retailer's stock system is being used or have access to it.
Reply ID 82128
07/07/2011 by james
RedLaser uses a number of online databases to assign a product to a bar code. As the majority of these will be based on US data there's every chance it could be wrong. There's no need to get trading standards involved.
Reply ID 82129
07/07/2011 by shunt
Ah. It occurs to me that 007's complaint is about the phone software, not the independant retailer.
Reply ID 82130
08/07/2011 by James007
might be right..
7 replies