Albertson's Did it Again! Grrr!

Albertson's have been so confusing with their sales to much of our inconvenience and frustration, but there is no denying that they hold the best sales around when they do, at least in our area. So when they erroneously crossed procedure with a hawkeye shopper, the fireworks were inevitable to go off. Let's just say they are lucky again that it was me they dealt with...

After our major pantry, fridge and cupboard raid the last two weeks, it was time to get groceries again, and since Albertson's this week, had the best deal around for meats and cereals, we went there this morning. Well, at least that's what we thought...

We followed the whole ad, we paid attention to the price tags- all in the name of stretching the ol' dollar. I don't know about in your area but here, they had a lot of BOGOF plus draws of 20% off for certain items. If not for the coincidence of our stock dwindling for the similar items on sale, I wouldn't have bothered to come there. Grrr!

So today after receiving something from a fellow Freecycler, we headed to the Albertson's near us.

With ads on each hand, we grabbed all the sale items we needed to stock up on and replace meat in our bare freezer. We successfully filled up our carts and we hit the registers. The first three, and I mean only the first three, rang up right! Mr. Man and I had to go back and verify the price tags that we saw and calculated against our set budget. The cashier also sent someone to verify our claims. WE WERE RIGHT!

So the attempts at compensating us commenced and were completed, or so we thought. Upon loading all the items in the van, I did what I always do, check the receipt again. I'm glad I did because 5 items were clearly not taken care of! So we go back and as before, we checked the price tags before we complained to the Customer Service. In between, we caught up with Bruce, who we found out later to be the store's director! He confirmed we were right- again! He told us that we were entitled to one of the three similar items FREE, so we took it up to the counter at CS.

While we explained the error to the associate, another manager came up and with attitude, tells us that we were wrong! Then she proceeds to tell us, "Do you want BOGOF or 1 item for the sale price?" What?!

She then explains that this particular store, starts swapping the new weekly sales tags, THE MORNING OF THE LAST DAY OF THE CURRENT SALE WEEK, making the sales overlap for a full 18 hours! I don't know about you, but who is to know that? Their new sales tags do not appoint any dates on it making it to any unsuspecting shopper- the current sales price.

This said manager went on and on and then tried to lay it to us by giving us the same choice. BOGOF or the upcoming sale price. I looked at Mr. Man, took a deep breath, and calmly addressed this manager, "Please, please... do not make us look like we don't know how to interpret your ad. It was your mistake for not placing any warning about your procedures. To us, we shop according to your shelf tags and what's in your ad." I looked around to take another breath and two people, one of them another manager, nodded in agreement with me, looked at the one "correcting" us and signaled her to back off. I continued with, "May I remind you that we met your Store Director, Bruce and he didn't know why there are two different tags for similar items down the candy aisle. So, how do you expect us to know the difference?" (Mr. Man knows that when I am super calm during tense situations, I am at my clearest thinking mode and to watch out, so he was quiet the whole time.) It would seem that the other associates, now four witnessing all this, all took up agreeing with me and telling this borderline rude person to back off. I didn't look away from her, waiting for her to give us a response.

Mr. Man took the opportunity to ask, "How do you expect anyone to know what your procedures are in transitioning between sales?" She then found her voice and replied with, "That's true, I don't know how. I agree." Then proceeded to tell the CS cashier to "just do whatever you need to do" and left. I was both relieved and livid. She had no business interrupting what others have already told us. We were entitled to compensation for our inconvenience and she was making us choose because she overlapped the price tags?

All in all, they ended up owing us over $24. And I learned never to come into Albertson's during a big sale on the last day!

How was your Tuesday?