What to do when I get charged 10 times more than usual on debit card at a grocery store?
I just noticed on my Wells Fargo account that I got charged 0 through my debit card for a recent transaction at a Publix in the U.S., and the amount charged is 10 times as high as the usual amount, even though the goods I purchased are the same as before, not to mention that the purchased quantity is also similar. At the time of the purchase, I didn't find anything unusual in the screen at the cashier showing the sum of prices. Unfortunately, I haven't kept a receipt for this reason. What should I do? How can I prevent this kind of incident?
Edit:
I went to the store today and got a full refund. They somehow mistakenly added the subsequent customers' purchase into mine. I'm curious why this is even possible, but I'm glad things went so smoothly.
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In absence of receipt; going to Publix and asking is the best option. In past I have seen errors like;
It could a simple case of cashier entering the wrong decimal. Happens occasionally. If the amount if 25.01; they type by error 250.1.
The item is priced incorrectly in the electronic scanner. e.g. instead of ordinary fruit of ; its bar-coded incorrectly; an exotic fruit that costs lot.
The quantity is entered incorrectly; I had bought 10 pcs of an item; but the quantity got entered as 100 [there are buttons on cashier that have single "0" and double "00". So just pressed incorrect key]
If its the first case; refund should be easy. If its other 2; it would be difficult to justify later as its your word against theirs.
Go to Publix and explain the situation to the manager that's on duty. Chances are better in the middle of a weekday when a more experienced/senior manager might be available. When that cashier balanced their drawer at the end of that shift, they would have reported over and this discrepancy would be on file (maybe*). They likely wouldn't have a way to tie that back to a specific card to automatically issue a refund, and may actually be expecting to hear from you. Even if you don't have the receipt, they will have transaction records from that time and will be able to dig into it. It might take some time, depending on what systems they have access to without going through their tech support team. Going and having a chat with the Publix people in person is your best first step. If they flat out refuse to help, you could file a claim with your bank indicating the charge was fraudulent. This can get tricky if you entered a PIN and essentially agreed to the amount and have no receipt to prove otherwise. Publix can find that receipt, though, they just have to put in the effort.
*I say maybe here because there is also a chance that the cashier rang you up higher marking your sale as one with cash back, hoping you wouldn't notice. You didn't, so the cashier may have pocketed the discrepancy which would cause the drawer to actually appear balanced at the end of the shift.
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