A Good Reminder To Check Your Receipts

When you're in a check-out line, do you always check the receipt?  I confess, I usually don't.  And now I'm wishing I did.

I had gone to the big chain store for a birthday card, and some boxes of mac and cheese.  That's it.  I used the Self-Checkout lane, thinking it would be faster.  I quickly swiped the items, bagged them, paid by credit card, threw the receipt in the bag and then left.

40 minutes later after I arrived home I looked at the receipt and found I was charged for items I never purchased:  2 big packages of Oreo cookies!  Don't get me wrong, I love Oreos!  But I did not even walk down the cookie aisle on this trip to the store.  I seriously just needed a card and 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese.

Why was I charged almost $6 for items I didn't buy?  The sweets weren't hanging around near the scanner.  I don't think that the charges were from the person before me.  I'm pretty sure the screen was showing me a welcome message when I stepped up to it.  I'll never really know.

But the whole incident has me thinking that we really should be checking receipts.  Sure, computers are smart and can do a lot of things; but clearly mistakes can be made.  So as the consumer, I guess it's our job to make sure we're not being overcharged.  Lesson learned.

I am curious, do you routinely check your receipt after you make a purchase?  And how do you feel about  those Self-Checkout kiosks anyway?