IT was a blunder too far for loyal Waitrose customer Robin Harries from Abergavenny when he examined his sales receipt to discover he had been short-changed…for the THIRD time in a year.

He suspects he may have opened up a ‘real can of worms’ which reveals the widespread unseen profits scooped by supermarkets who dish out incorrect and unchecked bills at the check-out.

The retired entrepreneur and former town councillor gave up his usual tactic of remonstrating head-to-head with store staff in Llanfoist.

Instead he hot-footed to the Chronicle to demand, “If I have caught them out three times doing this, how many others are being diddled?”

On his two previous complaint sorties to the local superstore he was assured that everything would be done to make sure the mistake would not happen again. He refused the company’s offer to re-imburse him.

But the company was not as good as its word.

Tarnished

“Getting a refund was not the point. What I wanted more than anything else was that this would not happen again. Waitrose have let me down yet again. It’s a poor show. It tarnishes their good reputation,” he thundered.

Robin, 66, estimated he had lost about £10 to £12 through his hat-trick of check-out calamities.

“You could say it was third time unlucky for Waitrose because on this occasion I decided to go the Press. People should know this is happening. Everyone should check their bills - all the time. It’s shoddy,” he claimed.

He wondered whether any other supermarkets were guilty of the same technological sloppiness.

“I actually like the business ethics of the John Lewis group. If it had been another supermarket I could mention, I would have made my complaint public straight away,” he revealed.

His patience finally cracked last week when he checked his bill to find he had been asked to pay the full whack for two reduced items - blueberries from £2 to £1.69 and a pork and piccalilli pie from £2.69 to £1.99.

“I only bought the pie because I wanted to see if I liked it - and £1.99 was a good price. But the pie was not so good, and I gave it to the birds - so I was doubly annoyed,” revealed Robin.

He reckons he must have lost a fair bit of cash to the store over the years as he rarely checks his bills. But on the three times he has done so over the last 12 months he has found Waitrose wanting.

He was told by store staff on his first two complaints that the original price had gone through because the ‘reduced’ label didn’t properly mask the older bar code.

“I think Waitrose need a good rousting,” he said.

And that’s not good news for the company as Robin is moving home…next door to Waitrose in Llanfoist.

A spokeswoman for Waitrose said, “We are very sorry that Mr Harries had this experience. It shouldn’t have happened and falls below our high standards at Waitrose.

“We’ve taken steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

• MIFFED…disenchanted Waitrose customer Robin Harries with his wrongly priced purchases.