Perth Coles shopper's $55 mistake because of little-known rule
- Mum charged an extra $55 on Coles click-and-collect order
- She did not know the weekly deals had already changed over
- READ MORE: Urgent warning for all shoppers
A mum-of-four has been slugged with an unexpected $55 charge added to her late-night shopping bill because she didn't realise the weekly specials had already ended.
The Coles customer from Perth ordered a click-and-collect grocery shop which totalled $450.37 shortly before midnight on August 6.
But after paying the total at the online checkout, the bill suddenly increased to $504.70 without warning.
When the shopper contacted Coles to ask what had happened, she was told that the week's deals had already changed over due to the order being processed in Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is two hours ahead of Western Australia.
She claimed that there were no warnings when she placed the order to indicate that the total amount shown on her screen was incorrect.
'I am absolutely disgusted that they have taken that extra money and that's not what I was under the impression I was going to be paying,' she wrote online.
A screenshot of her payment screen showed no signs of anything being wrong with the order, which also stated that she had saved $100.
The mother was offered a 'goodwill' voucher by Coles to make up for the mistake.
A Perth mum was shocked to see that she had been charged $505.37 for her weekly shop when Cole's click-and-collect checkout showed a total of $450.37 at 11:35pm on August 6
The mother-of-four asked the supermarket what had gone wrong and was told by a representative that she had missed the cutoff for its weekly deals
She opted to cancel the order for a full refund instead.
'I just think it's ridiculous that Coles would rather lose out on $450 in shopping rather than own up to a mistake,' she fumed.
'I hate to think how many other people have been caught out because of it.'
A Coles spokesperson apologised and said it was 'investigating' why the price shown during checkout was different to the price she was made to pay.
'We provided a full refund for the cancelled order and apologise to our customer for the inconvenience,' they told 9News.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for further comment.
The weekly specials at Coles change every Wednesday and the order in question was placed late on Tuesday night.
Click-and-collect orders are processed in EST and this effects the changeover of weekly specials but the Perth mum said she was given no warning of this
The Coles website warns shoppers that the cut-off for weekly deals on click-and-collect orders differ between timezones.
Thes cut-offs are 9.59pm for Western Australia and 11.22pm for South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Other shoppers who reacted to the mother's story were equally outraged that she was not warned on the checkout screen that her deals were no longer valid.
'Seriously that's ridiculous,' one said.
'This happened to me, I called and they refunded me back to the original price as it's not in the fine print,' another added.
'It will be like this all the time if it goes to cashless,' a third said.
