Borrow "Gotcha Capitalism" by Bob Sullivan from your library for an excellent expose on overcharges (and other hidden ripoffs ranging from cell phone fees to bank fees) and what you can do to avoid them (or get your money back). Also visit your state Attorney General's website and familiarize yourself with your states consumer protection statute.

According to our county weights and measures guy, gas stations and other stores subject to "weighing and measuring" (such as the scale in your stores deli department) tend to err on the side of slightly undercharging consumers in our area (i.e., you make out a tenth of a penny or so). However, he says the only reason they do this (err on the side of the customer) is because his department vigorously tests and prosecutes cheats. He said the moment they relax enforcement, it's open season on the customers.

Scanner pricing at stores is a different story. 4 times out of 10 the scanners don't work, and 1 out of every 30 items you purchase is mis-priced, usually in the stores favor. Most scanners are far away and usually the label printers don't work. Worse, items are often placed in a confusing manner on the shelves so you have no idea which item costs what. Although they're supposed refund you 10x the price, most won't (or have a posted policy such as "you get it free" which is only 1x the price for those rare occasions a sharp-eyed shopper catches the error -AND- can prove it was mislabelled). Very few customers follow through with prosecution, so it's in the stores interest to mislabel. Sullivan estimates pricing errors costs consumers billions of dollars per year. When shopping, caveat emptor!!!

I want to start by saying that I honestly do not know the law in any detail, but I am an associate at my local WalMart and I can tell you that we honestly try to keep the signage in-store/out-store ads matching our computers at all times. Any pricing error can be quickly fixed right at the register and the cashier should be able to easily do it, though they may need to acquire a supervisor's permission or a price check first.

The 6x or 10x law I am not aware of, or at least I don't think Utah has this in effect. Firstly, people make errors. Most of the floor staff has access to change the prices of items in the store, and adding a law where such losses would be acquired for an error would mean the store would need to crack down on these errors much more aggressively in order to maintain profit. This would entail a much higher rate of job loss. Also, if you understand how the WalMart system works, you would know that the losses due to such a law (and any fraud situation or price changes that are not correct) are taken from the employee bonus. A 6x or 10x law would not affect the corporate WalMart, but would eat at the cashiers, and floor associates bonus money.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, any extra money WalMart has that it should not, and is not claimed by the customer, policy requires that it be donated to charity. We cant keep it in way for any reason. Extra, goes to charity outside of WalMart, period.

And finally, like cigarette advertising laws, there is a difference between public ads and marketing, and private. If a price is printed in our weekly ads that are mailed to your home, or in a newspaper, on radio, or visible from the street, the law requires we honor these prices. However, in our store, the prices are not displayed publicly. All store properties are private, and major pricing errors will not be honored. I have personally fought with a woman about the pricing on a laptop computer which rang up for $1398.97 but the sign in the store stated $599. We ended up watching security camera tapes and found that the woman herself was changing our signs, and then threatening us with lawsuits for breaking the law about marked prices.

Don't get me wrong, were talking about huge pricing errors and fraud that would seriously hurt us. Small errors happen constantly and I cannot say that I am above them. I did it to some sale items just last week, fixed about half of them, but each style has a different UPC code, so I missed some of the flavors and they continued to ring at the non-sale price.

I don't represent the entire company but at WalMart, we correct our own errors and just ask you to be patient while we fix the problem. We all have our own budget to follow and we honestly don't want you to be hurt by pricing errors anymore than we do.

About 3 weeks ago I went to Taco Bell and bought me a grilled stuffed burrito (not the combo). It as around $3.56. I don't remember the exact amount but it did not go over $3.60.

When I checked my credit card statement, I saw that I was charged even $9.00. I didn't do anything about it though and I do not have the receipt to prove it. Who keeps their taco bell reciepts?