I wouldn't have thought of this on my own. But colleagues from KP-Nizhny Novgorod suggested. It turns out that manufacturers of packaged products cheat like cheap fraters by not adding buckwheat, sugar, rice, and so on to the packages. Let's say the package says 1 kilogram, but in reality it weighs 900 grams. It doesn’t seem to be critical, but, you see, it’s unpleasant. 10 deceived customers - and the store owner takes the cost of the whole pack. Can you imagine what kind of money this is? Considering the scale of our supermarkets. And we are talking not only about rice, buckwheat, flour, but also about packaged vegetables, fruits, pasta, and milk. In general, I could not stand it and, hiding the revolutionary banner in my backpack, I went on reconnaissance.
FORGOT ABOUT THE SCALES
The first store I went to was “My Auchan” on Tverskaya. It opened in August last year literally a stone's throw from the State Duma. The people are in darkness. Especially tourists. And everyone pushes each other, apologizes, because there is not enough space, despite two floors. To begin with, I took four packaged packages - buckwheat (kernels), wheat flour, a half-bubble cone (pasta, in our opinion) and rice (long grain). And he went with them to look for control scales. Not on the first floor, not on the second either. I approach the seller. He thought that I was a teapot and sent me to the checkout. Like, they will weigh your buckwheat there. But I know that the check scales should be separate. The administrator was called. And she admitted that they simply forgot to put them on.
I paid and went to another store. Buy scales.
As it turned out, Auchan sellers have nothing to be ashamed of. The bags that I bought only had flour underweight. And that’s only 2 grams! But buckwheat, rice and pasta, on the contrary, have an excess - from 4 to 30 grams. Well, where, one might ask, is the deception?
LET'S GO LOOK FOR POTATOES
Attempt number two. Perekrestok store on Yasnogorskaya Street (southwest of Moscow). I put the scales in the storage box (as they say, without fawning) and proceeded to the display cases. I took sausages in vacuum packaging (who knows if the weight indicated on the barcode corresponds to the real one?), another pack of flour, a net of potatoes and three lemons (firstly, because I had a sore throat, and secondly, I double-checked the store scales , those on which buyers weigh vegetables and fruits).
Check scales were available at Perekrestok. And they stand next to the last cash register. The sales assistant, seeing me weighing a pack of flour, looked at me like I was the last stingy one. But I steadfastly withstood her gaze and hastened to write down the results. Lemons - gram for gram, flour - too, sausage - underweight 4 grams. But the potatoes are underweight - 112 grams! This is too much. After all, this is a whole potato. And if you consider that I buy potatoes once a month, then in a year that’s 12 potatoes. A decent pot of borscht. My scales showed the same thing...
The salespeople told me that few people use checkweighers in their store. Mostly pensioners. And they only weigh fruits and vegetables, but not packaged products.
WHERE DO I GET SO MUCH PASTA?
On Novoyasenevsky Prospekt I choose another chain supermarket “Ya Beloved”. Perhaps the calmest store of the three. The area is large, there are not many people. I chose the products at random. Breadcrumbs, rice, sugar, buckwheat, pasta... The administrator was not at all surprised when he saw me dumping it all onto the control scales. You never know how many penny-pinchers are out there.
The results are not the most stunning. Rice underweight - 5 grams. Underweight of buckwheat - 10 grams. But with pasta the advantage is as much as 20 grams! So it turns out that I didn’t eat enough rice and buckwheat, but I got pasta for free. There are no problems with breadcrumbs and sugar - in both cases the excess is 2 grams.
SPECIFICALLY
How much is not added to the packs (according to the results of the experiment)
Wheat flour - 2 grams
Shebekin pasta - 2 grams
Rice - 5 grams
Buckwheat - 10 grams
Potatoes for boiling - 112 grams
SCALE OF DISASTER
So, let's do a simple calculation. In an 800-gram pack of buckwheat, we found an underweight of 10 grams. The capacity of the truck is 20 thousand kg. This is 25 thousand packs. If you subtract 10 grams from each, you get 25 “left” kg. 1 kg of buckwheat costs 35 rubles; it turns out that on one truck, due to underweight, the producer earns 875 rubles.
Alexander Chikilevsky, head of the Guild of Cooks and Chefs of Belarus, chef of the restaurant “Publika” describes the mechanism.
If in doubt, do not start eating the dish under any circumstances: there may be problems explaining the outrage. Call the administrator and report the problem. The number of grams, of course, must be present under the name of the dish. Ideally, it is indicated through a fraction. For example, 100 g of an ingredient/150 g of a certain side dish.
What if the dish is actually under-weighted, should the guest pay for it? We asked this question Vyacheslav Bobrov, brand chef of the Garage cafe chain.
Guests are also different. To get to the bottom of the truth, the guest has every right to ask the waiter to weigh the dish right in front of his eyes. He can also ask for a technological dish card, which states the exact number of grams.
Marina Klyuka, director of the Chekhov cafe-lounge, expressed a similar opinion.
In this case, the administrator provides the guest with a technological map and scales. If you are correct, your ordered dish must be replaced.
It is recommended to contact management directly Evgeny Sadovsky, founder of cafe and delivery “ProSushi”:
The dish must be tasty and beautiful, then it must correspond to the output stated in the menu. And if such a situation occurs, then the guest, in my opinion, should give feedback to the company’s management and resolve everything. After all, the guest is our everything, and he must be 100% satisfied.
In order to declare our case with the knowledge of a lawyer at the right time and in the right place, we addressed questions to the Belarusian Society for Consumer Protection. No one answered the letter, but we did not despair and got through by phone!
According to the lawyer, the guest is obliged to call the administrator with a request to weigh the dish in front of him. However, the lawyer added that if the dish is really underweight, you still have to pay for it. Payment is made as a percentage of the weight of the dish. If they brought you a dish weighing, for example, 100 g, but it should be 150 g, a certain amount of percent is subtracted from the amount of the dish.
So, you doubt the weight of the dish?
- Look at the menu, in case you made a mistake. It happens to everyone!
- Look at the required number under the name of the dish on the menu. And now on to your dish. Didn't catch your eye?
- Then feel free to call the waiter/administrator and explain your position.
- If you are not convinced, ask for scales and a technological map of the dish.
- Check the data.
- If the number on the scale is negative, ask for a replacement dish.
- If the result is positive: remove your pride with a broom and enjoy the taste of food!
Have you ever felt deeply deceived when looking at a plate of salad you ordered at a restaurant? If so, then the feelings that a recent columnist experienced will clearly be familiar to you.
How does it happen...
Perhaps the underweight of the ordered dish is one of the most annoying phenomena that catering customers encounter. Restaurateurs like to underweight in different ways. More often we are talking about the banal “minus 30–50 grams” in a salad, the yield of which according to the menu is 300–400 grams.
Anything can be underweight: an appetizer, soup, main course, and even dessert. The calculation is that the client will not make any claims, since, firstly, he is hungry and, as a rule, is in a hurry, and secondly, he is unlikely to be able to prove the absence of grams of food on the plate on the spot.
There are also more sophisticated methods, for example, replacing the ingredients of a dish. Some readers have repeatedly complained about cases of replacing Mozzarella cheese with the Soviet Poshekhonsky cheese in the capital's restaurants.
Another “thing” is underfilling. And okay, if they brought you a decanter of vodka, where instead of the ordered 200 grams, 150 grams splash. In this case, you can get the liquid measured from the bartender, who has a beaker.
But what if they brought you, for example, a glass of an alcoholic cocktail full of ice? That is, instead of the ordered 200 grams of cocktail, the maximum you drink is 100–150 grams. The rest will be water in the form of ice cubes. In the best case – from the filter, in the worst – from the tap.
By the way, banquet “extortions” can be considered a separate topic of conversation. The observer, who himself worked at one time in public catering, witnessed how food and drinks were “divided” between restaurant employees.
In fact, only 60–70% of what is ordered ends up on the table in the form of appetizers and alcoholic cocktails. “Excess” food remains in the restaurant’s storerooms, and the brought alcohol is shared fraternally between the waiters and bartenders.
Who makes the menu?
According to STB 1209-2005 “Public catering. Terms and definitions”, menu is a list of products of own production arranged in a certain order, purchased goods offered to the consumer in a certain period, indicating the weight, volume or other measure of a unit of product (portion) and price; wine list – a list of alcoholic drinks arranged in a certain order, indicating the volume or other measure of a product unit (portion), price.
The menu is compiled on the basis of an assortment list of self-produced products and goods sold, agreed with local executive and administrative bodies.
In accordance with the “Recommendations for the preparation and design of menus in retail catering establishments” (approved by the First Deputy Minister of Trade of the Republic of Belarus M. I. Sventitsky on March 20, 2008), in restaurants, cafes, bars, with the exception of those specializing in the preparation of dishes of national cuisines other nations, the menu must necessarily include an assortment of dishes of Belarusian national cuisine.
The menu indicates name of the dish, product, weight, volume or other measure of a product unit (portion), their price. For alcoholic beverages, the menu indicates the capacity of the consumer container and the price, as well as the volume and price of the serving. The serving size of alcoholic beverages is determined by the pricing instructions for catering establishments.
For champagne and sparkling wines, the price in the menu is indicated per unit of their consumer packaging. For certain forms of service (buffet, reception, etc.), the menu may not indicate the yield of dishes, products and their price.
The yield of dishes is determined and indicated in the menu taking into account rational consumption standards (salads up to 100-150 g, hot appetizers - 70-100 g, soups - 250-300 g, hot dishes - 100-150 g, side dishes - 150-200 g and etc.).
The menus of restaurants, cafes, and bars may indicate the composition of dishes and products, and include photographs of the dishes sold. The name of the dish and its yield are indicated in accordance with the technological documents for its production.
How to deal with underfilling and underweight?
Despite the fact that in the Belarusian legislation there are documents that provide recommendations on how the menu should be compiled, unfortunately, there is no information on what to do if a clear underweight or underfilling is detected. We addressed this question to the main department of the consumer market of the Minsk City Executive Committee.
According to the head of the catering department, Irina Shulyakovskaya, if underweight/replacement of ingredients is clearly detected, it is necessary to request a control measurement of the portion weight on the spot. You have the right to contact the waiter with a request to carry out a public rebate of either the entire volume of the ordered dish or its components separately. Upon specific request, the process of overweighting can take place both in the kitchen in the presence of the client, and in the service room.
“If you are refused to make an overweight, you can record this in the Book of Comments and Suggestions, and also additionally send an appeal to the main department of the consumer market of the Minsk City Executive Committee, or to the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Belarus. Inspections will be carried out on a specific fact,” said I. Shulyakovskaya.
As noted by the leading specialist of the Center for Legal Services Alexey Nesterenko, one of the basic rights of the consumer established by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” No. 90-Z dated January 9, 2002, is the right to receive necessary and reliable information about the goods (works) offered , services).
According to paragraph 5 of Art. 7 of this Law stipulates that when providing public catering services to the consumer, upon his request, information must be provided on the composition of food products, dishes, culinary products indicated in the menu, and methods of their culinary processing.
As a rule, information about the composition of a dish is brought to the attention of the consumer by indicating the ingredients and their quantity (weight) in the menu. Of course, the dish must exactly correspond to the information provided to the consumer.
The absence of declared ingredients, replacement of one ingredient with another without the consent of the consumer, discrepancy between the weight of the dish and its ingredients stated in the menu is not allowed.
If the consumer was not provided with complete and reliable information about the ordered dish, which resulted in undesirable consequences for the consumer, the consumer has the right, at his own discretion, to demand: replacement of the dish or immediate free elimination of deficiencies; proportionate reduction in the purchase price; refund of money paid (if you refuse to eat the dish). The consumer also has the right to demand compensation for losses, if any.
If the catering service provider (cook, waiter, bartender, etc.) deliberately replaces ingredients with cheaper ones, underestimates the weight of the dish (ingredients) compared to that indicated on the menu, then such actions may be classified as consumer fraud, which is part of an administrative offense under Art. 12.16 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offences.
If the violation in question is allowed on the instructions of the head of a public catering establishment, then there is such an administrative offense as violation of the rules of trade and provision of services to the population, which entails a fine and may also lead to the revocation of a retail and catering license.
It is worth noting, however, that the violation in question is difficult to prove and is revealed, as a rule, only through a test purchase.
Please note that an application with a request to conduct a test purchase in a specific restaurant must be addressed not to the public catering department of the main department of the consumer market of the Minsk City Executive Committee, but to the department for combating economic crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, or to the tax service at the place of registration of the public catering establishment.
Weighing is one of the most common violations of consumer rights, and even buyers of large and well-known retail chains are not immune from such actions. What should you do if you are caught in a store, and how can you prove that your rights have been violated?
In the presented material you can find out the algorithm of actions of a buyer who is faced with weight loss at a retail outlet.
What to do if they hang it in a store
Each buyer has the right to purchase exactly the same quantity of goods that he paid for. In the case of weighing, this rule is violated - payment is made for a significantly smaller amount of products than was established according to the scale indicators.
Even a slight change in the weighing result entails a significant profit for the seller, because during the operation of the outlet, hundreds and thousands of customers pass through the store. Accordingly, systematic deception when weighing goods will entail significant unreasonable expenses for the buyer.
Where to go if you got it in a store? There are several legal ways to achieve restoration of violated rights:
- contact directly the seller or representative of the outlet to re-weigh the goods, including on the control scales of the store or market;
- submit a claim for a refund for the purchase to an authorized representative of the store, or for the release of goods of the appropriate weight;
- record the fact of violation and file a complaint with the Rospotrebnadzor service;
- undertake a procedure to hold the seller liable under the Consumer Protection Law.
Note! The ability to hold the seller accountable will directly depend on how the fact of overweighting is revealed. If a violation is established directly in the store, difficulties in restoring the violated right, as a rule, do not arise.
The procedure for bringing to justice will be significantly more complicated than the fact of weighing, which is established only at home. In this case, you must keep the purchase receipt and product packaging.
Where is it hung most often?
Weighing can occur at almost any point that sells food in bulk - shops, food markets, street retail outlets, etc. At the same time, even complete control over the actions of the seller may not save you from being overweight.
Let's look at the most common and typical cases of weighing in the market or in a store:
- setting the scales in such a way that extra grams of weight are added to any product;
- removing goods from the bowl before the true weight was recorded;
- use when weighing packaging without subtracting its weight;
- simultaneous weighing on the same scales of a group of goods with different price characteristics;
- deliberately distracting the buyer from the scale indicator.
Note! The presence of electronic scales at the seller's disposal that have been verified by control authorities reduces the likelihood of being weighed, but does not completely eliminate the risk of violations of the buyer's rights. Electronic scales can be reprogrammed, and when weighing, other options for deceiving the consumer can be used.
Where can I complain if I got it in a store? First of all, every buyer needs to follow a basic algorithm of actions aimed at protecting their rights when purchasing goods by weight.
How to protect yourself?
Most problems with weighing can be solved at the time of release and weighing of the goods. As a rule, unlawful actions of the seller can be detected through increased attentiveness of the buyer himself:
- carefully monitor the weighing of the goods of buyers standing closer in the queue - from the outside it is much easier to identify possible fraud;
- check any weight purchase on control scales, which are required to be at every retail outlet;
- at the start of weighing, the scale arrow or the numeric identifier on the display must correspond to the zero mark;
- ask the seller to re-weigh the goods - often when re-weighed, the scales will record a completely different value.
Standard precautions and usual care will avoid being weighed down and wasting time appealing the actions of the seller. If the fact of weighting is obvious, and representatives of the retail outlet refuse to acknowledge the violation, the buyer has the right to contact the authorized bodies to protect their rights. Let's consider all the options where you can go if you have hung it in the store.
Where to contact?
Where can I complain if I get hung up in a store, but contacting the seller has no result? First of all, you need to fill out a claim in any form and give it to an authorized representative of the store against signature. If the application is refused, you can obtain information about the seller from the information stand and send a claim by mail.
Where can I complain if the store hangs it? Consideration of consumer complaints falls within the competence of Rospotrebnadzor authorities. To get help in protecting violated rights, you need to do the following:
- prepare a complaint against the seller’s actions and send it to the local department of Rospotrebnadzor;
- submit to the specified service evidence of weighting (cash receipt, product packaging, etc.), as well as a claim filed in the name of the seller.
Based on the results of the inspection, the retail outlet will be obliged not only to return the money for the purchase, but also to pay a significant fine to the buyer and to the budget. If the store owners do not respond to the order of Rospotrebnadzor, it is necessary to file a claim in court to protect consumer rights. In practice, if an inspection by Rospotrebnadzor establishes a violation, the court fully satisfies the stated requirements.
If you have suffered from the actions of an unscrupulous seller and have been scammed in a store, we advise you to use the services of our lawyers. We will not only advise on possible options for holding the seller accountable, but also prepare all the necessary documents.
ATTENTION! Due to recent changes in legislation, the information in this article may be out of date! Our lawyer will advise you free of charge - write in the form below.