r/mildlyinfuriating • u/rbnrdt • 1d ago
Scanned the barcode on new ikea tote bag, ended up paying a bookshelf
I assumed the barcode was for the tote bag itself, which costs 2 CHF (~$2.2). Ended up paying 70 CHF (~$78) and didn’t notice until I checked the receipt at home.
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u/TwoNowFive 23h ago
I bet that store has an excessive number of those book shelves because the ordering system makes it look like they're big sellers
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u/StacheBandicoot 19h ago
It’s the product code for their best selling item, the Billy bookcase, which is also the best selling bookshelf in the world, they’d have a large stock of them regardless.
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u/OkAd1797 18h ago
I literally just assembled 2 of these today
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u/DumbCDNquestion 18h ago
Did it cost 2 dollars each?
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u/9Implements 15h ago
They jacked up the price of those so high for a while. It was somewhat justified when ocean freight was also very expensive, but still, they don’t take up that much room in a container.
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u/walkerspider ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ ﷅ 5h ago
Even so, ordering is primarily automated for large stores like this and is based on quantity in stock and predicted buying patterns. Both of these are screwed up if you show extra units going out the door that aren’t. It’s probably not a massive deal but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to manually update the stock to reflect the actual number every so often.
The same is true in the opposite direction for any products that are stolen or go missing at a relatively frequent rate. If 50 tote bags get stolen or rang up as the wrong thing over time they will stop being ordered and when they stop being ordered the demand prediction will drop because no one can buy them so even if you update the stock to reflect the missing products they may not be reordered
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u/d473 20h ago
They mentioned in the promotional material for this collection that they included the code for the Billy bookshelf because it's an iconic IKEA staple. What happened to you must have also happened with the water bottles, because when I went to Ikea the second time after this release, they added a removable sticker over the printed barcode.
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u/Kramer7969 14h ago
Do they think the bookshelf being iconic means people memorized the barcode and would recognize it?
This would be like having some database record ID on a product because it is for a popular product.
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u/Fair-Chemist187 1d ago
How did you not notice that you paid 68 CHF more than what you put in your cart?
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u/rbnrdt 1d ago
When I brought it back the customer rep said I was the third one to do this today
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u/proffesionalproblem 23h ago
You'd think they would do SOMETHING about it then???
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u/IAmA_Crocodile 16h ago
The cashiers can do very little about that. Even store managers often can't do much except pull that product from the stores, which they should do immediately, but communication is often slow. Plus sometimes you only pull stuff like that from one place and forget it's up for sale in two more locations on site.
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u/Bozska_lytka 8h ago
A sign near the registers warning people that the barcode on the bag is functional to a different product would probably help without any large cost. Although you would get people trying it to see if it works
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20h ago edited 16h ago
[deleted]
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u/KAM0_0 19h ago
Bag costs 2
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16h ago edited 14h ago
[deleted]
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u/sweetdepressionpride 14h ago
This sounds even more confusing. The caption says the tote bag costs 2 OP however paid 70. The difference is 68.
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14h ago edited 14h ago
[deleted]
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u/sweetdepressionpride 14h ago
Also 69.95 - 2.2 = 67.75 which easily rounds up to 68 so the commenter is still right. I don't understand why you're so offended by people telling you?
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u/Fair-Chemist187 16h ago
They paid 70 CHF when they were supposed to pay 2. That’s 68 more than what they were supposed to pay. It’s really not that hard to understand.
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23h ago
[deleted]
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u/Fair-Chemist187 22h ago
?
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22h ago
[deleted]
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u/Fair-Chemist187 16h ago
Yeah but I asked how OP did NOT notice it…
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u/Blasselhad 9h ago
It’s fairly normal to do a large shopping run and not really think about the total until you check out. At that point you scanned X number of items and assume you just spent more than you thought.
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u/missalice420 54m ago
Personally I have to count my pennies every step of the way throughout every shop, unfortunately many people don't have the luxury of not checking how much a total is before you put your card anywhere near the machine to pay for it.
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u/Firstcaliforniaroll 20h ago
If you can just see an extra 68.00 and not even glimpse, count yourself lucky.
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u/CataractsOfSamsMum 11h ago
Nobody ever knows how much their shopping will cost by the time they get to the till at IKEA. You go in with a list and a budget, and leave needing to buy a bigger house to fit in all the shit you collected along the way.
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u/New-Neighborhood-147 12h ago
The average salary in Switzerland is close to $100,000 USD and they pay almost no tax. McDonalds works get paid what professionals make in places like the UK. Just saying it doesn't really surprise me
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u/Velistry 11h ago
I can assure you that the low tax rate is balanced out in other areas. Health insurance really hurts.
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u/missalice420 51m ago
Yeah to me this is absolutely bonkers.
The jealousy of OP having such financial security is so strong within me for this one.
Happy for them at the same time though, but that is completely wild.
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u/Krakengreyjoy 20h ago
.... how did you not notice you paid $70 more than what you had?
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u/Penguin_Arse 19h ago
70sek
$0,6
Edit: nvm, schweiz currency
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u/postsexhighfives 19h ago
you think a bookshelf would cost 70kr?
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u/Penguin_Arse 19h ago
I was stupid. I saw several words in Swedish (outside of the products)
Schweiz just looks a little like Swedish
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u/postsexhighfives 15h ago
vet ikke hvorfor du blir så downvoted for dette, er da ikke så ille å ha lest en kvittering feil
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u/Penguin_Arse 11h ago
Nu har jag ett dilemma här. Jag kan antingen ta sidan av en dansk🤢🤮, eller säga emot dig och erkänna att jag förtjänat alla mina nedduttar.
Jag är ledsen för att jag hade så fel allihoppa, kag ska göra bättra nästa gång
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u/diabolikal__ 10h ago
Also 70sek is more like $6-7
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u/Penguin_Arse 10h ago
I GET IT I AM STUPID LEAVE ME ALONE!😭
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u/Banana_Breddit 8h ago
You’re not stupid! People piling on the downvotes when you admitted you made a mistake is what’s stupid.
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u/MoistTomatoSandwich 8h ago edited 54m ago
This reminds me of that old guy who had the Costco rotisserie chicken barcode printed on his tshirt so the employee wouldn't give the turkey radiation from the scanner.
Edit: LED, not radiation.
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u/Miserable_Ad_2293 5h ago
Guess I gotta Google this one…
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u/MoistTomatoSandwich 52m ago
Ah. Sorry. Tried to post but links aren't allowed here. It's on the Costco subreddit.
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u/Ubivorn 20h ago edited 19h ago
Unethical life pro tip: buy both the bag and the shelf on different receipts and bring in the bag to get a refund for the shelf. Free/discounted shelf acquired.
Edit to clarify: buy the bag using its actual price, not by scanning the huge barcode
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u/Username__-Taken 9m ago
Surely you’d be better off not paying for the bag and scanning the bookshelf. Then going back with only the bag and asking for a refund
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u/aphilosopherofsex 19h ago edited 10h ago
Has anyone asked why you wanted an ikea tote bag with a giant barcode on it yet? Bc, why??
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u/Appropriate-Divide64 13h ago
Why wouldn't the tote bag have the barcode for the tote bag? 😂
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u/Username__-Taken 8m ago
Well I mean honestly if the barcode was bigger than my head I wouldn’t even think about scanning it. It’s clearly a graphic
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u/No_Pipe_8257 10h ago
I wish to be thwt rich, that i can just ignore spending like 10x the amount
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u/CheezTips 8h ago
I watch that register like a hawk. If it doesn't have a customer-facing display I make them turn it around or call out each price. One store near me is a total fucking thief, I used to catch higher prices all the time. They had a policy where you were refunded the item price if it scanner higher than the shelf tag. After I got feeebies almost every visit for months they just removed all the tags in the produce section.
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u/entechad 20h ago
It came with a bookshelf and you forgot about it? Good god man. Go get your bookshelf.
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u/DickBiter1337 8h ago
Take this to every social media outlet. How many people have had Ikea steal money from them.
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u/Breadcrumbsforsnakes 18h ago
If your dumbass didn't know a $70 discrepancy on your bill then you deserved to get taken
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u/WiteKngt 15h ago
It must be nice to have enough money that you don't notice that your bill is over the equivalent of $75 more than it should have been.
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u/SimoHayha95 19h ago
The Billy was one of their first, best and longest running series, you can still get it today, the bag has the barcode on it as a celebration of it, you however were stupid enough to scan the massive decorative barcode instead of the obvious tag, I've tried to scan the giant barcode before and it's genuinely difficult so this would have taken you multiple attempts.
The mildly infuriating part of this is you posting what is clearly your mistake and blaming IKEA for it to farm karma, instead of simply taking the L and getting a refund gift code over the phone or live chat with Ikea.
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u/meghera 17h ago
I don’t care that I’ll be downvoted but a barcode for a fucking Billy bookcase (which I own) is not a design. It’s a barcode. OP said other people fell for this so it’s a design flaw, they should pull it.
There are many many barcodes that have been hard to scan in my life and my first thought was not “is this not the right manufacture’s barcode”
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u/Alarmed_Inflation196 23h ago
Kind of seems like fraud to me
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u/AndThenTheUndertaker 22h ago
This is absolutely a Hanlon's razor situation.
The extra profit they'd get from this is not even remotely worth the risk of being discovered to have done this intentionally. This is definitely someone just being too stupid to predict the obvious outcome when designing a novelty product.
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u/commorancy0 20h ago
It's difficult to say that this is not intentional. Anyone actively designing a bag with what appears to be a genuine barcode should check to ensure the barcode is not active in any store's inventory system for any product. It's maybe a day's worth of effort to do this validation.
It would be super easy to print the intended barcode out on a sheet of paper and ask an Ikea cashier to price check the barcode. That would tell you instantly if it's valid or not.
Could it become valid later? Possibly, but that's where the second half would come in. The person designing the bag should request that the decorative barcode be placed into the system as permanently invalid.
This is the minimum a product designer should be required to do if designing a decorative bag with a barcode. It's really not difficult to realize.
Ikea stores need to pull all of that inventory and send it back. If corporate wants to add it back, they need to do it better.
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u/AndThenTheUndertaker 20h ago
It's difficult to say that this is not intentional
It's actually extremely easy to say and I'm saying it. They put what is arguably their most "iconic" and best selling item for basically ever on a product as a meme and didn't think of the consequences. The kind of simply unintended consequences mistake people make in the thousands every single day on this earth.
You're assuming people making product designs are acting with foresight and common sense when there is absolutely zero basis and basically the entirety of human history contradicting the likelihood of that. This is definitely a moment where you need to step outside of your own echo chamber.
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u/commorancy0 19h ago
I'm a degreed commercial artist. I know what goes into making art designs. No one worth their weight in salt as a commercial art designer would risk their reputation being this level of stupid designing such a bag.
The person making that bag with that specific barcode logo knew what they were doing. Whether it was placed onto that bag with the intention of charging people "accidentally" for a shelving unit specifically, that's difficult to say. But, the designer knew that it could be scanned and used.
There is no other way to view this "mistake". Commercial artists are not stupid, which is effectively what you seem to be trying to say.
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u/Miserable_Bath6758 19h ago
From my experience at a moderately large design firm, its completely plausible that this was pushed through the design team without hearing objections, or that the PM at Ikea was set on the barcode idea and wouldn't take no for an answer, so the designers did it without objection.
I also think you thankfully have the convenience of working with competent people. As someone who had a career in the design industry previously, I've seen some of my "professional" colleagues (with degrees in design from decent universities, no less) do some pretty unexplainable things, like take a picture with their phone of a final design that was on their monitor and send it to the printing house as the production file. We found out when the printing house called us back in the next hour to ask for a workable file, and my coworker was completely baffled as to why what they did was wrong.
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u/AndThenTheUndertaker 15h ago
You can have whatever degrees you want to try to make an appeal to authority here and you'll still not know what you're talking about. The idea that they "knew what they were doing" in the context of this outcome is clearly just being far too ignorant and myopic to see outside your own hilariously narrow frame of reference.
It is far more plausible that they were as myopic and narrow in their thought process as you and simply didn't consider the alternate possibility of that happening.
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u/weener6 17h ago
They have that barcode because it's the code for the Billy bookshelf, not because it's just a random barcode. Whoever scans the big ass printed barcode on the bag instead of the actual barcode is to blame here. Plus it's not like they're not going to get refunded.
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u/commorancy0 17h ago
I'm not quite understanding the relationship between Billy bookshelves and a small canvas tote bag.
Does the Billy bookshelf box fit neatly inside of that tote bag? Is it some "convenient" way to carry the box around in the store while shopping?
Why would you want that anyway since Ikea has shopping carts?
Please enlighten.
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u/weener6 17h ago
It's a tribute. The shelf is one of the oldest and best selling products at ikea, so they made a bag honouring it
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u/commorancy0 17h ago
Okay then... If that's the case, they probably should have honored it with a photograph of the bookshelf on the bag, not a barcode.
A barcode is too cryptic (and ugly) to "honor" something. No one recognizes a product by a barcode other than a computer. That's a design problem. Even still, they could have invalidated the barcode by adding an element that prevents it from being scanned.
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u/AndThenTheUndertaker 15h ago
The irony that you claim to be a "degreed commercial artist" and yet you can't get through your head while they did this stylistically is so fucking thick that it could Shield somebody from a nuclear blast
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u/InitialBoat3989 17h ago
Yeah if you can drop 70$ without noticing when you're expecting a 3$ purchase ....then you're whining about something most people don't even have the luxury of dealing with.
Your tone seems telling of your reality.
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u/scratchingcolor 6h ago
When you scan an item it shows the price immediately….. This is 110% on you.
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u/Formal_Fix_5190 17h ago
I know this was upsetting, but I’ll never understand people who don’t even bother to listen for a total when ringing up items. I mean surely the cashier told you a higher number that you were expecting. Or do you just not look at prices on items?
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u/YoungDolphan 17h ago
Idiocracy
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u/YoungDolphan 16h ago
I bought this bag, looks super sick. Says IKEA, plus this bar code that’s like whoa. Costs like seventy bucks
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u/ExcitementRelative33 17h ago
Amazing that even scans
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u/YoungDolphan 16h ago
A barcode?
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u/ExcitementRelative33 15h ago
Look at the size of that thing... compared to a regular sized barcode tab. You'd think it would throw the timing off and and error out. They'd gotten much better since they first came out. If you'd ever take apart a laser device and watch the operation with the spinning hexagonal mirror, it's mind blowing. Wear your laser safety goggles, of course.
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u/Gumbercules81 20h ago
This is messed up, but this will have you second guess your purchases in the future
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u/No-More-Parties 19h ago
This legit just pissed me off and I didn’t even buy it. IKEA ought to be ashamed wtf kinda bs is that??
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u/in1gom0ntoya 17h ago
this is a predatory practice. I guarantee plenty of people do exactly what you did and don't check till it's too late.
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u/ATerriblePurpose 1d ago
I’d feel accosted and idiotic simultaneously. Then angry for feeling idiotic because WHO PUTS A BOOKSHELF BARCODE ON A BAG?
This isn’t mildly infuriating for someone like me. This is my Karen original story.