Customer receives beer worth R$16 after supermarket claims error in promotion; manager arrested.

247 - The supermarket in Boa Vista, Roraima, which had refused to deliver 140 cases of beer purchased for R$ 16 during a promotion, released the products to the customer this Tuesday (27), one day after the purchase. The episode gained repercussion after the store manager claimed “error in the system” and refused to deliver the merchandise, even after the payment had been made in full. 

The information was initially released by g1. According to the publication, the consumer, a 54-year-old merchant who preferred not to be identified, was called by the supermarket itself to pick up the drinks after the regional administration authorized the delivery. Despite receiving the beers, the customer reported feeling embarrassed and stated that he was treated as if he were acting irregularly. 

“I was treated as if I were the one in the wrong. It was a purchase that should have been something routine, and suddenly I found myself having to call the police. I ended up at a police station, from where I left at almost two in the morning, to have my consumer rights guaranteed. Not to mention that I was accused of bad faith. This is embarrassing, considering it happened in an environment full of people who certainly didn't understand anything,” he said.

The case began on Monday (26), when the merchant purchased 330 ml glass bottles of beer for R$ 4,92 each, below the usual price of R$ 6,99. According to the consumer, the promotional price was correctly indicated on posters, on the supermarket's price scanners and was also registered in the checkout system at the time of purchase. In total, the purchase amounted to R$ 16.531,20. 

According to the customer, before finalizing the payment, he checked the amount on the supermarket's own payment terminals. Because it was a large sum, the payment was made in installments, all with the authorization of the store manager.

“I scanned a beer, it went through at the promotional price. I scanned a case, it went through at the promotional price. I kept scanning 20 cases at a time, everything authorized,” the consumer reported. After the purchase was finalized, the beers began to be separated in the supermarket's warehouse.

However, according to the customer, the store manager ordered the products to be collected and refused to release the merchandise, claiming that the promotional price had been entered incorrectly into the system. Faced with this refusal, the consumer contacted the Military Police, but the manager maintained her refusal and ended up being taken to the police station.

The Civil Police reported that the 42-year-old manager was released after the on-duty officer determined that there was insufficient evidence to suggest she had acted with the intention of harming the customer. "At that time, no intent to defraud was found, a necessary element for the crime of false advertising, on the part of the employee or representatives of the establishment, suggesting, in theory, a situation resulting from a systemic failure," the police stated.

The case was forwarded to the Consumer Protection Police Station, which will continue the investigation to clarify the circumstances of the initial refusal and any potential liabilities of the supermarket. The establishment, when contacted, did not respond to the reporter's questions by the time of the last update to this article.

According to the customer, contact regarding the return of the beers only occurred after the case gained publicity. At the time of delivery, on Tuesday afternoon, the products were already separated in the warehouse, as had been arranged the previous day. “They just had to honor the offer. I paid, the price was on the sign and in the system. I ended up going through a huge embarrassment,” he concluded.