Missouri AG Files Deceptive Pricing Lawsuit Against Walgreens

photo credit: KSDK.com

Walgreens is in hot water over its pricing habits in Missouri -- the state Attorney General, Chris Koster, has filed a lawsuit against the drugstore chain today, alleging "false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and pricing schemes."

Apparently investigators in Missouri have been making undercover visits to Walgreens locations in that state, and have found repeated instances where a sale price was advertised on the shelf, but the item rang up at a higher price at the register.

In fact, investigators say they found instances of overcharging on 43 out of 205 items purchased, which is more than a 20% error rate.

"Consumers have a right to expect the price they will pay at the register is the same as the price displayed on the shelf," Koster said in his press conference this afternoon. 

"The sheer volume of tags on the shelves makes it nearly impossible to recall the details of each offer. Consumers should not have to double-check the price tags or signage and compare them to the prices charged at the register."

The Walgreens lawsuit also charges instances of promised Balance Rewards points that never materialized into shoppers' accounts after they purchased featured products.

I am very curious to hear if this is a consistent problem for, say, a particular store district in Missouri, or whether this practice is discovered to be more widespread across Walgreens as a whole.

In my stores, I personally do not find expired signage that frequently -- what I see more often is a total lack of sale signage, which means I have to walk the aisles with the sales ad and physically match featured items in the ad to what's on the shelf.

I have experienced Balance Reward points not showing up on my receipt after I bought something I knew should trigger them though!

When that happened, I called 1 (855) 225-0400 and got a Walgreens customer service rep to credit my account -- but it actually required quite a bit of sleuthing on my part to get that information off the Walgreens website.  I'm not sure that someone who doesn't, you know, work with coupons for a living would be able to find that information so easily.

So I will be following this lawsuit closely as it unfolds, as obviously it could trigger changes in how Walgreens structures and executes its sales and promotions.

UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, Walgreens has settled two other lawsuits with California and Wisconsin in 2013 alone regarding its pricing practices.  Read more here.

Read more about the Walgreens deceptive pricing lawsuit here.