BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dusty Rhodes shows lists of inaccurate receipts from Home Quarters in Oakley.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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The Hamilton County auditor has taken the unprecedented step of asking the prosecutor to consider action against Home Quarters stores for failing to scan prices accurately.
The most recent inspection, at the Oakley store, showed that 30 of 100 items scanned incorrectly, 10 in the customers' favor. Items were chosen at random from the shelves of the home improvement warehouse.
"This is killing the consumer," said auditor Dusty Rhodes, whose office is in charge of accurate weights and measures.
Home Quarters' regional manager, Greg Kalter, said he would put an overnight crew to work Thursday in Oakley to correct the problems. He said the other two stores, at Glenway Crossing in Green Township and on Princeton Pike in Springdale, would receive similar inventories within the week.
The results from the Oakley store, on Madison Road, are bad, said James Truex, manager of weights and measures for the state of Ohio.
"I have never seen (an inspection) that bad" in 25 years in the field, Mr. Truex said Thursday.
A customer who is building a house in North Bend said he had been overcharged three times in the past two weeks at the Glenway Crossing store.
Jerry Wilson said the store charged him $3.12 for a paint screen that was priced at $1.69 on the shelf. He got his money back, but it took a while.
"I had to basically double my time in the store," he said.
Mr. Wilson said he reported it to the store manager, but he suspected the problem was not being fixed.
An employee of Mr. Rhodes' office tried to buy the same paint screen three or four hours later, and the price rang up incorrectly, Mr. Rhodes said.
The problems, discovered during a routine check, have continued for a year, the auditor said. Home Quarters has failed 22 of 26 price inspections. Failure means an error rate above 2 percent, which is a national standard.
In November, the county prosecutor wrote Home Quarters a warning letter.
Mr. Kalter said the store would have charged customers $2.99 too little on the 10 items that were scanned in for less than the marked price. Mr. Kalter said that's proof that "it's nothing intentional on our part."
But Mr. Rhodes likened it to having one foot in a bucket of hot water, and one foot in cold water: "You could say on average you're comfortable."
The office of weights and measures inspects scanners, scales, gas pumps and package weights at least once a year, said Tom Woods, who runs the office for Mr. Rhodes. Mr. Woods said his office checks grocery stores two to three times as often, because people buy so many items at once it can be easy to miss errors.
Usually, store owners are happy to correct problems. Mr. Rhodes said he has never had to refer a case to the prosecutor. But he found Home Quarters stubborn.
"I'm disappointed he feels I haven't been cooperative," Mr. Kalter said, noting that the round of inspections prior to the July 30 check of the Oakley store had been good.
He attributed the bad inspection to human error, not technology. "I am quite concerned over the current audit," he said. "We're going to check every label in this store."
The three stores here are scheduled to receive new scanners, too, within 45 days. Mr. Kalter said the new machines will have a feedback device that alerts managers to errors.
Home Quarters operates 52 stores nationwide. It is part of the nation's third-largest chain of home-improvement stores, which also includes Hechinger and Builders Square.
