BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Local Home Quarters stores have made dramatic improvements in accuracy at the register and no longer face legal action, Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes said Tuesday.
Recent inspections show an error rate between 2 percent and 9 percent, satisfying Mr. Rhodes that the three local stores are heading in the right direction.
"We have accepted the draft of an action plan on pricing from HQ, and field tests verify they are working seriously to correct their problems," said Mr. Rhodes, whose office is in charge of ensuring accurate weights and measures. "Our most recent price checks have shown significant improvement."
In August, Mr. Rhodes asked the prosecutor to investigate, based on a year's worth of failed inspections at three stores: Madison Road in Oakley, Glenway Crossing in Green Township and Princeton Pike in Springdale.
As many as 30 of 100 items rang incorrectly at the register, according to Mr. Rhodes' office.
A state official in charge of weights and measures said the Home Quarters example is the worst he has witnessed in many years.
Company officials said they were having trouble matching shelf prices with the computer codes in cash registers.
Michael Miller and Kevin Kerns, Columbus-based lawyers for the company, proposed a draft plan for improvement to James Harper, chief deputy prosecutor for Hamilton County. The plan includes: Each store scanning 100 items a day at random until accuracy improves to 98 percent, the level required by state law.
In the case of errors at the register, giving the customer the lower of the two prices, plus 10 percent off.
Logging and researching errors immediately.
Home Quarters has 52 stores nationwide. It is part of the third-largest chain of home-improvement stores, which includes Hechinger and Builders Square.
