'Get it free' law needed

Regarding the April 6 story "Often the price is not right" about the checking done by the Department of Agriculture of the accuracy of scans in local stores and the fines collected by the agency:

This is all well and good, but it does not address the problems of the consumers, who are confronted daily with this problem, nor does it return the money to consumers.

Maryland has a law that entitles the customer to one of that item free if the scan is wrong (any others would be sold at the correct sale price). When I lived there, I was aware of the state law and received a number of items free -- from jeans to picture frames to grocery items. I don't recall getting an item worth more than $25 free, but I don't recall having an error on scanning such an item, either. There were not a significant number of errors, and when a store had to "pay out," the error was quickly corrected.

North Carolina needs this kind of consumer protection law. It costs the store nothing if its scanners work correctly, it costs the state nothing to enforce and it directly benefits customers.

Lynn Johnson

Smithfield