Computer Hacking and/or Worse

On Friday  morning I visited the local Sainsbury's supermarket for a copy of The Times newspaper and some goodies. 

The Times provides a voucher for its daily newspaper which when used, reduces the price from  a high £2.50 to a still high £1.70 though even more expensive at week ends.

Strangely though when using the self service point at Sainsbury's  upon scanning the newspaper the price went through as £1. Having decided to be honest I asked the assistant to look at the pricing issue. He tried but failed to sort it out so called over the store manager.

At first the manager thought that the mistake was mine but soon began to incur the same problem herself see:

Had I been in a rush to take the train to work that would have been irritating but one of the advantages of retirement is that one can take an interest in such matters.

Eventually the manager decided that the error was not mine or hers so I said that I would use my Times voucher elsewhere, which I  then did successfully at a small shop.

However the thought occurred to me that we are all so used to computer buying these days that the system is somewhat open to hacking. Was Sainsbury's or The Times newspaper  hacked in some way, I wonder? Are the Russians involved; who knows?

Interestingly maytrees max recently ordered on-line and sent  to mrs maytrees, a birthday present hamper. 

The hamper arrived when promised . Its contents looked attractive so mrs maytrees emailed a photo of them to maytrees max. He responded almost immediately by saying that his order was for a rather more impressive hamper including for example Champagne and real coffee. 

He at once referred his concern to the hamper provider which then immediately refunded the full cost  to him. 

I wonder however if there was a mistake or some other issue at the on-line hamper provider.

Possibly we all rely too much on computers for shopping these days.