Or… how my friend got a $470 hot water heater for free.
Excerpts from an email:
[At the store] > ... the cashier scanned the heater, > her register beeped. [At home] > Somehow, the water heater wasn't > on the receipt at all. I chuckle to > think of how a Home Depot store > manager is going to explain that > someone walked off with a > 6 foot x 2 foot x 2 foot water > heater without anyone noticing...
I’m betting the scanner beeped (it recognized a bar code) but failed to transmit a bar code that the cash register understood. The cash register probably displayed something on screen to notify the cashier of this, but they were too busy scanning other things to notice. What should’ve happened is that the barcode scanner should beep once (bar code recognized) and the cash register should instruct the bar code reader to emit a second ‘good, bar code understood’ or ‘bad, bar code not understood’ tone.