> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Tower, Sally Beauty latest stores fined for overcharging patrons
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/tower-sally-beauty-latest-stores-fined-for-overcharging-patrons/
- Published: 2004-03-18T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:02:25.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Promenade, #archive-import

*Four stores to be arraigned next month for overcharging*

*By Daily Press staff*

SM COURTHOUSE — Two Santa Monica merchants were ordered to pay more than $17,000 in fines and penalties on Wednesday after pleading no contest to overcharging a customer in an undercover sting.

Tower Records on Santa Monica Boulevard overcharged an undercover officer by a total of $9 on three items, according to court documents. Sally Beauty on Lincoln Boulevard charged a total of $4.59 more than what was advertised on two of nine items at checkout.

A total of 15 local retailers have been prosecuted by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office, following a sting last summer by officials from the Los Angeles County Weights and Measures bureau. To date, Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins has ordered 11 of the merchants to pay a combined $60,006 in fines.

Four other Santa Monica retailers — Borders on the Third Street Promenade, the 99 Cent Only Store on Pico Boulevard, Puzzle Zoo on the Promenade and Planet Funk in the Santa Monica Place Mall — will be arraigned next month, prosecutors said.

Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky, who heads up City Hall’s Consumer Protection Unit, said customers should always double check receipts, adding merchants mischarge on 20 percent to 30 percent of items.

“These overcharge cases are among the most serious that we prosecute,” Radinsky said. “It’s a stealth crime, because consumers often have no idea that they have paid too much, let alone that it’s crime for the store not to honor its posted price.”

Each violation of the misdemeanor law — charging more than $1 in excess of the advertised price — carries a maximum penalty of $3,300\. Under Los Angeles County ordinance, violators must also post a notice of violation in their window for 60 days.

Owners and managers at several of the 15 stores have said the overcharges were accidental. Many have taken additional steps to ensure the overcharges don’t happen again. Still, others simply attribute the errors to unavoidable “human error.”

The sting was conducted last summer by investigators from the Weights and Measures bureau, a division of the LA County Department of Agriculture. About $400 will be paid to the bureau for each of the charges, covering the costs of the investigation, officials said.

Jeff Humphreys, deputy director of the Weights and Measures bureau, said his team of 14 inspectors regularly patrols all 8,400 LA stores with scanners. Since February of 2002, stores have been required to pay a sliding-scale registration fee for scanners to cover the costs of the investigations.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 18, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)