CLEVELAND - About 18 percent of home-improvement stores failed a price-check sweep conducted by the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs in anticipation of the summer home-improvements season.

Most of the pricing errors found by the county’s Weights and Measures inspectors favored consumers.

The single highest overcharge was $2.74 for a paint brush at a Sherwin-Williams store in University Heights, while the largest undercharge was $7.59 for a safety vest at Lowe’s Rocky River store.

“Consumers often rely on posted prices to make buying decisions,” said Sheryl Harris, Director of the county’s Department of Consumer Affairs. “By law, the prices posted on shelves and signs must match the prices that ring up at the register. Discrepancies mean someone – the store or the customer – is losing money.”

The department’s Weights and Measures inspectors checked posted prices of 975 items at 27 home-improvement and paint stores against the scanned prices – the prices that ring up at the register.

Five stores failed the test, meaning they had more than the allowable number of errors.

Although the highest dollar error – the $7.59 undercharge – was found at Lowe’s Rocky River store, that store passed the test because all the other prices checked scanned correctly.

Inspectors require stores to immediately correct any errors. Stores that failed will be inspected again. Stores are never given advance notice of a Weights and Measures inspection.

Stores that failed the test are Sherwin-Williams stores in University Heights (80%) and Woodmere (84%), Home Depot in Cleveland Heights (94%), and Ace Hardware stores in Garfield Heights (88%) and Westlake (92%).

Stores that passed are:

• Ace Hardware stores in Independence (100%), Middleburg Heights (100%), North Royalton (100%), and Rocky River (100%).
• Home Depot stores in Brooklyn (100%), Euclid (98%), Highland Heights (100%), Maple Heights (98%), North Olmsted (100%), Rocky River (100%) and Strongsville (98%).
• Lowe’s in Bedford Heights (100%), Brooklyn (100%), Rocky River (98%) and Strongsville (98%).
• Sears in Parma (100%)
• Sherwin-Williams stores in Berea (100%), Fairview Park (100%), Mayfield Heights (100%), North Randall (100%), Parma (100%) and Shaker Heights (100%).

Contact the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs at 216-443-7035 or visit http://consumeraffairs.cuyahogacounty.us/ if an advertised price rings up higher at the register or if a sale price isn’t reflected on your receipt.