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As I've noted several times on the site, I work in a wholesale club.
Several times throughout the year, the company will send out Trial Membership "vouchers," which look like our membership cards, but explicitly say "Take this to the member services desk for your FREE 60 Day Trial Membership!" In other words, it's NOT a membership card, but that doesn't stop people from trying to use it at the registers anyway. And it's ALWAYS a hassle, because they almost always have already put their stuff on the belt, so I have to move it off the belt and move them out of line, which creates suck later, because they assumed I'd keep their place for them.
Anyway, for years we've had people sign up for the free trial membership, decline to pay the membership fee to become a full member, and then just sign up for a new trial membership when the company sent them a new voucher. The company makes a lot of its profits off those memberships, since wholesale club markups are generally a lot lower than regular stores. So these people are cheating the company out of money by hopping from trial to trial.
Thankfully, last year, along with the shakeup in corporate management, a new mandate was passed down. If someone is already on file in the system as having had a membership with our company (in recent history, I think), they cannot make use of the trial membership offer. For them, it's strictly "sign up for a full membership or take this non-member shopping pass, which includes the non-member surcharge."
Predictably, we had a number of moochers stop shopping with us, but we had plenty who did sign up anyway.
So, yesterday, I'm manning a register. Family comes up with a small cartload of stuff, puts it on the belt as I'm finishing with another customer. Wife tries to hand me the trial voucher.
J2K: *sigh* "I'm sorry, but I can't use this. You need to take it over to the membership desk to sign up."
The group was ethnic, Hispanic, I think, and so I'd been worried there'd be the language barrier to overcome. Thankfully, they seemed to understand. Wife goes off to the desk, and I pack their stuff back into the cart and move it aside, and again, they're fine with this.
Little while later, Moocher Wife comes back and converses briefly with Moocher Husband. Then they turn to the Other Customer in line behind them and ask to use their card.
Oh, crap, thinks Yours Truly. They're moochers, and they were just declined a trial membership, and they're too cheap to buy a full membership. Now they're trying to mooch off this customer.
I interject myself.
J2K: "Sorry, but they can't use your card."
OC: "Oh, but I don't mind--"
J2K: "It's company policy. They can't use it."
The moochers talk to one another, then push their cart aside and leave. I apologize to the OC and take the perishable stuff out of the moochers' cart and put it with our cold reshops, and then go back to work.
I'm glad the company has decided to crack down on the moochers. There was one customer that I used to get on a regular basis at the express register, who NEVER had a membership, not even a trial one. He'd ask to use MY membership (not happening) or another customer's membership. He would always come during a rush, as well, and late in the day, when I was tired and not really eager to deal with any bullshit, so I would wave through the mooch just so I could get him out of the store.
Once we were allowed to decline mooching like this, I took great delight in telling him, "No, you can't use their card." "Okay, I use yours?" "No." "...How I pay for this?" "You can go to the membership desk and ask for a day pass." "I pay no surcharge?" "No, there's a surcharge for a day pass." "I no pay surcharge." "Then go to the desk and sign up for a membership."
Needless to say, he stopped shopping at our store (or at least I didn't see him anymore) not too long after that.
Several times throughout the year, the company will send out Trial Membership "vouchers," which look like our membership cards, but explicitly say "Take this to the member services desk for your FREE 60 Day Trial Membership!" In other words, it's NOT a membership card, but that doesn't stop people from trying to use it at the registers anyway. And it's ALWAYS a hassle, because they almost always have already put their stuff on the belt, so I have to move it off the belt and move them out of line, which creates suck later, because they assumed I'd keep their place for them.
Anyway, for years we've had people sign up for the free trial membership, decline to pay the membership fee to become a full member, and then just sign up for a new trial membership when the company sent them a new voucher. The company makes a lot of its profits off those memberships, since wholesale club markups are generally a lot lower than regular stores. So these people are cheating the company out of money by hopping from trial to trial.
Thankfully, last year, along with the shakeup in corporate management, a new mandate was passed down. If someone is already on file in the system as having had a membership with our company (in recent history, I think), they cannot make use of the trial membership offer. For them, it's strictly "sign up for a full membership or take this non-member shopping pass, which includes the non-member surcharge."
Predictably, we had a number of moochers stop shopping with us, but we had plenty who did sign up anyway.
So, yesterday, I'm manning a register. Family comes up with a small cartload of stuff, puts it on the belt as I'm finishing with another customer. Wife tries to hand me the trial voucher.
J2K: *sigh* "I'm sorry, but I can't use this. You need to take it over to the membership desk to sign up."
The group was ethnic, Hispanic, I think, and so I'd been worried there'd be the language barrier to overcome. Thankfully, they seemed to understand. Wife goes off to the desk, and I pack their stuff back into the cart and move it aside, and again, they're fine with this.
Little while later, Moocher Wife comes back and converses briefly with Moocher Husband. Then they turn to the Other Customer in line behind them and ask to use their card.
Oh, crap, thinks Yours Truly. They're moochers, and they were just declined a trial membership, and they're too cheap to buy a full membership. Now they're trying to mooch off this customer.
I interject myself.
J2K: "Sorry, but they can't use your card."
OC: "Oh, but I don't mind--"
J2K: "It's company policy. They can't use it."
The moochers talk to one another, then push their cart aside and leave. I apologize to the OC and take the perishable stuff out of the moochers' cart and put it with our cold reshops, and then go back to work.
I'm glad the company has decided to crack down on the moochers. There was one customer that I used to get on a regular basis at the express register, who NEVER had a membership, not even a trial one. He'd ask to use MY membership (not happening) or another customer's membership. He would always come during a rush, as well, and late in the day, when I was tired and not really eager to deal with any bullshit, so I would wave through the mooch just so I could get him out of the store.
Once we were allowed to decline mooching like this, I took great delight in telling him, "No, you can't use their card." "Okay, I use yours?" "No." "...How I pay for this?" "You can go to the membership desk and ask for a day pass." "I pay no surcharge?" "No, there's a surcharge for a day pass." "I no pay surcharge." "Then go to the desk and sign up for a membership."
Needless to say, he stopped shopping at our store (or at least I didn't see him anymore) not too long after that.
I'm glad corporate caught up to that and put a stop to it. During my hostess days at the restaurant, the owner didn't charge parties who bought in their own cakes. until after this happened. There was a large group of about 12 or so that had their reservation in the lounge and not only did they bring their own cake, but a freakin' fruit platter as well. They claimed that one of the guests in the party couldn't eat foods with gluten (then why the blue fuck are y'all in an ITALIAN restaurant?!!). When the owner found out he was pissed and since then, he started charging parties for bringing in their own cake. He also put a stop to free refills on non-alcoholic drinks seeing that cheapskates were taking advantage of it.
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