Math Genius

[Elandora]

My sister told me about something that happened at her work, she works at a drug store, she counts the inventory for the store, so she is always out in the aisles where customers need help finding things.

MS = My sister
GC = Genius customer.

The customer approaches my sister with an item that has been clearanced for 75% off, some sort of christmas decoration. Original price sticker says $12.99.

GC: Hello, can you tell me how much this costs after the discount?
MS: Sure, all you've got to do is divide it by four Let's see, the item you have costs $12.99, so divided by four that would be-
GC: *interrupts* What does dividing by four have to do with anything?!?!?!

My sister feels it is necessary to explain the basics of mathematics to this person, so after a few attempts to describe that 75% is the same as 3/4, she gives up.

MS: Alright, so what's that price divided by two?
GC: Uh..... *much thinking* $6.50?
MS: Good, now divide it by two again.
GC: ....*more thinking* $3.25?
MS: That's right, that is the sale price.
GC waddles off, thouroughly confused.

edit:
Dur, I suppose this can be moved into the 'brain burps' section, I was initially going to include some actual sucky customers in this post but got too lazy to type them up. So yeah, if a moderator feels inclined to move this post, thanks.

[Stryker One]

Not too suprising

And it will probably only get worse

http://www.air.org/news/documents/Release200511math.htm

Idiocracy is prophecy

[Elandora]

And it will probably only get worse

http://www.air.org/news/documents/Release200511math.htm

Idiocracy is prophecy

I've seen that movie, it's sad because it is SO true.

[wagegoth]

Idiocracy is prophecy

No, check my sig.

[wynjara]

I have friends (and family) who can't figure out 10%.
Spent nearly half an hour trying to get them to figure out what 30% off of something was.

[powerboy]

She should invest in a calculator. That is what I did. Now I do not ask questions like that.

[greek_jester]

I have friends (and family) who can't figure out 10%.
Spent nearly half an hour trying to get them to figure out what 30% off of something was.

Move the decimal place one to the left, then multiply by 3?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, if it was so easy, why could your sister not just answer the question? The customer didn't ask for a math lesson, she asked for a price.

If she could figure it out on her own, would she have asked?

Personally, I don't think the way she felt the need to try to make the customer feel stupid for asking a legit question was very cool.

[Elandora]

Well, if it was so easy, why could your sister not just answer the question? The customer didn't ask for a math lesson, she asked for a price.

If she could figure it out on her own, would she have asked?

Personally, I don't think the way she felt the need to try to make the customer feel stupid for asking a legit question was very cool.

My sister WAS answering her question, until she was interrupted with the second question, which is quite mildly and quite tamely translated as 'WHAT IN THE BLAZING #$%$#%$##@ does that have to do with dividing by four???'

Before that, my sister was simply thinking aloud. If it had not have been for this interruption, this customer would not have been noteworthy to her, she answers these questions all the time without incident. What became funny at that point was that the woman could not be made to understand, despite her best attempts at being concise and informative. I don't think I made this clear enough, the customer's question was no longer 'how much does this cost?' but 'why do you have to use math to arrive at that conclusion?'

[tollbaby]

No, sorry... I'm with RK on this one. Your sister only had to answer her question by saying "It costs $3,25 after the discount". Instead, she took it upon herself to teach this woman math and quiz her (see bolded sections below). Her FIRST response to this was to try to get the customer to answer her own question. That just created unnecessary confusion and the customer could easily infer that your sister was trying to make her look or feel dumb. In addition, when the customer seemed confused by your sister's math quiz, she CONTINUED to try to teach the woman how to calculate the cost herself. All that was required was a simple answer, and while the customer wasn't too bright, I think your sister was the one who really made this transaction more difficult than it needed to be.

GC: Hello, can you tell me how much this costs after the discount?
MS: Sure, all you've got to do is divide it by four Let's see, the item you have costs $12.99, so divided by four that would be-
GC: *interrupts* What does dividing by four have to do with anything?!?!?!

My sister feels it is necessary to explain the basics of mathematics to this person, so after a few attempts to describe that 75% is the same as 3/4, she gives up.

MS: Alright, so what's that price divided by two?
GC: Uh..... *much thinking* $6.50?
MS: Good, now divide it by two again.
GC: ....*more thinking* $3.25?
MS: That's right, that is the sale price.
GC waddles off, thouroughly confused.

[spark]

GC: Hello, can you tell me how much this costs after the discount?
MS: Sure, all you've got to do is divide it by four Let's see, the item you have costs $12.99, so divided by four that would be-
GC: *interrupts* What does dividing by four have to do with anything?!?!?!

No, see, you pointed out the wrong part. She was merely answering the question she'd been asked.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Actually, you're right. She was.

I don't know what dividing by four has to do with it, either, but as long as Sister was concocting the answer, the customer should have just kept her mouth shut and just waited for it.

I mean, I would not have appreciated the math lecture, but then, you're right. She did kind of ask for it by saying that.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

GC: Hello, can you tell me how much this costs after the discount?
MS: Sure, all you've got to do is divide it by four Let's see, the item you have costs $12.99, so divided by four that would be-

Did your sister have price scanners available?

That's what I do whenever I get a math-impaired customer asking me what 50% off $8 is, or something like that. I don't take it upon myself to give a math lesson that probably won't be appreciated or remembered.

Or just do the math yourself without lecturing the customer.

[Boozy]

I know we have a conscientious group of people here who care about offering good customer service, but there is no need to lecture other members about it. We have bosses for that. We are here for venting.

The point of Elandora's story is that the customer couldn't do math and got a touch snotty about it. Let her sister's boss worry about developing her customer relation skills.

[Elandora]

I know we have a conscientious group of people here who care about offering good customer service, but there is no need to lecture other members about it. We have bosses for that. We are here for venting.

The point of Elandora's story is that the customer couldn't do math and got a touch snotty about it. Let her sister's boss worry about developing her customer relation skills.

My sister is actually a very above-and-beyond type of employee, she values customer service very much. As I've mentioned before, the problem with this particular customer is that they needlessly interrupted her thought process and badgered her about how her math logic worked. When the short explanation failed (75% is the same as 3/4, so you are paying 1/4 of the ticket price), there was more badgering and much longer explanations involved. I have no idea what this lady set out to prove, but she only ended up getting confused afterwards. Don't misunderstand, the sale price was given a few times by my sister during the 'lecture', the lady wasn't being denied an answer. She could have waddled off any time she wanted.

Seriously. all this debate just sucked the funny right out of that story >.>


@Irving: Yes, they have an item that has the ability to scan prices, but it is almost always set to the inventory counting function instead. Switching functions flushes all the inventory data out, so it's not really convenient or practical to use it as a pricechecker.