Two For One

[STEELMAN]

This happened on my way to work this morning. Stopped to get gas and I had a $20.00 bill so I put exactly $20 in. I go in to pay and there is a lady at the counter with 2 kids. The clerk starts to ring her up and then the kids say they want some candy, so of course the lady tells them to go pick some out! I step up to the counter and try to hand the clerk my money while telling her I have $20 in gas. She says that she can't ring it up because she is in the middle of a transaction. I said I know, but it is $20. She repeats. I say that I don't think she understands, it is exactly $20 so I don't need change. She repeats. I almost go sucky, but then I just wait for the ladies kids to get back and finish up.

[katie kaboom]

Well it's not her fault if she can't help you because she's in the middle of another transaction. Exact change or not, everybody still has to wait their turn.

[simpleyme]

I say you have to wait
but....... when i am dealing with a slow customer ,and another picks up a dollar bag of chips or such and have exact change i take it and set it on the side of the register and ring the sale next


edited to clarify I ring in the exact change customer after exact change customers is long gone , no need to make some one wait for no reason its easier on everyone when the lines are kept flowing

[STEELMAN]

My point is just that when I used to work in a convenience store and something like this happened I would just take the persons money and set it aside until I could ring it in. There wasn't any reason to make them wait for the register to be open when they didn't need change or a receipt.

[ArcticChicken]

It's entirely possible that it is against company policy to do so, and while it would have been nice of her to take your money, she was by no means required to do so.

[Ree]

I would probably have just taken the $20 if I knew for sure there was no change involved, but I can see the cashier's side, too.

Maybe she had a situation where she did that once and got into a mess.
Mistakes happen. Money gets lost, and sales get forgotten.

If her manager came in and saw the money sitting on the side like that, she might be accused of trying to steal it.

The customer who went back for the candy really should have paid for her stuff and then stepped aside, rather than holding up things by making the cashier wait to finish the transaction. That would be the courteous thing to do.

The cashier could have cancelled out the sale and started again once the kids had their candy, as well.

There were other ways of handling it so other customers wouldn't be inconvenienced, but, having been a cashier yourself, I'm sure you can see that cashier's side as well, and why you might have come across to her as annoying, even if that wasn't your intent.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The cashier was not sucky. The woman with the kids in front of you was.

All she would've had to do is pay for the gas and then she can go with the kids to pick out candy and have that rung up separately. It would've prevented the cashier from having to wait.

It is nice that you set the money aside when you were a cashier, but the cashier in this store may have trained differently.

[STEELMAN]

I understand the real suck was from the woman in front of me. That is why she got the and the clerk got . It was just something I thought she would do, knowing the situation.

[Peppergirl]

She was probably buying lottery too.



Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[blas]

It was one of my pet peeves at the gas station when people would just try to set money on the counter and not wait their turn.

I totally understand that lotto whores and people who hem and haw can't make up their minds are a PITA. I totally understand. Imagine being the poor clerk who has to deal with their inability to get what they want and just get the hell out so other people can check out as well.

But not every register can suspend transactions, lots of people get random even amounts of gas like $20, and what if you weren't the only one?

[Titi]

Or even corporate or owner (if privately owned.) has decided not allow suspended or canceled sales.

I had forgotten what the stupidest rule that corporate at Wawa came up with when I worked there but this thread has jogged my memory. It was a no suspended sales clause where if you had 3 (or 6) in a week you were written up. The customers did not like it at all so we referred them to the corporate complaint number. Less than 2 weeks after it started it was rescinded.