Sucky Day

[blas]

The whole day wasn't a loss, but I had my fair share of incidents on the road and in dealing with the general public.

I'll post the traffic ones later in Roadkill, for now we'll focus on the two sucks of the day at stores.

I stopped at Kwik Trip and Jimmy Johns before I left town. I was in the Kwik Trip to get more smokes. No big deal, right?

Well, as I pulled out my ID to show the clerk, some random old man got into my bubble. I mean, slithered right up next to me. He was line jumping, which is something I'm used to old people doing to me at Walgreens, and I usually just get out of their way because I don't have it in me anymore to fight with people who can't be helped.

What was so important he couldn't wait his turn?

As soon as he had invaded my space, he yammers to the poor clerk "Does ALL yalls gas have that Etherrrrnol in it?"

The clerk told him "Our regular unleaded and premium unleaded have ethanol in them, you'd have to purchase the super unleaded at the higher cost to get a gas that doesn't have ethanol in it."

(Which is the same for practically every gas station here, not just Kwik Trip, besides that, it's been that way for a LONG time).

He frumped and harummped "Can't go anywheres without than damn ethernol in your gas!" and stomped away.

Thank goodness. Crisis averted. I shot the clerk a sympathy look before I left.

I had to stop at my parents' house on the way to go up north to visit my grandma, they said they left me gas money in the house.

I was a little lower than I usually let my tank get, and what they gave me wasn't going to cut it, so I figured I'd stop at the closest store by the freeway and I'd use their money and pay for the rest with my debit card.

I ended up at this rinky dink Cenex station, similar to the one I used to work at but Cenex, not BP. Same overall setups and registers and whatnot.

So I ended up with like $30something. I went in to pay, and I told the clerk that I wanted to put $20 in cash, and the rest on my debit card.

Her first response, "I can't do that!"

I kind of looked at her funny and said "You can't do a split transaction?"

She just repeated "I can't do that!"

I said "Well ok....I'll just keep the $20 and let's just put it all on my card..." because I didn't really feel like playing games or wasting time, as I was already supposed to have left for grandma's house a half hour ago.

She then said "Well, actually, I might be able to do it........." and by this point, she had both my cash and my card, so I just let her try.

I started getting a little antsy after she tried multiple times and a few minutes went by.

I said "It's really not that big of a deal, I can put it all on my card...." and she cut me off and said "Hold on!" and called for her manager.

Who also didn't know how to do a split transacation.

And so they hemmed and hawwed and once again, my request to just put it all on the card was ignored.

Then somehow, they finally got it to accept $20 cash, and to put the rest on my card.

Probably not the suckiest thing on earth, but it really irritated me.

[lupo pazzesco]

No, not the suckiest thing on earth, however it IS annoying to be outright told "Nope, can't do it, not happening, nu uh!!"

Only to turn around and find it is possible if someone had just asked.

Plus, getting cut of and essentially shunted aside while people tried to figure out without an "I'm sorry for the wait" and THEN ignoring the request to just put it all on the card? Definitely "grarg" inducing.

*hugs*

*gives cherry chocolate cupcakes*

I haveta make another batch of this this weekend. they're YUMMY

[blas]

Oh my lord, sweets!!!!

Thanks lupo. I really needed that

Mom's fine Italian cooking and your desserts make blas happy.

[Yarnil]

*gives cherry chocolate cupcakes*

I haveta make another batch of this this weekend. they're YUMMY

Damn...I should write something down here if thats the reward

[MoonCat]

Mmmm...cherry chocolate cupcakes.....

We should start a recipe thread (or is there one??)

[bainsidhe]

Did you get (and keep!) a receipt? Because how do you know they charged your card only $10. If two people had that much trouble figuring out a simple transaction, then I have low expectations of success. Check your bank account and make sure you were charged correctly.

[lupo pazzesco]

Mmmm...cherry chocolate cupcakes.....

We should start a recipe thread (or is there one??)

At one point, there was one. There's even a CS cookbook, or Pedersen was starting one, but that fizzled when people weren't able to give a lot of feedback, I think.

Might try PMing him to see if it still exists and maybe we can resurrect it?


Back on topic, blas, bainsidhe brings up a good point! I didn't think of that, and you might wanna check your bank account hon!

[Raveni]

There are a lot of places where they don't allow split transactions on fuel purchases. When I was at C-Store, it was hardwired into the registers. It wouldn't even allow coupons, so if someone had a coupon for a free candy bar or slushie, it would have to go on a seperate transaction.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Mmmm...cherry chocolate cupcakes.....

We should start a recipe thread (or is there one??)

There is one. On the menu bar at the top of the forum, click on Community, then Social Groups. In the Categories list, click on Lifestyle. Then click on CS Recipe Swap.

Here is a direct link to CS Recipe Swap.

[aurelemsrealm]

We just got a new system at my c-store. It can be a little particular about cash-card split transactions, but so was the old system. In theory, cash-card split transactions go as follows: ring up the transaction as normal, enter the cash payment first, then select credit/debit to charge the remainder of the balance to the card.

Trying to explain this to some people is the most painful part of the process because they want to do $X specific amount on the card and the rest in cash or something equally bizarre. Usually, that only applies to those who want to use gift cards with an unknown or low balance. Then, you have the people who seem unable to explain clearly what they have in mind, or even know what they want to do.

However, what you described, Blas, seems clear enough to me. Split-payment transactions intimidate some of the clerks at my store, so I have to talk them through it or take over their register for a few moments when I work with them. It is possible in most cases, but is not necessarily the easiest task depending on what the customer is trying to accomplish.

[Nashida]

I despise having to do split-payment transactions. I can do them just fine as a cashier. It's when I'm on the other side of the counter that I hate doing them, because I always get that deer-in-headlights look tossed at me if I say I'd like to use what's left on a gift card and pay for the rest with cash, for example.

Sorry you had to deal with that, and I definitely suggest watching your bank account with a close eye to see if they did it correctly.

[TonyDonuts]

Split-payment transactions intimidate some of the clerks at my store, so I have to talk them through it or take over their register for a few moments when I work with them. It is possible in most cases, but is not necessarily the easiest task depending on what the customer is trying to accomplish.

Tell me about it. And per the OP, my kids also default to "No, we can't do that."

Not, "I'm sorry, I don't know how, let me ask," but "Nope, can't do it. No."

Split transactions at the register work the same at my store. Punch in the cash the customer wants to use, then swipe the card for the remaining balance.

Punch in the cash the customer wants to use, then swipe the card for the remaining balance.

Punch in the cash the customer wants to use, then swipe the card for the remaining balance.

That's it, that's how you do it. I've got thirteen people working for me at the moment. I'd be willing to bet that, maybe, two of them could tell you how it's done and then do it. Two or three more know it can be done, but can't remember that the CASH part happens first, or it ain't gonna work. The rest? "No, we can't do that."

I've told people. I've instructed. I've drawn diagrams, I've showed them. This knowledge lasts about a day, and, seriously, remembering that CASH first, then swipe the card just seems too confusing.

Lots of furrowed brows, and "Wait, wait, swipe the card, then cash, right?"

And then I get this horrible pain in my head meat, and I think, "I hired this guy. He didn't seem quite so dense when I hired him."

Sometimes the furrowed brow thing looks so sad that I actually feel bad that I'm laying the terrible responsibility for this obscure and esoteric knowledge on them.

[Kogarashi]

I like how easy Walmart's registers were about split transactions. You want to do $20 in cash and the rest on card? Fine, enter them that way. You want to do $20 on the card and the rest in cash? Fine, enter them that way (make sure the cashier enters 20.00 before hitting the Credit key). You want to do part on this card, part on that card, part with the remainder of your Walmart giftcard, and part in the loose change you found under the seat of your car? Fine. Just make sure the amounts are keyed in right and that you're covering the entirety of the sale.

The only time I ever had issues was when someone would bring in one of those accursed Visa gift cards and didn't know how much was left. If you had a Walmart gift card and didn't know how much was left, it would deduct the entirety if it could and show the remaining balance, or the cashier could do a query on how much was left on the card. But the Visa gift cards were very particular. You had to put in the exact amount that was left on the card if you wantd to empty them out, and the register couldn't do a query to find out how much was left. And of course, none of the customers who brought the cards in would have written down how much was left, or have a handy phone to call Visa and find out. So we had to keep guessing and have the amount rejected until we managed to hit something under what was left on the card.

[LadyAndreca]

I haaaaaate credit card gift cards. It ALWAYS goes like this:

C: I want to use this gift card.
Me: Sure, do you happen to know how much is on it?
C: Huh? No.
Me: *swipes and hopes the answer is 'enough', but it rarely is* Well, how much did it start out as, and have you used it yet?
C: I dunno.
Me: ...
C: ...
Me: Well, I have to put in an exact amount because you've got less on the card than your total.
C: *annoyed* You can't just tell how much is on it?
Me: Well, no. We're not Visa/MC/Amex, we don't have access to their gift card systems.
C: *catbuttface*

Then they'll either miraculously remember what the starting balance was and it'll be unused, or they'll give me a different card with vague mutterings about how we don't accept gift cards. It's a 50/50 chance there.

This whole mess is why we all are issued sharpies to write the balance on the back of store gift cards.

Thankfully split transactions are easy for us. As long as I know how much to put on each form of payment, I can spread it between as many as the customer wants.