Can I haz 3rd Grade Maff Skilz?

[Reyneth]

Scene: Tar-jay

Items in question: spindle of DVD-Rs, quantity 2

Total came up to more than I expected so I was checking my receipt as I walked away from the register. The DVD-Rs rang up at $22.99 each while the sign on the shelf was $9.99, which noted a savings of $13.

I ask the cashier and she has someone come up, he realized that old signs had not been taken down, not a surprise to him. He says they'll honor it and sends someone back to take the signs. So I'm there waiting and then the security guy comes by and says I should just go down to Customer Services, a message has been sent down there.

So down the escalator I go (2 story store!) and the person there starts messing with stuff and finally ends up just doing one refund at a time. For $10.76.

"No, that's wrong, it should be $13 plus tax"

She doesn't get it. Tries to do something else, same result. (DUH, what you're doing is obvious!)

Has to call a sup over who tells her to just refund the two items and ring them up at $9.99 each. So another $20+ charge.

In the meantime, about 8 different receipts had been printed for all of her attempts. I only get my original, the refund receipt and the payment for $20+. She throws all the other ones away.

It took 15 minutes after my first transaction was over before I was back upstairs and exiting the building. Checking my bank account shows the two charges but no refund yet.

They have until tomorrow. I was ok with not getting the DVD-Rs at all, they're something I need but wasn't immediate and I got them because of the good price. I was cool with the issue and I am sure the last cashier had no idea how DISGUSTED I was that she was so inept she didn't even know that $22.99 - 9.99 = $13 and didn't realize that refunding me $9.99 each was not sufficient to resolve the difference.

[MaggieTheCat]

For what it's worth, banks usually take up to 72 business hours to issue refunds. It might not be that long but it could be. I'm not sure why, but when I worked back in the call center and we issued refunds, we got yelled at sometimes because customers would see charges (sometimes two charges, if they bought something, returned it, and bought something else before the refund posted) but not see the refund right after they returned something, and we were always told to tell customers to give the bank up to 3 working days to issue the refund. Maybe call your bank in a day or two if you don't see anything and see if they can tell you if a refund has been requested.

That said, yeah, the cashier fails at math...simple math, too, which is sad.

[Spork4pedro]

Sounds like some of my former coworkers. When I transferred over there I was amazed how many couldn't do the math needed to run a register. (every once in a while our screens that showed total due/change back would die and the powers that be were cheap as hell and wouldn't fix them ) Now, I understand that some people just aren't good at math. That's fine. What I had a problem with was that they couldn't/refused to use the handy calculator we had for such cases and would CONSTANTLY call me over (usually in the middle of making peoples orders) to help them figure it out.

[Reyneth]

Thanks Maggie.

I do know that it usually takes longer to show a credit than a debit but if the cashier was even somewhat competent, I would only have the original charge. It's only but the grace of the Federal and Ohio tax refunds that I have enough in there right now that the extra charge didn't put me into the "don't have anything left" category.

It's one thing if it's a credit card, but since I only have a debit they are holding my money hostage because they had someone without even an idea of how to do math working returns.

[Food Lady]

I don't get it. The computer does the math. All she had to do was tell the register the items needed to be $9.99 and it would calculate the refund. She didn't have to tell it how much to take off, so she shouldn't have needed to calculate in her head.

[ArcticChicken]

All she had to do was tell the register the items needed to be $9.99 and it would calculate the refund..

There are lots of places where you need to tell it the discount, not the final price.

[Mytical]

Ok..I understand Maff is difficult..but really..almost everything and it's brother has some sort of calculator function now. Heck even watches sometimes do. If'n ya can't be doing the maff...carry one of them fancified doohickies that can doin it for ya.

[Teskeria]

They can't do the math because they start using the calculators in 3rd grade nowadays. My daughter's sixth grade teacher (in the early 90's) told the kids to go ahead and use their calculators on the test. When she saw my daughter didn't have one, she offered to lend her a spare. She was very shocked when she was informed 'I'm not allowed to use a calculator for math. My mother wants me to actually know how to DO math.'
On the other hand, when the store lost all power, my daughter was doing the math on paper bags for the customers by hand (and yeah they checked REAL closely) and getting it right. Her line was the only one open, as the store adding machines required electricity.

[Ironclad Alibi]

When I was in college, our math professors did not want to even see a slide rule in the classroom, much less actually allow one to be used. Calculators weren't a problem because the first pocket calculators were released around the time I graduated. The first scientific pocket calculator, the HP-35, was released the year I graduated. It only cost $395.00. (equivalent to about $2050.00 today.)

[Captain Trips]

Two weeks ago, I stayed at a hotel on a $100 rewards card, the bill was $103.40. The clerk needed a calculator to determine she had to charge my regular credit card a total of $3.40.

I kept my tongue, but really -- a calculator to do 103.40 - 100 = 3.40? Really? Don't they even teach "drop the 1?"

[42_42_42]

And my husband wonders why I either want to homeschool or send to private school any children we have.

[Andara Bledin]

Not even calculators can help some people.

I've got a co-irker who uses a calculator for everything, and she can take a value of 22,000 and subtract 15,000 and come up with a total of 21,850 and not even realize that something isn't right. >_<

I used to call her on it, but she refuses to ever admit that she might have made a mistake. It's always someone else's fault, or it didn't happen.

^-.-^

[Reyneth]

My first job was at an ice cream place. We did NOT subtotal on the registers or enter what the customer gave us and get the change amount displayed.

Two registers, anywhere from 4 to 7 open windows at once. Obvious why it was done that way. So we had to be able to calculate totals (walk-up only so tax only on drinks and that was included in the prices that we knew) and count change back correctly.

Guess what? It's not hard. If it's expected of you and you're shown how to do the latter, that's the job! I when people can't even count simple change back.
---------------------------------

My money is FINALLY back in my account. And in the meantime, the $10.76 incorrectly refunded (twice) was also credited back - but I was changed that twice too. I'm just grateful that the extra $60 that was out of my account for a few days didn't break the bank for me - she should be too, because I would have had some heads roll.

If you don't know how to do it the first time, stop and get someone to help! I told her before the first $10.76 transaction went through that it was wrong. But it didn't stop her. Hate to say it but the customer *was* right that time!

[Mytical]

During my first gig as a cashier..I had to use a paper and pencil more then a couple of times because the crap cash register they had was just that. People were amazed I could figure out how much things were + tax (often checking it with their calculator..I was never even a .01c off) pretty dang fast. I learned a rounding trick when I was 3 years old.

(Here is how the 'rounding trick works'. Always round UP..and keep a tally next to the rounded number how much you 'added'..when done subtract the 'tally' x by sales tax, and tada it is pretty dang quick)

[Titi]

Did you use a Tar-Jay card? Because with that 5% off, it is causing havoc with the service desk registers.
They either give less back (on price changes) or try to charge more (on even exchanges). It has been reported to corporate.

It seems like you got people who did NOT know about this (Tar-Jay did NOT send anything about this problem to the stores) My store only knows because we have many people who will buy a cart load of clothes and then try them on.

I will apologize to the people that had to wait for me to first figure out the problem, then figure out how to override the problem.