Then. I. Don't. Want. It.

[B&NGoddess]

its fuckin' busy. there are three of us in the music dept. me, the music manager (M), and an assistant manager (H). M starts a ship to home order and then hands it off to me to finish. i ring it all up and give the customer her receipt. she starts scrutinizing it. (one of my pet peeves.)

SC: why is it so much?
me: well theres a 2.98 shipping charge.
sc: she told me it was $2.
me: no, she said the difference between the in store price and the ship to home price was about $2 and that the shipping charge would pretty much negate that. shipping is 2.98. sorry for the misunderstan--
sc: then. i. don't. want. it.
me:...okaay. H, i need you to cancel this.
H: cant cancel ship to homes once theyve been processed. i can--
sc: THATS NOT FAIR!! SHE TOLD ME TWO DOLLARS!! THATS NOT FAIR!!!
H: ma'am, im telling you that i can refund the ninety eight cents.

so we do all that, and because i thought we were canceling the order, i kept the original receipt. she used a coupon on the order, and when i did the refund, i didnt bother with it. when i noticed this, i told H that this woman was gonna pitch a fit.

sure as shit, not 20 minutes later she calls and another manager, K, says that because we only refunded her ninety eight cents, we didnt need to do all the other rigmarole. the woman demands that the original receipt be mailed to her.

[Marxfan]

i ring it all up and give the customer her receipt. she starts scrutinizing it. (one of my pet peeves.)

That's one of mine, too. I'm sorry that stupid bitch made your day even more difficult.

[slavetotheman]

i ring it all up and give the customer her receipt. she starts scrutinizing it. (one of my pet peeves.)

That's one of mine, too. I'm sorry that stupid bitch made your day even more difficult.

Agreed -- after all, nobody on our side of the counter ever makes a mistake!

</snark>

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Why do people make such a huge deal over amounts that add up to less than a dollar? I suppose it's the principle of the thing.

[Alpha Strike]

i ring it all up and give the customer her receipt. she starts scrutinizing it. (one of my pet peeves.)

Why is this a pet peeve of yours? Having done retail, I'd rather a customer get their problems taken care of right away then go through the whole "I ordered this 3 weeks ago but I'm calling to complain about my problems now" spiel that we've all endured.

[Emrld]

I enjoy that at my store on occassion some items will be placed in a specific area if they are damaged or discontinued . . . .
Now all old tags are supposed to be removed and only the one that won't scan with bright red is supposed to be on the box . . . (meaning you manually type in the item number and can do a price over ride at that very moment) However on occassion that doesn't happen.
While ringing up the items there is a screen that will show the person what they have purchased and the amount they will be paying for it. But, or course they wait until you are done and the recepit is printed and then they point out you rang an item up wrong.

[B&NGoddess]

Why is this a pet peeve of yours? Having done retail, I'd rather a customer get their problems taken care of right away then go through the whole "I ordered this 3 weeks ago but I'm calling to complain about my problems now" spiel that we've all endured.

i dunno. i guess thats usually not the case in my experience. they seem to be more concerned about the math, as if the computer cant handle simple addition. (and hold up the line while trying to do tax percentages in your head). if theyre going to debate the math, id rather they do it as i go, so i dont have to cancel a whole damn transaction (or not be able to, in this case.) i tell them the total before they pay, so if you think its too much, dont pay, and ask me to explain it. 90% of the time its nitpicky bullshit.

like the guy i had who didnt understand the concept of tax and insisted that because the difference between a book he was buying and a book he was returning was only a dollar, he should only have to pay a dollar and pitched a fit when i told him he owed me 1.06.

and besides, this lady was grade A, government stamped douche.

edit:

Agreed -- after all, nobody on our side of the counter ever makes a mistake!

</snark>

didnt you know? we're infallible.

[Alpha Strike]

i dunno. i guess thats usually not the case in my experience. they seem to be more concerned about the math, as if the computer cant handle simple addition. (and hold up the line while trying to do tax percentages in your head). if theyre going to debate the math, id rather they do it as i go, so i dont have to cancel a whole damn transaction (or not be able to, in this case.) i tell them the total before they pay, so if you think its too much, dont pay, and ask me to explain it. 90% of the time its nitpicky bullshit.


and besides, this lady was grade A, government stamped douche.

AhhhHhhhHh. Well that makes a lot more sense - I was imaging a situation where a customer was asking about a price or disputing whether an item should be there at all. I'm right with you about folks who want to debate whether a computer can add or subtract - definately Grade A, FDA-approved douchebags.

[Boozy]

Why do people make such a huge deal over amounts that add up to less than a dollar? I suppose it's the principle of the thing.

Ridiculous, isn't it?

Very little makes me angrier than this phrase.

I have principles, too. MY principles are that life is too short to get worked up over stupid things and to treat people with patience and kindness...and I'm never going to sell these principles for 98 measly cents.

[LifeCarnie]

Why do people make such a huge deal over amounts that add up to less than a dollar? I suppose it's the principle of the thing.

Have you ever watched the movie 'Office Space'? That scam actually worked for an executive at Chemical Bank back in the 1970's.

He stole millions of dollars by syphoning 1/1000th of a cent of interest, paid by Chemical bank to it's account holders, into a private offshore account. It was years before he was caught.

He only stole a fraction of penny from each transaction, but it turned into millions of dollars.

So "an amount less than a dollar" does add up.

[Marxfan]

Why is this a pet peeve of yours? Having done retail, I'd rather a customer get their problems taken care of right away then go through the whole "I ordered this 3 weeks ago but I'm calling to complain about my problems now" spiel that we've all endured.

It bothers me because it brings to mind Robert DeNiro in Meet the Parents: "I'm watching you!"* In other words, it's like they're shoving it in your face that they don't trust you and want to create a stink by accusing you of cheating them. Not to mention that, in many cases, it holds up the line.






*If that's not the exact quote, I apologize. It's just that I haven't seen that movie in ages.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

I check the receipt for human error (ie I misread a sale sign, someone didn't program the sale in right, the scanner read the wrong bar code). I usually just scan it unless the total seems completely out of whack to me. If I have to do more than scan it, I'll get out of the way of traffic to look at it closely. At that point 19/20, I'll find that I misread something.

[Broomjockey]

He only stole a fraction of penny from each transaction, but it turned into millions of dollars.

So "an amount less than a dollar" does add up.

Yeah, but how many transactions do you do a day? Let's be generous and say you average 10 transactions a day. That's 3650 transactions a year. Now, say you manage to find an error averaging 50 cents a transaction, way more than the 1/1000th of a penny that guy was getting. That'll save you $1825 a year.

Now, say you spend 5 minutes every transaction to find and get these errors corrected. That's being extremely efficient for errors. You're spending 304 hours a year to get that corrected. So that's making you $6/hour that you spend doing that.

Now, that's being extremely generous in the number of transactions, and the amount of money saved on average, and on how long it will take to go over reciepts and get errors corrected. If you swing any of the numbers much, the results go WAY down. So ask yourself this. Is your free time worth less than $6/hr?

[flybye023]

sc: then. i. don't. want. it.

B&NGoddess, what you had here was a failure to communicate. This wasn't a statement of what she did/didn't want, this was a thinly veiled threat to get you to immediately cave and give her exactly what she wanted.

You're supposed to respond "OH NOES! the customer is going to return this! I'll lose a sale!"