Couldn't guesstimate the price, eh ... ?

[Pixilated]

Last week a woman came through my line ... well-dressed ... with maybe half a dozen items, including a large bag of cherries. I scan it all, give her the total ($18 + change), she gives me a $20, I punch it in, till pops open and I fish out her change ...

Then:
SC: Wait, how much were the cherries?
Me: Um, $9 + change
SC: Oh, that's way too much! I don't want them!

So this throws me into a bit of a spin, as I'm holding her change in one hand, I don't know if this is a refund or what (answer: yes, it was) and I'm seriously PO'd that she waits till it's all over before deciding she can't afford the damn things.

She could have:
1) looked at the per/unit price, plop the bag on a scale and guesstimated how much it was.
2) watched as I rang in her order and vetoed the cherries on the spot.
3) or better yet ... here's a revolutionary thought ... ask me to price it before I start running the order through!!

People do that a lot and it's not a problem because it's a simple and short process: punch key X, scan/weigh item, announce price, punch 'Total' to wipe the transaction from the machine's brain. Continue life as normal.

A refund?
Punch key 'A'.
Scan/weigh item.
Insert paper into cash register's printer.
Punch key 'B'
Punch key 'C'
Punch key 'D' not once but TWICE
Insert paper into printer AGAIN
Punch key 'B' AGAIN
Somewhere around this point (if my hastily scribbled directions are correct) the till pops open and you can get the customer's money.

However, you still have to fill out a 'refund' slip and have the customer sign with name/address/phone number.

Did I mention I forgot the 'refund' slip? Got a note asking why. Shift manager looks at my reply, says "You can't call the customer that!" -- trying not to laugh. (Yes, I erased and rewrote the explanation. )

[EricKei]

"You can't call the customer that!"

Eh? We call them that all the time. Just not to their faces...>_>

[Kogarashi]

One more reason I liked working at Walmart. Once the payment has been put through, it's out of my hands. You suddenly don't want those cherries? "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't do refunds at this register. You'll have to take them to the service desk." Cue customer looking at service desk and its long line, and realizing what they got themselves into by not paying attention.

[underemployeed]

I wish people would stop acting like training monkeys and handing over payment BEFORE deciding if there is something wrong or way to expensive. Then they get mad when it is a long production to do a refund, happened all the time at my c-store..... Void is a simple one touch button, but of course it would take way to much effort to pay attention while I ring up 4 things.

[dalesys]

Eh? We call them that all the time. Just not to their faces feces...>_>

'Cause that's what's in front of their craniectomy.

[sms001]

but of course it would take way to much effort to pay attention while I ring up 4 things.

Especially bad in this case where one item was half the purchase!

I miss the days of being able to watch prices as they're being rung (bagging your own stuff, running debit card, scanning being faster than punching in, etc.) but I DO watch the things I might have a concern about, like whether something is eligible for a coupon or whatnot.

Bad consumer = sucky customer.

[thansal]

ye gods!

What idiot designed (and what larger idiot BOUGHT) those registers?

I feel for you on that one.

[Zaiida]

I miss the days of being able to watch prices as they're being rung (bagging your own stuff, running debit card, scanning being faster than punching in, etc.) but I DO watch the things I might have a concern about, like whether something is eligible for a coupon or whatnot.

I love my local supermarket now. They upgraded a year back to dual big lcd screens, one for the customer and one for the cashier so you can see what goes through and the price the instant it gets scanned and it stays up in a list for the whole transaction.

The only times I've been surprised is when things scan slightly lower price than expected by weight. I think the scales in the fruit n vegies section weighs a little heavy but the cashier's one is more sensitive.

[mhkohne]

I love my local supermarket now. They upgraded a year back to dual big lcd screens, one for the customer and one for the cashier so you can see what goes through and the price the instant it gets scanned and it stays up in a list for the whole transaction.

The only times I've been surprised is when things scan slightly lower price than expected by weight. I think the scales in the fruit n vegies section weighs a little heavy but the cashier's one is more sensitive.

The cashier's scale should be calibrated and then checked regularly because it determines how much you pay-if it's wrong, the local weights and measures guys can make trouble. The one in the veggies section isn't used to set price so no one pays attention if it's a bit off.

[Catwoman2965]

I had something kind of similar last night, but dealing with a customer and her husband, show she sent in to pay her store charge. So he comes in, and I start doing the payment, and ask how much did he want to pay. Note: we cannot give, and do not have access to ANY customer account info. If they ask for a balance, all we can do is call CS, and then put the customer on the phone, as they WILL NOT, for privacy reasons, give anyone but the account holder any info.

So he says, after I explain I can't give him a balance "x $", so I do that, and give him his receipt, and he's on his merry way. or so I think. A few minutes later, he comes back, with wifey in tow. Who demands to know WHY there was no change! I explained I did the payment for the amount her HUBBY told me> She then said CS told her the balance. Great, but I don't have that info.

She then says, but CS told me what my balance was! I again said, yes, that may be so, but I DO NOT have any account info. She still didn't get it, but left. After yelling at her husband how stupid he was in front of everyone. Quite the shrew

Only to come back in a few minutes later and repeat what she had just told me. I again repeated what I had said before and then offered to call CS and let HEr speak to them (she had not given me the chance to do this before, and I didn't even bring it up to the husband as I knew thye would not give HIM any info either). So I do, and she gets her balance, and I get the manager to void the transaction, and re-do her payment.

The best part; the difference between what she owed, and what her hubby had paid was only .75 So she threw a major hissy fit over less than a dollar!!!!!

[Enjis]

I was buying grapes at my local market. When the total came up, it was way higher than I expected. 'How much a pound were they?' I asked. They scanned at $3.99 a pound...
'Oh...that's more than I thought they were', I replied, puzzled. "I don't want them...sorry'. The cashier had no problem with this, and put them aside.(I was gonna take them back to produce myself, but she said she'd return them.) I then went back to the produce dept. to check the price...I was sure they were not that much (or I would not have picked them up!)
Sure enough, they were $2.89 a pound...quite a bit less. Big sign, 'green seedless grapes'. (as a former salesperson, I READ signs!)
I went back to the clerk, told her what the sign said. She had to call the produce manager, because that one color was ringing up at the old price, not the sale...but I was smiling and polite about it. 'No problem' I said. 'I know it often happens.'
So....at least I only had that one item...if it had been mixed in with a bunch of other items I may not have noticed the big difference.
If I had paid, then realized the problem, I would have gone to the refund desk and gotten it taken care of, no worries. I know darn well the clerk doing the ringing does not do refunds.
Big lession...pay attention to the screen, if one is available to read, and look at the prices as they ring. You'll save yourself, and everyone else, a lot of trouble.

[Kogarashi]

This is why when I'm buying produce at Walmart, I keep a close eye on the pinpad screen when the cashier start's ringing the fruits and veggies. The price screen on the register only shows the poundage and total cost of the produce, but the pinpad's screen actually shows the price per pound as well, so I can make sure that things are ringing up right. I've had it happen before where, say, peaches will have three different sticker numbers, only one of them has been updated in the system, and it's neither the number on the stickers nor the number on the cashier's cheat sheet.

[Andara Bledin]

She then said CS told her the balance. Great, but I don't have that info.

"Then you should have told your husband the balance."

^-.-^

[Stryker One]

Wait, what DID you call the customer?

[EricKei]

Wait, what DID you call the customer?

I'm not sure if there's anything we can call them in public that is more damning and derogatory than "customer"