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About eight years ago, I was working at a large department store. One night I was in some remote department, this register that rarely got any traffic, and was stocked with merchandise that sold poorly.
After a generally uneventful shift on a slow day, it was coming up on closing time. I was looking forward to going home, so I was just about to start to close out my register. The announcement comes over the PA that the store will be closing in a few minutes, and that now is the time for any final purchases.
Only moments before I key in the code to shut down the register, a man walks up, with his wife and two kids in tow behind him. He's got an armful of merchandise he wants to buy. Okay, I'm here to do my job and check you out: so I scan all his stuff, bag it, and am ready to finish this when I ask how he will be paying for it.
He says it will be by a check. Okay, he writes a check for the entire sum (~$400), and hands it to me, and is about to just take the bag and run off. However, I have to tell him:
"One moment sir, I have to enter the check into the register first".
You see, we can't just accept checks outright, in fact, we don't even make the say on it. We have to first enter the ID number they used to identify themselves for buying with a check, so I key in his Driver's License number first. The registers also have this little scanner that reads the MICR numbers on the check and verifies whether or not to accept the check. I guess it's some kind of credit verification or looking for bad checks on the same account or some other red flags.
Well, our little check verification system refuses to accept his check. It says I have to take another form of payment. He gets irate and says to run it through again. I take this moment to look at the check. . .
It's drawn on a two-party check, drawn on an out-of-state bank (and he's from this state, so he's paying with a check from a bank that's out of state to him), with a home address listed that didn't match the Driver's License, and wasn't even from the same state as the bank, much less his ID. It's like a textbook case of a check not to accept. I try to politely tell him that I can't accept the check, and I can still accept cash, store gift cards, or credit & debit cards.
He gets irate, and says I'm insulting him by saying his checks are no good, and that I'm being a very bad sales clerk for treating a customer this way. He's getting very dramatic on me, acting like he's putting on a show or something. He's demanding to see my manager (who clocked out about 5 minutes ago, my manager was always first out the door), demanding I give him store credit to make up for this insult, demanding I accept the check or he's never shopping here again, demanding my full name (instead of the first name on my name tag) so he can call and complain about me to my boss. Then says he owns stock in the company and will make sure I'm fired if I don't comply (I happen to know the store is privately held by one family, and he doesn't have their surname).
I notice that his wife is blushing bright red, averting her eyes, and looks utterly mortified. The younger of his kids pipes up and says:
"Daddy, you do this every time we go shopping!" To which he snaps his head over with a vengeful glare and shushes her and returns to me to continue trying to browbeat me into accepting the obviously bad check.
By this point, other sales associates are walking by, taking their final register take for the night to the office upstairs and clocking out, and some of the lights are being turned off. I know that if I don't shut down soon, the store manager or security will be along in a few minutes. I was betting that security was already watching this entire spectacle on the security cameras.
I make my stand and tell him that in no uncertain terms: I'm not allowed to accept a check from him on that account, I cannot override it, I would be fired if I just accepted it and gave him the merchandise, and the store is closing, so please pay with another form of payment or please leave.
He gets an outright angry grimace on his face and says that he's never been so insulted in his life and my manager, my manager's manager, and my manager's manager's manager will hear about my bad attitude the next day, that he will go to the media with the story of how insulting they are to their customers, and that I will regret the day I ever crossed him. His family in tow, they leave and from a quick glance, they got into an argument out in the parking lot.
I cancel the entire transaction, leave the bag to be reshelved the next day, quickly close out my register, and am taking the bag up just as the manager supervising the close was coming out to ask what happened. I told him I had somebody trying to pull a check scam as the store was closing, and was hoping to use the urgency of closing the store to get me to accept a check that our computers said was bogus. He nods and takes my money pouch, as I clock out and end that day.
After a generally uneventful shift on a slow day, it was coming up on closing time. I was looking forward to going home, so I was just about to start to close out my register. The announcement comes over the PA that the store will be closing in a few minutes, and that now is the time for any final purchases.
Only moments before I key in the code to shut down the register, a man walks up, with his wife and two kids in tow behind him. He's got an armful of merchandise he wants to buy. Okay, I'm here to do my job and check you out: so I scan all his stuff, bag it, and am ready to finish this when I ask how he will be paying for it.
He says it will be by a check. Okay, he writes a check for the entire sum (~$400), and hands it to me, and is about to just take the bag and run off. However, I have to tell him:
"One moment sir, I have to enter the check into the register first".
You see, we can't just accept checks outright, in fact, we don't even make the say on it. We have to first enter the ID number they used to identify themselves for buying with a check, so I key in his Driver's License number first. The registers also have this little scanner that reads the MICR numbers on the check and verifies whether or not to accept the check. I guess it's some kind of credit verification or looking for bad checks on the same account or some other red flags.
Well, our little check verification system refuses to accept his check. It says I have to take another form of payment. He gets irate and says to run it through again. I take this moment to look at the check. . .
It's drawn on a two-party check, drawn on an out-of-state bank (and he's from this state, so he's paying with a check from a bank that's out of state to him), with a home address listed that didn't match the Driver's License, and wasn't even from the same state as the bank, much less his ID. It's like a textbook case of a check not to accept. I try to politely tell him that I can't accept the check, and I can still accept cash, store gift cards, or credit & debit cards.
He gets irate, and says I'm insulting him by saying his checks are no good, and that I'm being a very bad sales clerk for treating a customer this way. He's getting very dramatic on me, acting like he's putting on a show or something. He's demanding to see my manager (who clocked out about 5 minutes ago, my manager was always first out the door), demanding I give him store credit to make up for this insult, demanding I accept the check or he's never shopping here again, demanding my full name (instead of the first name on my name tag) so he can call and complain about me to my boss. Then says he owns stock in the company and will make sure I'm fired if I don't comply (I happen to know the store is privately held by one family, and he doesn't have their surname).
I notice that his wife is blushing bright red, averting her eyes, and looks utterly mortified. The younger of his kids pipes up and says:
"Daddy, you do this every time we go shopping!" To which he snaps his head over with a vengeful glare and shushes her and returns to me to continue trying to browbeat me into accepting the obviously bad check.
By this point, other sales associates are walking by, taking their final register take for the night to the office upstairs and clocking out, and some of the lights are being turned off. I know that if I don't shut down soon, the store manager or security will be along in a few minutes. I was betting that security was already watching this entire spectacle on the security cameras.
I make my stand and tell him that in no uncertain terms: I'm not allowed to accept a check from him on that account, I cannot override it, I would be fired if I just accepted it and gave him the merchandise, and the store is closing, so please pay with another form of payment or please leave.
He gets an outright angry grimace on his face and says that he's never been so insulted in his life and my manager, my manager's manager, and my manager's manager's manager will hear about my bad attitude the next day, that he will go to the media with the story of how insulting they are to their customers, and that I will regret the day I ever crossed him. His family in tow, they leave and from a quick glance, they got into an argument out in the parking lot.
I cancel the entire transaction, leave the bag to be reshelved the next day, quickly close out my register, and am taking the bag up just as the manager supervising the close was coming out to ask what happened. I told him I had somebody trying to pull a check scam as the store was closing, and was hoping to use the urgency of closing the store to get me to accept a check that our computers said was bogus. He nods and takes my money pouch, as I clock out and end that day.
Good for you on standing your ground! ^_^
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