“…and your total comes to $13.52,” I smile at the customer as she pulls out her wallet. The customer hands over $15–one $10 bill and one $5 bill. I type in $15 and the change displays on the receipt as $1.48. I hand over the money, thank the customer, and move on to the next order.
“Wait. Miss, you owe me $5. You only gave me $1.48″
“Yes, but your total was $13.52, and you gave me $15. See?” I point at her receipt.
“Didn’t I give you $20?”
“No, you gave me a $10 bill and a $5. It shows as $15 here on your receipt.” I point again.
The woman looks at her receipt some more, reading over the items to make sure there isn’t a mistake anywhere else. As I finish the next customer, she complains again. “No, something must be wrong. I definitely had a $20 bill in my wallet and now I don’t.” Obviously, I can’t simply open up the cash drawer and pull out $5 for her because she thinks she had a $20 bill before. Mistakes happen. People misplace money. So, I check to make sure I hadn’t been the one to make a mistake.
I ring for the front-end manager. He looks at the receipt and repeats what I had said to her, asking what the problem is. I explained the situation to him. “I believe she gave me $15, which is what appears on the receipt, but I may have typed it in incorrectly. She thinks she gave me $20.”
“I don’t think I gave her $20, I’m absolutely certain I did,” she angrily tells him. The manager takes out the till and takes it to be counted at the courtesy desk, making sure it adds up to the exact amount that should be in there. I sit and watch, embarrassed as this woman’s eyes viciously stare in my direction, believing I had made a horrible mistake.
The till breaks even. The courtesy desk shows the frustrated customer the printed sum of money on a piece of paper and explains to her that it is the exact amount in there. If she had given me $20, the till would be over by $5. They refuse to give her the money she was “absolutely certain” she deserved. The customer leaves in a fury, but not before complaining that “this has happened before” and “there is obviously something wrong with this store.” She even pulls out her wallet to prove she has no $20 bill, although this means nothing to those of us who have no idea how much money is supposed to be in there.
Not only was she rude to me while I rang her up and after I agreed to check with my manager, she also refused to let it go after she was plainly proven wrong. I still can’t imagine how she handed me two separate bills and thought it was a $20 bill, or how she could argue that I took a single bill and thought that it somehow added up to $15, such an obvious mistake I would easily catch it on my own and correct it. It doesn’t make any sense, and I know I was right. If I had made a mistake I would have apologized profusely, but I hadn’t. She was wrong–and even then she refused to apologize! Her rude behaviour only became worse, and she was quite clearly trying to cheat us out of money at that point. And $5! How pathetic.
Getting a summer job at a grocery store was a good move on my part. And I’m actually not being sarcastic here. Not only is it extra money, but you really do get to know human nature out there. You see the best and worst of people. Usually the worst. Sometimes it seems like the very worst. But hey, it’s a learning experience.
So, moral of the story? Stick to your guns–people are fucktards and will try to push you around and screw you over for a measly $5. And, of course, the most refreshing news of all to any cashier out there: the customer isn’t always right!
the customer isn’t always right!
No kidding. I work at a movie theater and I always find it interesting that people seem to believe that a seventeen-year-old cashier seems to be responsible for the outrageous prices.
The audacity of some people! All that for 5 dollars!
But you’re right about working at a grocery store. My brother-in-law told me that’s where I should work. It’s true. If you can make it there, you can do just about anything!
I’d like to say it’d get better, but you know it won’t. People.
Honestly! The audacity of some people. She should have just said, “You know what? I must have made a mistake. I’m really very sorry.” or something to that effect just to save face. Did she have no shame? If that was me and I thought that I probably wouldn’t have said anything or if I did and got it wrong I would have apologised profusely from embarrassment.
Honestly, Laur, I would rather scrub the floors of a grocery store than deal with the irate customers. Good luck!
The whole “customer is always right” is outdated, and even then, that customer was clearly trying to abuse it at your expense. It’s good that you did not let her get away with it because she doesn’t deserve an additional red cent.
The customer is always right… until they’ve left the store, then they’re as wrong as you want them to be.
This lady was exceptionally rude, seeing as the till broke even, and it was “proved” you really handn’t been given $20 from her. If that had been me, I would have been so embarassed at asking you to check and slowing the queues down and all that that I would have apologised profusely and run off to hide somewhere.
This whole thing about the customer always being right is complete and utter BULL. The customer is quite frankly rarely every right. I work with food and the amount of times I have seen customers put their own hair in the food to get their bill discounted is shocking. It angers me because everyone else has to pay their way so why cant they? You seemed to have handles the situation really well though. I find it quite hard to keep myself composed and I have on more than one occasion completely lost it with a few of my customers. Lovely clean site
I work in retail so I feel your pain. A lot of time when customers give me money I’ll keep it in my hand until they walk away from the desk. That way if they try to pull one on me I’ll have the cash in my hand and not in the drawer.
Care if I link back to your blog through my site?
Funnily enough this has happened to me on several occasions and more often than not it has been the customers mistake and not mine. Resulting in me too doing what you had to, getting my manager and getting her to check through the till.