2/22/2010

What I've got in store today isn't really a rant, but I definitely found it amusing enough to mention. On this past Monday, a co-worker, "Katy," had the service desk covered, so I was on a regular register for most of the day.

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~ An older woman came up to my register with just two, large items in her basket. All she had was a bag of plant fertilizer and a roughly 2ft x 2ft, sturdy, glass-topped lawn table. After scanning I'd scanned both items, the woman looked at her total with shocked surprise. Upon inquiry, we found that the table had rung up for far more than she expected. The price it rang up for was $20.00 while she stated that a sign by the stack of tables, from where she got her's, displayed that it should have only cost about $6. The supervisor Monica was nearby, so I went out on a limb and asked if she'd check into the discrepancy for me. To my relief, she accepted the mission and headed off to the gardening area to find out what was going on. In the meantime, the woman paid for the fertilizer and moved off to the side so that I could check out other customers while waiting for my supervisor to return.

When she got back, Monica had with her the sign that the older woman had been referring to. It had, in fact, been propped up near the $20.00 tables and also displayed the price $6.98. Because of this, my super decided to go ahead and give the woman the table for the amount on the incorrectly placed price sign. During this time, I was still in the middle of checking out a different customer's items, so Monica led the woman to the customer service desk to quickly pay for the table there. Apparently, along the way, my super took a second glance at the sign she was holding and realized that it didn't have a decimal on it. The price it was displaying wasn't $6.98, but actually $698.00. The older woman was not dissuaded by this information and insisted that she still be given the table for $6.98. Since it was an honest enough mistake made by both of them at first glance, Monica relented and still agreed to still discount the table for her.

The epiphany over the price on the display happened during their walk up to the service desk, so my co-worker there still had no idea of what the situation was. Monica placed the sign on the counter as they arrived and reached for the table to make it easier to scan. Before anyone could explain what was going on, Katy looked down at the display price and said, "$698.00 for a table?!" That was apparently the final straw. The customer threw her arms up in the air, exclaimed, "Forget it! I just don't want the table anymore!" and left with only the fertilizer.

I found out the rest of the story because I noticed the table was still at the service desk when I returned later to send Katy on her lunch break. The sign that was the cause of all the fuss was most likely from one of the larger lawn sets that the store has available. All in all, the woman really should have known the price she thought she was getting the table for was too good to be true. Even my honey agrees that you'd be hard-pressed to find a glass-topped anything for under $10.00.

Scandalous Scanning

Not too much to my dismay, I haven't had any notable situations happen since that horrible man on the 24th. However, because there were two of us at the service desk yesterday, they had me cashiering at a normal register for a while. During this time, an old rant popped into my head that I haven't mentioned yet. So here it goes:

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~It really annoys me to the core when someone walks up to the service desk, throws their receipt on the counter, and announces, "That cashier rang this up wrong!" This happens far too often. The reason for my annoyance is because the cashiers are not responsible for how much something rings up in any way. They simply scan the item, bag it, and move on to the next item.

First of all, in a majority of the cases where this problem arises, the item in question was in the wrong place. Customers pick up and move items around all the time. Just because you picked up a DVD next to all the plates does not mean it costs the price on the shelf.

Second of all, our cashiers don't even work out on the floor. All they do is cashier. That's it. I, personally have never, ever worked out on the sales floor pricing items. It just won't happen unless I request to change my job position. Any price that may or may not be correct for an item is the caused through human error by someone else.

That last sentence brings me to my next point: People are human.
We're not demi-gods sent down to earth to make sure every price and item match up perfectly in a synchronized ballet of retail wonderment. I am fully aware that errors are made and overlooked. It happens. I can accept that. It still wasn't the cashier's fault.

If there is a wrong way to scan an item so that a customer is charged incorrectly in the process... No, I'm stopping my thought there. There IS no wrong way to do this. The machine goes, "bip!" and you stuff the item in the bag. Its the pricing in the computer for that particular code that makes it ring up the way it does. So, whether it be a misplaced item or just a price change error,

Stop Blaming the Cashier for It!!

They've got enough to deal with throughout the course of the day without you sprinkling your hatred over them.