Sales Signs, Coupons and Extreme Aliteracy

[XCashier]

So, the fabric store has sent out coupons for their big Labor Day sale: 15% off entire purchase (regular price and sale items), 50% off all regular price notions, and the usual 40% off any one regular price item. There was also a 60% off one regular price fabric that was good from August 25-29 but is no longer valid. All of which have the usual caveats (not valid on clearance, patterns, sewing machines, certain other things).

Needless to say, nobody reads the coupons!

More than once at the beginning of the week, I got someone who wanted to use the fabric coupon on things that were NOT fabric.

SC: I want to use this 60% off coupon on these scissors!
ME: Ma'am, the coupon is for fabric, see right here? (shows her where it says "fabric" on coupon)
SC: Well, that's deceiving! I thought it was for anything in the store! I'm quite sure it said anything!

Um, yeah, I just showed you where it specified fabric. How is that "deceiving"? I do not have the magical power to change printed words. If I did, I'm sure I could put it to much better use than messing up your coupons.

Of course, now that the coupon has expired, people are still trying to use it. Had a woman come up to the register with a full bolt of fabric today. It had been measured at the cutting counter and she had the cutting slip. She hands me the bolt and several sales flyers.

SC2: I want to use my 60% off coupon!
ME: I'm sorry, Ma'am, it expired two days ago. (points to the clearly marked dates on the coupon)
SC2: But I want to use it! The man at the cutting counter said I could!
ME: He's mistaken, ma'am, this coupon is expired and the register won't accept it.
SC2: Are any of these coupons any good?
I look through the flyers.
ME: This ad's expired, so has this one…you can use this 40% off coupon, it's good until next Saturday.
SC2: Well, I don't want it! (shoves fabric bolt at me) And you can throw all those in the garbage, too! (shoves flyers at me and stomps out the door)

Nice little tantrum, dear. I'm sure Verruca Salt and Dudley Dursley would be proud of you. Throwing away all of your fliers, including the ones that were still good, sure showed me. (And yes, I did bring it up to the "man at the cutting counter". He's a newbie and not the sharpest needle in the pincushion.)

Oh, nobody reads the sales signs, either. I rang up a customer with several skeins of a specific yarn. They came up at $4.99 each.

SC3: No, they're $1 each! That's what the sign says!
So I go back and look. I take the sign down and bring it up with me.
ME: This sign?
SC3: That's the one!
ME: It says $1 off.
SC: Oh, then I don't want these!

Naturally. She can't read, so it's my fault. Oh, and the "off" was written in font this large. If all fine print were that size, I wouldn't need bifocals. Just saying.

Another sign non-reader complained that her fabric was supposed to be 50% off, "it said so on the sign!" So off I go on another wild sign hunt, find the only sale sign by that fabric, bring it back with a sample of what actually was on sale.

ME: This sign?
SC4: Yes!
ME: This sign says "50% off all blanket kits" like this one here, they were on the shelf below your fabric.

At least she had the good grace to accept it and buy the fabric. But seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Why is aliteracy so popular now? Why the hell should we give in to SCs because they will not read instructions or follow the rules? Your lack of reading comprehension =/= my fault or responsibility. And do they disregard signs in other things too? "Yes, officer, I know that sign said "one way", I'm only going one way...what do you mean, I'm going the wrong way?!"

[ThanosIsKing]

Oh, nobody reads the sales signs, either. I rang up a customer with several skeins of a specific yarn. They came up at $4.99 each.

SC3: No, they're $1 each! That's what the sign says!
So I go back and look. I take the sign down and bring it up with me.
ME: This sign?
SC3: That's the one!
ME: It says $1 off.
SC: Oh, then I don't want these!

Naturally. She can't read, so it's my fault. Oh, and the "off" was written in font this large. If all fine print were that size, I wouldn't need bifocals. Just saying.

I had someone just like this last week at Grocery Store. We had a sale on red bell peppers and green bell peppers, but both were different prices. I think it was something like the greens were $0.68/ea and the reds were like 2/$1. Customer comes up with 4 green peppers. When they ring up at the $0.68/ea C stops me and goes, "WAIT! Those are supposed to be 2/$1! I want my sale price blargablarg!" I go back and the signs specifying the type of pepper had the color in font as big as your example. HUGE letters saying it was $0.68/ea for GREEN. She complained to management and she got her 4 greens for $2 and left still complaining about the placement of the signs being "misleading".

[EricKei]

Odd sale at the food mart, then Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

This makes one more thing to add to my "If I ever own a store" list -- A big sign at the cashwrap that says "We cannot be held responsible for reading errors on the part of our valued customers. If you are unsure what a coupon or sign says, ASK US and we will be glad to read it to you."

[dalesys]

Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

Nope. Green, yellow, orange & red bell peppers are different varieties, sold at the same ripeness.

[EricKei]

Well, it's a bit of both (yes I looked it up) -- Some greens are different colors, including red, when they are at different levels of ripeness. Still the same species tho -- but you are correct about their being distinct varieties of the same basic thing.

[Dreamstalker]

I think it was something like the greens were $0.68/ea and the reds were like 2/$1. Customer comes up with 4 green peppers. When they ring up at the $0.68/ea C stops me and goes, "WAIT! Those are supposed to be 2/$1! I want my sale price blargablarg!" I go back and the signs specifying the type of pepper had the color in font as big as your example. HUGE letters saying it was $0.68/ea for GREEN.

I get things like this all the time at my store. Depending on which manager is in that day they not only get the stuff for the price they made up, but thanks to our state's 'price accuracy' law (which only applies if there is a mistake by the store and they can prove it) sometimes they get it for free to boot.

Because the customer is always right

[Catwoman2965]

Please don't get me started. I will admit, our signs are not marked as well as they could be. that being said, right now we have UP TO x % of clearance items, and in small letters it actually gives teh % off the markdowns. So for example, if clearance is an ADDITIONAL 50% off the markdowns, it might say UP TO 75% off ORIGINAL PRICES. our sales run like this all the time. You'd think customers, esp the regulars, would know this but they continue to argue "the sign says 75% off, blargablarg"

At the same time, we have a separate promo; spend x dollars, get x dollars off, depending on how much you spend. but...and this is a big but, its off the FINAL total, which means we take any and all OThEr discounts off first.

oh no, how come we can't take the dollar amount off first, then the extra %? sorry, doesn't work that way.

and finally we have certain cleaerance items that have been marked down to nothing, say 9.99. which are not part of the % off clearance. but oh no, they must be! yeah, so its 9.99, and 70% off? i think no. go away please.

[greensinestro]

Must be a scam being some managers will give in for someone's "stupidity", or being illiterate. I had posted one about the lady at Publix who bitched that her cheese was charged at $5.99 per pound, and not at $4.99 "as the sign says". She completely ignored the orange starburst sticker with large black lettering that said "pre-sliced from the cooler case only" and "not eligible at the deli counter" written right next to the $4.99 price.

And, I'm sure many do this all the time, and pull tantrums like this when someone doesn't give in. They're used to getting their way.

[Pagan]

Odd sale at the food mart, then Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

Hmm....I've never seen bell peppers, regardless of the color, sold by the pound. It's always been a per piece price.

Fun fact - While bell peppers are capsicum annuums, they have no capsaicin (the stuff that makes chile hot) in them. Unless, we found out one year, you happen to plant them near other chiles, then you can wind up with bell peppers with a bite to them.

[Ceir]

But seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Why is aliteracy so popular now? Why the hell should we give in to SCs because they will not read instructions or follow the rules? Your lack of reading comprehension =/= my fault or responsibility. And do they disregard signs in other things too? "Yes, officer, I know that sign said "one way", I'm only going one way...what do you mean, I'm going the wrong way?!"

Seconded, thirded, and so on and further. As tech support, I've always made the 'RTFM' jokes, but it's getting to the point of a miracle for some people to RTFAnything.

[bubblelittlepally]

We deal with this too at the career center. We are closed on the weekends but a city with the exact same name 490 miles away also has a career center and they're open on the weekends. Because someone googled the wrong location we have people who actually thing we'll just open up for them because they didn't even bother to realize that the number they called isn't even the same area code or even the right state. They even call corporate to complain. It's very funny sometimes.

[XRogue]

Cherries. I get this every time a fruit comes into season and we have a ton of it. But it's especially bad with those @##$%!!! cherries. I'll get 20 people come up to the cash line with a bag of cherries and when it rings up 4.98 a pound so that a 2 pound or so bag is ten bucks or so, I'll get a suddenly SC squealling " That's supposed to be 4.98!!! eleventy!!!!" I'll explain, sorry no, they are 4.98 a pound, the bags are all around 2 pounds each....they'll yell your sign is deceptive, take it off RIGHT NOW, it's all your fault.....

If it is 4.98 each, it'll bloody say so. Not that you'd know either way, because it would require actual reading comprehension.

[EricKei]

Pagan - It's worse than that -- I've seen times where a store will have, say, green peppers sold as "per each" and the others by the pound at the same time >_< I suppose it varies based on the supplier any given store/chain is getting them from. Also, if the ones they're getting vary wildly in size in a given shipment, it makes more sense to sell by the pound, otherwise all of the big ones will go first, and they will get complaints when only the little ones are left.

[Caractacus_Potts]

Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

It actually makes economic sense if you think about it. If I have a two fields of red peppers and in any given season I can either get two crops of the immature still green red peppers or one crop of the fully ripened red peppers then it wouldn't make any sense to allow any of the peppers to fully ripen if all peppers cost the same. Since red (yellow, orange) peppers do cost more it does make sense for me to allow some to fully ripen even though I won't get as many total in any given season.

And yes some varieties do remain green when they fully ripened but we are talking about the cheap green peppers you get in the market which are always the plentiful immature peppers of all other varieties.

[RealUnimportant]

I do not have the magical power to change printed words. If I did, I'm sure I could put it to much better use than messing up your coupons.

I'mma mail you a pile of singles - you know what to do.