I Can't Believe How Stupid This Man Was!

[WHShit]

At my store, we have giftcards. I am sure everyoe knows what they are, but for those of you who don't, they are just like gift certificates but plastic, credit card-like cards that you put money on. Same concept as a gift certificate. Our gift cards come glued (lightly) to a cardboard backing card which you can write the amount and a message on. When people recieve the cardboard witht the card attached to it, they usually dicscard the cardboard and keep the gift card. It is common sense and anyone with half a brain knows that they need the card to make a purchase. DUH! Some people keep the card attached to the cardboard, but still bring the card to the store to pay.

So, this guy comes up to the till and wants to buy a book. I ring it through and he holds up the cardboard backing and the reciept for a gift card and says "can I use this to pay"? I say "yes" and I assume that he has the card still attached to the cardboard backing. I was wrong. So I tell him that he needs the actual card to pay. He says "this is all that was given to me"! I said "well, we need the actual card to pay". He said he would go home and get it and be back soon.

So...about a half hour later he returns...........WITH A CHRISTMAS CARD!!!!!

Apparantly, whoever in his family gave him the gift card sent it to him for Christmas in a Chrsitmas card!

He actually thought that I needed his Christmas card to pay for the book. I mean...who would think this? Why did he think that I needed a Christmas card to let him pay? I do not understand why his common sense or inner skeptic did not say "wait a minute....?!".

I told him that I needed the GIFT CARD, not the Chrsitmas card and he got mad. He even brought the envelope it came in (the Christmas card).

Turns out that he had the actual gift card on him, in his wallet the entire time. LOL!!!

You can't make this stuff up, I tell ya!

[Ryu]

wow i did not see that end coming... whats sad is i can believe how stupid he was which saddens me

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Was he very old or maybe learning disabled or something?

[ladodger34]

Was he very old or maybe learning disabled or something?

I work with special ed kids every day and this certainly seems like something that the kids with comprehension problems would do.

[karma_gypsy]

wow i did not see that end coming... whats sad is i can believe how stupid he was which saddens me

Me neither, I usually separate the card and the backing and keep the backing with me just in case (until the card is spent). But still, a Christmas Card that's pretty clueless . . .

[Amalthea]

Our giftcards are the same, a card attached to a cardboard backing. But way back before I started working at the book store (just hit 4 years. w00t!), the gift cards weren't on cardboard. Instead they were like two credit cards stuck together. The top bit you wrote the to and from and amount, the bottom bit was the actual card. Then the recipient snapped them apart and paid with the bottom part, the part that SAID gift card and had a magnetic stripe. Even after we no longer made those, I still had people bringing in the top part and thinking they could pay with it.

We have a LARGE display for our giftcards, and it is standing right next to the sign that says "Wait Here". But of course everyone comes up to the cashier and says they want a giftcard.

Me: "Okay, you'll just need to go pick one off our display." :oints::
SC: "What? Where?"
Me: "Behind you...The big display that says 'Gift Cards'...back by the sign that says 'Wait Here'...right where you were just standing..."
SC: :: proceeds to wander around aimlessly, and when I try helpfully to say "to your right" they'll turn left, etc.::

[CrazedClerk]

Who the hell waits that long to use a Christmas gift card?

I guess he completely forgot about it.

[tenaciousb]

Our giftcards are the same, a card attached to a cardboard backing. But way back before I started working at the book store (just hit 4 years. w00t!), the gift cards weren't on cardboard. Instead they were like two credit cards stuck together. The top bit you wrote the to and from and amount, the bottom bit was the actual card. Then the recipient snapped them apart and paid with the bottom part, the part that SAID gift card and had a magnetic stripe. Even after we no longer made those, I still had people bringing in the top part and thinking they could pay with it.

We have a LARGE display for our giftcards, and it is standing right next to the sign that says "Wait Here". But of course everyone comes up to the cashier and says they want a giftcard.

Me: "Okay, you'll just need to go pick one off our display." :oints::
SC: "What? Where?"
Me: "Behind you...The big display that says 'Gift Cards'...back by the sign that says 'Wait Here'...right where you were just standing..."
SC: :: proceeds to wander around aimlessly, and when I try helpfully to say "to your right" they'll turn left, etc.::

Ours are the way yours used to be. Only once did a guy come in with the top half which has the upc for the card on it (which is only used to scan initially to let the POS know your selling a giftcard), which obviously is not unique from any other giftcard. We felt bad for the guy, I don't know if he ever found the bottom half with the magnetic strip.

[Dreamstalker]

Who the hell waits that long to use a Christmas gift card?

I guess he completely forgot about it.

If it's a store I don't frequent much/isn't generally in my range of travel, it'll sit in my wallet until whenever I manage to use the thing up (I have a "Yellow Tag" gift card from about 3 years ago, I don't buy much there anymore).

But if the store is pretty local, there's not really an excuse (other than there wasn't anything I wanted at the time).