Customer Threatened To Sue For Not Being Able to Use Another Customer's Savings Card

[RavenStarr]

My question would be how do you enforce not using another customer's card? I mean what do you do if you scan a customer's card, and they turn around and give it to the person behind them? They thank the person for letting them use their card.What do you do? Chances are you have already rung up at least one to two items already. Do you say anything to the owner of the card? Is it so enforced that you would actually have to void the order out, and then explain the policy about the cards?

Like I said before. I don't see what the big deal is. Another question I have is: If a customer has 2 seperate orders, do you tell them they can't use the same card for both orders? See I just don't think you can enforce this 100%.

[Rahmota]

And thus Barion spoke:

Around here, the Stop & Shop and Shaw's cards are coded differently for people who are authorized to write checks, there is a whole separate credit check process that you go through to get that approval, and you have to give them a CC to debit should a check ever be returned NSF. This is the only way to be able to write a check in these stores. To make life easy, it just becomes an extra piece of the club cards so that you don't need 2 separate cards.

Ah I see. I think. I've never, ever encountered a "savings" card like that. Thats part of why I went down the path I did. The three cards I carrylike that are the CVS, speedway and the Kroger cards are not membership or anythign like that. They'd give one to a dog if it had money to come into the store. All they are are for the advertising department of the store to see which items are moving, who is buying said items in a customer profile and generally to act in place of a coupon for people to think they are getting something fr nothing. Oh yeah and you build up "points" that can be redeemed fo stuff like 10 cents off per gallon of gas or a free soda or something. Sort of like the old green stamps from the 60s. But none of them are attached to my bank account or credit card.

I can see that for passes or club membership cards or somethign where one has to pay for that card but those arn't defined as "saver" cards to me.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Tell him when he sues to take the case to Judge Judy. That would be a very interesting show, I think.

Holy crap! She would tear into him like he was a wet paper bag!! That would be awesome!

Um why would that not be permitted? Is it because the store's purchasing profile for the sutomer [sic] would be messed up? I've been in a store before and they had a savings card sitting by the register for people who either didnt have one or forgot theirs?

Purplecat explained why she couldn't take the other saving card, but around here, there is another reason that I thought of:

Around here are Co-op grocery stores/gas stations, and even hardware stores and furniture stores in some towns. Anyway, if you sign up with them, they give you a Co-op number that you give to the cashier every time you buy something from them. They are used to track the amount of stuff you buy from them, and at the end of the fiscal year, the head office looks at the store profits, looks at the amount of money that you've spent there, and send you a cheque back based on those two figures. If I were to use someone else's card, I would 1) be giving that person more money, although it wouldn't be much, and 2) be taking money away from a local charity-every person that comes through without a number of there own gets the Co-op number put into the register. At the end of the year, the cheque for this account gets donated to a charity (usually the Food Bank)

[pbmods]

That and let's not forget that if you don't sign up for a savings card, the store gets to charge you more money, so why wouldn't the store want to keep customers who don't have a card from using somebody else's?

At the last lab I managed, I used to take the weekly coupons and tape them to a piece of cardboard behind the register so that they'd always be convenient if a customer wanted to use one. We would only pull it out if the customer mentioned a specific coupon. But then corporate came down and told me to stop doing it because our coupon usage was too high.

In the end, everyone is supposed to pay full price; sale prices are incentives to bring in new business and to stay competitive with current business only. They are not a right; they are a privilege. Now be nice or I'm gonna have to call in a code 10 on your credit card!

[Rahmota]

I guess I'm just too much on the customer's side on this subject. If I've forgotten my plus card then I've liked it when someone let me use theirs. I consider it being good neighborly. But then again I'm not keen on the way modern capitalism messes over the little guys either too much. Customers and employees are both set up to be sucky far too often adn this is one of those things.

Yeah I understand some of the points being raised here (especially the Co-op one as I am a member of a farming/agricultural co-op, power company co-op and think co-ops should be used in many more business models) but for the most part i think that either the company should get rid of them and coupons all together or stop being so anal about it. And by anal I mean the idea of the profiling card not being able to be shared (not the membership cards that are linked or paid for) or forbidding the cashier to have current coupons at the register. I know comanies are in business to make money but there should be some common sense fairness about it too.

[purplecat41877]

Also, employees aren't allowed to use their own savings cards for customers. That's because there's an employee discount on the card that the customer is not entitled to.

[Imogene]

What about the 'cards' that rental places like Blockbuster 'sell'? That would be a good reason not to use another customer's card...