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Double teamed by SCs...good grief!

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  • Double teamed by SCs...good grief!

    This happened last month.

    We had special weekend sale on. Corporate sent us a bunch of banners and signs and stuff for the sale that were all to be taken down on Monday. This was no small discount either, we are talking HALF PRICE on an item that normally costs close to $250.

    We have also been short staffed so when I came in on this particular Monday, I was practically slammed with work the whole day.

    I happened to notice a sign up still advertising the sale, so I turned it face down to avoid any problems. I should have removed it completely, but I was so busy I settled for the quick fix.

    Later a female CW of mine put the sign back up because she assumed the sign had just fallen over. You can probably guess where this is headed.

    A lady comes in and asks if the promotion is still going. I tell her no, it ended on Sunday. She admits she had seen the item on sale but had been undecided on buying it until today. I tell her that is unfortunate but the sale is over...

    SC1: But your sign is still up over there...any chance I can get an extra day on that sale?
    Me: The sign does say "limited time only" , the sale is already over ma'am.
    SC1: See I think that's unfair, if you have a sign up advertising that price you should honor it. It's not fair to the customer to do that.
    (Note: in addition to the sign that was causing the issue, the one that said "limited time only", we had another advertisement for the sale in our weekly flyer, that particular ad, which was displayed in full view at the front of the counter said clearly: Offer ends June 14, 2009).
    Me: I'm not sure what to tell you ma'am, but the sale is over.
    SC1: Is there anyway you can call a manager or a supervisor and tell them you have an unhappy customer here and that you should honor this deal?
    Me: I'll see what I can do in just a moment.

    Here's where the double suck comes in. I was helping a man at the register while I was talking to this SC who has now wanting a manager. The guy at the register had been listening to this whole exchange. As soon as I finished ringing him up, he decided to chime in.

    SC2: You know they should honor that price for you. These companies have no right to rip us off like that.
    (....what?? you're trying to take advantage of a sale that has ended but somehow WE are ripping YOU off?)
    SC1: Absolutely, I don't see why they wouldn't honor the price. I bet the manager will do it for me.
    SC2: They should absolutely do it for you because everyone knows (and then he said the dreaded words...) The customer is always right.

    What I would have (and probably SHOULD have) said: "I'm sorry we don't follow that policy here.

    What I actually did was shoot SC2 a stern glare. A VERY stern glare. He didn't react any to it though.

    SC1: Damn right! That's the price on the sign, that's the price I should get.
    SC2: Well I hope they give it to you because it's what you deserve.
    (ohhhhhh no it isn't....)
    *SC2 leaves*

    So I make a call to our regional manager (store manager is off for the day) and get her voicemail. I left a message clearly explaining the issue and the signage and whatnot and told SC1 I should get a reply from her shortly. Rather than stick around, SC1 left me a name and phone number and told me to call her once I hear something.

    Forty minutes pass by and I finally get a call back from the Regional Manager who says, without a doubt in her voice, that we WILL give this customer the fat discount she was trying to get because it was our error the sign got left out (even though it said LIMITED frickin' TIME?!). I was gritting my teeth as I hung up the phone.

    So I called SC1 and told her that Corporate had , as usual, given the ok for her to get the deal. She shows up about 15 minutes later with a triumphant smirk on her face.

    *as I am ringing her out*
    SC1: Well I'm glad you work for such a sensible company that values its customers. I'm very pleased with the quick response.
    (...I'm sure you are...)
    SC1: It would have been nice if I could have gotten a resolution right away, but I understand. If you want results, you have to take it up the ladder.
    Me: (trying as hard as possible not to slap this woman silly) Anything else for you today??
    SC1: Nope, tell your Regional Manager thanks so much for the deal. I can't wait to get this home and try it! *big grin*

    GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

    It's just so infuriating to get put through that. Both signs clearly stated the sale was for a limited time, why won't ANYONE stick to their guns anymore? Is it really going to be that terrible to lose a "customer" (and I use the term loosely since she actually COST us over $100) because they couldn't make up their mind on a sale item???

    ...and a bonus

    Several days before that, I experienced a similar incident. A lady got upset with me that she couldn't get a trade promotion we had been running. The reason was the promotion had ended three days earlier. She even had the flyer with her and the close date was printed clearly on it. She was certainly upset, but eventually accepted the fact that she was too late for the deal.
    Last edited by CrazedClerkthe2nd; 07-15-2009, 08:16 PM.
    "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

  • #2
    The person was an SC about it, no doubts. But I will point out that it's part of scanning codes of practice (and possibly law in some areas, but I don't know for sure) that you have to honour the lowest posted in-store price, even if an expiry date is posted on it, since you control the signage directly. Obviously that doesn't count for clearly mislabelled merchandise or tag-switching. It could be that your regional manager decided it wasn't worth the potential dust-up with whatever monitoring organizations are in your area.

    Still, at least the bitch coulda been gracious about it.
    Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

    http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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    • #3
      I have to have to sound like I'm agreeing with sucky people, but they were both 100% correct. If the sign's up, the deal's on.

      This is the way it works at my store and probably many others as well. If we make a mistake and leave an expired sale sign up, they get the item for the sale price if they mention it. If we made a practice of leaving expired signs up and not giving the sale price, we could end up in deep trouble with the state pricing auditors.

      There was no need for either of them to act as they did, but they had legitimate complaints. Next time just pitch the sign.

      EDITED TO ADD: Expired signs are one of my biggest pet peeves. At the swamp, when I used to work closing shifts, if you were closing on a Saturday night or any other night an ad was ending, you couldn't start taking down signs until 9:30 and you couldn't leave until management walked off the entire salesfloor and verified that all the expired signs were down.

      Now? They start taking down signs at 9, sometimes earlier, and nobody bothers to check to see if they're all down. And then just about every Sunday we're having to override at least one price for a customer because they bought something with an expired sign still up in its spot. The closers take down the signs that are at eye-level and miss some that are on bottom shelves or higher shelves.

      We keep asking management to pay more attention to ad takedowns. They never do. I guess we should just stop bringing it up.
      Last edited by Irving Patrick Freleigh; 07-15-2009, 09:34 PM.
      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

      "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

      Comment


      • #4
        My store had a lady come in around Christmas and STEAL one of our sale signs and came back in in Febuary, put it back on the shelf for the item and then demanded she get that price when she got to the register sweetly insisting that there's a sign there with that price!!!!!

        My CW Marianne who does the pricing and signing said she's not perfect, but there was NO way she missed this sign from two months ago!

        Of course she got the sale though.

        If giving the lowest price on the sign is a law is there some type of law for when people steal those signs or try to switch them to get fraudulent sales? There should be.

        Comment


        • #5
          Quoth jjllbb View Post

          If giving the lowest price on the sign is a law is there some type of law for when people steal those signs or try to switch them to get fraudulent sales? There should be.
          I think that would be considered fraud. Same as tag-switching.

          That's bold.
          Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

          "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

          Comment


          • #6
            Some jerkoffs will not only do that but they'll actually make a career out of doing it!

            http://www.startribune.com/local/wes...3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth Broomjockey View Post
              The person was an SC about it, no doubts. But I will point out that it's part of scanning codes of practice (and possibly law in some areas, but I don't know for sure) that you have to honour the lowest posted in-store price, even if an expiry date is posted on it, since you control the signage directly. Obviously that doesn't count for clearly mislabelled merchandise or tag-switching. It could be that your regional manager decided it wasn't worth the potential dust-up with whatever monitoring organizations are in your area.
              The Scanning Code of Practice is Canadian and voluntary, if that's what you're referring to.
              Otaku

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
                Me: The sign does say "limited time only" , the sale is already over ma'am.
                I also have to agree with those before me. "Limited Time Only" means nothing but that the sale eventually will end. As long as the sign is up, a customer has the ability to rely upon that advertised price.

                Now, unless you have stock in your employer company, DON'T WORRY about whatever profits the company does or does not want to make. Unless your salary will be affected by a sale price given after the official end of the sale, what does it matter to you? I say this often, but just hand those requests over to the manager and let her/him worry about it. Your sanity is not worth losing over something like this.
                "Ignorance is no excuse for a law."
                .................................................. ..................- Alfred E. Newman

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                • #9
                  Quoth prb View Post
                  The Scanning Code of Practice is Canadian and voluntary, if that's what you're referring to.
                  There is an American version, and I learned about it on here. I only called it that since I'm Canadian The American version has a bit more bite to it, as Irv mentioned State Pricing Auditors, which is the kind of thing I was talking about.
                  Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

                  http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Occasionally we'll get something like this at the wholesale club (though we don't have sales, we just have items that have an "instant rebate"). All of the signs that advertise the instant rebate on an item have the expiration date as well. Sometimes the crew will miss an expired sign.

                    Do we honor it? Nope. It specifies when the deal expired. It's solely at the manager's discretion at that point.
                    PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

                    There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

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                    • #11
                      Things like this remind me of when I had a customer:
                      1) pick up an item from one area
                      2) swap the price tag for that area for another one that's cheaper but not related (or sometimes "close" in name so it seemed like an accident - or just remove the sign completely and claim a price sign near it applied)
                      3) cover up or "damage" the product's UPC so someone has to check the price (who will, sometimes, see the wrong sign or such and say it's that).
                      4) they walk away with a huge price reduction.

                      Sometimes I caught them doing it without any effort ("excuse me... but is there a reason you have a sign in your cart?") or just the so-called "missing" sign was just put up minutes before because the one put up earlier that day had "disappeared" once again (basically, they took it down, I noticed it, replaced it, then they came back and thought "oh crap!" and took it down again"). You know, something about a sign going missing 2-3 times in an hour kind of gives it away that you're trying to scam a place.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                        There is an American version, and I learned about it on here. I only called it that since I'm Canadian The American version has a bit more bite to it, as Irv mentioned State Pricing Auditors, which is the kind of thing I was talking about.
                        Here in Michigan it would be the Scan Law. If it is priced lower then the scanner rings up we override it for that price. If a Self is marked X price then that is the price they get.

                        Because I work for Sam and it is non-union... the state tends to like to bitch slap us. If we dont catch the miss scan then the customer gets 5 dollars for every item that is wrong. We have people we know that scam the system.

                        But the upper management is of the opinion that losing money is better then the 3million dollar fine.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth Kimmik View Post
                          Here in Michigan it would be the Scan Law. If it is priced lower then the scanner rings up we override it for that price. If a Self is marked X price then that is the price they get.

                          Because I work for Sam and it is non-union... the state tends to like to bitch slap us. If we dont catch the miss scan then the customer gets 5 dollars for every item that is wrong. We have people we know that scam the system.

                          But the upper management is of the opinion that losing money is better then the 3million dollar fine.
                          It's been a while but if I remember correctly. If the customer notices at the checkout stand, the cashier has to adjust the price and the customer gets the item at the price with no "bonus". if the customer notices after the checkout, he takes it up to the customer service desk and gets the difference between the scanned price and tagged price + 10 times the different or $5, whichever is less. Most stores will just give the $5.

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                          • #14
                            The Canadian law is that you get the first item for Free (up to 10$) or 10$ off the price (if it's over 10$) and any subsequent items at the cheaper price.

                            I used that guideline just a couple of weeks ago for the second time ever. (First time was about 7 years ago when I caught an expired sale sign on a shelf at Shopers Drug Mart for something I was considering buying). Superstore had an end (facing the cashiers) with Granola Bars: 9.50$ on the big sign over head. The top shelf and bottom shelf had the boxes of bars there, but the smaller signs said 9.68$ or something like that. And the middle shelves had cookies and other misc items that were obviously neither Granola Bars nor near the 10$ price.

                            So I took a box, (intending to pay for it either way, but yes, partly hoping for the Scanning Code to take effect), and took it to one of the cashiers closest to the end with the wrong price (I usually use the U-Scan), and mentioned the price descrepency as I was checked out. Got the box for free, and the next time I was in, I saw the big sign had been corrected.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I would have honored the sales price, and then made sure specific dates were put in readable type on future signs.

                              If you look at it from a consumer's view: How would I, Joe Customer, know that the sale did, in fact, exist, and was, in fact, over, if all I actually see is a sign advertising the sale and advising me that the discount won't last forever?

                              SirWired

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