Sorry for my mistake, but no...(long)

[NateTheChops]

I'm in the electronics department of J-Mart now. I love it there. Customers love me and I'm selling plans and cards like a mother flubber.

That being said the occasional one pops up.

Customer calls me to ask how much the Nintendo DS! costs. It's really busy in electronics and I have customers to ring up so basically I look in the case and see the price tag beneath one of the DS!'s and I didn't take a close enough look at it at first. So the price I quoted the customer was 129.99.

DSC = DS customer
Me = The Artist Suffering for his Craft

DSC: Really? That seems like a good deal, are you sure?
Me: *ringing up customer while on phone* Yeah, it seems like it.
DSC: Are you sure that's the price?
Me: I'm positive.
DSC: Well thank you so much. You were very helpful. (sincere, not sarcastic. Most of my customers are generally very nice)

She hangs up and about ten minutes later I have a customer who wants to ring up. She's deciding which of the Disney Princess dolls she wants as it comes free with the purchase of the new Snow White DVD's. The same customer calls back.

DSC: Hi, I just wanted to be sure that was the right price. Because it sounds like the Nintendo DS Lite's. It's a good deal, but I want to make sure.
Me: *Kinda in a tough spot because the customer has chosen one of the dolls and I need to ring her up* Okay, I'll grab it from the case and do a price check. Let me put you on hold one moment.
DSC: Thank you.

The Snow White customer decided she wanted a Snow White doll, which I was out of at the electronics counter. So I asked a floor associate to check the toy aisle and used the time to get the DS!. When I scanned it it turned out to be 169.99. My bad. I called back and apologized to the customer after telling her the real price.

Me: It was probably an old tag or it might have been in he wrong spot.
DSC: Oh. Well, 129.99 was such a good deal. Since you quoted me that price originally can you sell it to me for that?
Me: No ma'am, I'm sorry. I realize I made a mistake and I apologize for getting your hopes up but I can't do that.
DSC: Reaaaally? Oh, but that was such a good deal.
Me: I know, and I'm sorry. It would be one thing if you found it and the price tag genuinely said the wrong price.
DSC: I know, but I thought since you made a mistake you could just give it to me for that much anyway.

At this point the floor associate had brought a Princess Aurora doll instead, since she couldn't find Snow White. The customer wanted it and was ready to check out.

Me: Okay, let me talk to my supervisor real quick and I'll just ask.

I ring up my customer and call the super. She said no, flat out.

Super: I'm not changing the price just because you made a mistake.

Told the DSC and that was the end of it. At least she was still polite though.

[slavetotheman]

Customers can be persistent little buggers, but at least this one wasn't too sucky.

[MaggieTheCat]

Yeah, because everybody knows that retail workers are just peons to do customers' biddings, but they're never allowed to make a mistake. Right?

Like slavetotheman said, though, at least she was polite. I imagine it could've gotten a lot more ugly than it did.

[bainsidhe]

I'm glad she was polite about it. I had a customer last week with a Halloween shirt that some jerk of a customer (thief) put a clearance tag on. It was poorly stuck and was on a Halloween shirt, which had only hit the floor that week. I warned the customer before ringing that it wasn't on clearance and. Naturally it rang up and full price and she then demanded I check. "It was the last one there" you understand. (Nooooo, it was in the wrong spot because somebody was trying to steal it after putting a fake clearance tag on it.) The woman in the clothing departmnet came up and confirmed it was the wrong price. Dear Customer: We didn't put that label there! Please don't try to guilt me into giving you a lower price because it was marked that way and "Wegman's would do it".

First, we're not Wegman's. Second, gee that's a pretty poor business decision by Wegman's then. I'm sure they get things "accidentally" marked wrong all the time. She was almost as bad as the guy having a fit when some idiot customer tossed a new release CD into the $5.00 bin. No, we will not honor the $5.00 price. Once again, it is NOT false advertising if we didn't do it.

[NateTheChops]

No problems with clearance so far and they've been getting rid of a lot of clothes the last few weeks.

Though if it's only 50 cents or a dollar difference the managers tell me to price modify it anyway.

[Food Lady]

I've been running into the clearance sticker switch-a-roo all week. We put new stickers over the older ones, so it's easy for them. *sigh*

[bsaana]

Me thinks the customer was not very clear. For the Nintendo DS there is only the Lite model available and its standard price is $129...

The Nintendo DSi on the other hand is $169. They are 2 completely different beasts too, but then again being a geek type I keep up with what some items have.

Added: I should clarify this though - The DSi will play the games for the DS, however there are a few games that are only DSi due to the camera in the DSi. The regular DS also has the ability to play Game Boy Advance games which the DSi lacks.

[Samaliel]

Since Nate wrote "DS!" about everywhere in his post, I think it's the DSi the customer enquired about. I haven't seen the DSi logo yet, - I have acquired my DS Lite recently enough and can't afford to upgrade anytime soon so I haven't looked into it much - but it sounds like the kind of confusion fancy schmancy marketing lettering can cause.

[flutes_and_fabric]

we get people putting fabric back in the wrong spot all the time. It's so annoying. And then there'll be a 50% off sign over it stating 50% off on blah blah fabric, but guess what, the one you picked it clearly labeled something besides blah blah. I don't care if it was in the wrong spot, I didn't put it there.