Don't you know who I am?!

[SiobhanCecilia]

I usually just read other people's icky cutomer experiences and feel better that it's not just me, but this time I feel compelled to post.

I had a customer today who wanted to buy a whole lot of bedsheets which were on sale. After changing her mind several times about what size and colour she wanted and blah blah, I processed the items and she paid. In total, they came to $107.25. I knew for a fact I had no $10 notes in my register. She hands me two 50s, a 10 and 25 cents. I think "Great, I have a 10 now, I can be lazy and not go and order more". I put her money in the till, and give her the due $3 change. Hilariously enough, her initials actually were SC (she insisted on giving us her card)...what are the chances?
What happened is as follows.

SC: Where's my $10?
Me: Excuse me?
SC: My $10. I gave you $120.25, you owe me $10.
Me: No, you have me a 10. I had no tens in my till before, but now I -
SC [brandishing her wallet at me]: Look! Look! I have no tens! Only 20s!
Me: Well, you do now because you gave me a ten, but I had no tens before -
SC: I don;t care what you think you had! Count your till and you'll see that you're wrong!
Me: You gave me a 20, and I'm not going to -
SC: I don't see why you're arguing with me, just give me my money!!

She actually held out her hand for the money at this point, and I felt like seizing my pen and stabbing her palm with it. And on we went...

Me: May I see your receipt, it will have the amount on it?

She defiantly pulls her receipt out, smelling victory, and realises that, apparently, I'm right.
This will not do.

SC: Well, you must have typed it in wrong, give me my $10 right now!
Me: If you want, I can -
SC: Get me your manager!
Me: I'm -
SC: Stop talking and get me your manager!

By this stage, SC is lucky to still have her face in tact.
I slam my till shut (admittedly not a good idea) and find a supervisor, who then gets a manager.
Manager tells supervisor to ask SC to wait while we check to till balance.
SC is "in a hurry: and refuses to wait.
Manager asks SC to see her receipt. SC has "lost" the receipt.
Manager, in an attempt to assuage all our grief, tells supervisor to give SC the $10

As my supervisor is handing SC the $10, SC turns to me and says "I'm the MAYOR of _____ Valley!! WHY would I lie?!"
At which point she insists on leaving her Mayor card with us, and says "If your till is out, contact me, but I very much doubt it will be, because I'm right and she just tried to keep my change!"

Damn, and that extra $10 was going towards a piano-shaped pond and a new Ferrari.

However...
As she stormed defiantly out of the store, her bag broke, and about half an hour later I was informed by both manager and supervisor that they checked up on it and I was right.

I think by the end she just didn't want to admit she was wrong, but I love the whole "I'm the Mayor!" shite that she threw in.

[Magpie]

I feel sorry for the citizens of wherever she's mayor. Because if the only way she can acknowledge that she made a mistake is to leave a way for someone else to fix it (at a lot of bother), while denying that she ever made a mistake, I sure HOPE she never takes a position which she then realises she oughtn't have.

[Mr Hero]

Something tells me she won't be elected for another term.

And for the spineless manager who gave in to the sc

[Sleepwalker]

What spineless managers. Where I work you can wait for the till to be counted or leave a number. Just handing out money is ridiculous- the only place I worked where we had a policy like that, there would be a customer claiming they'd been shorted. Every. Shift.

[XCashier]

Just handing out money is ridiculous- the only place I worked where we had a policy like that, there would be a customer claiming they'd been shorted. Every. Shift.

Precisely. Word gets out.

My current manager suggested this trick: When the customer hands me cash, I count it in front of them, say, "$x.xx, out of $__," then ring through. If there really is an error, they can correct me before I punch it in. So far, so good, it hasn't happened yet.

[Pagan]

My current manager suggested this trick: When the customer hands me cash, I count it in front of them, say, "$x.xx, out of $__," then ring through. If there really is an error, they can correct me before I punch it in. So far, so good, it hasn't happened yet.

Also, put the cash they give you on top of the register or keyboard and don't put it in the drawer until you've gotten the change out and given it to them.

Learned that when I was at the music/books/video place and we were getting hit by quick change scammers.

[Amina516]

Im all for writing a letter to the Editor, to the newspaper of where shes the Mayor. She can suck it.

[ZedOmega]

Someone should let her know that being the mayor in a SimCity game doesn't count.

[bankworking]

I would DEFINITELY write a letter to the local newspaper and take her up on her offer to send a notice that she did, indeed, cause your drawer to be short with an address where she can mail back the $10.

I so wish stores could work like banks.

We CANNOT purposefully be short on a drawer. A manager can refund fees all day long, but we cannot just flat out give money to a customer. If they claim they are short, we MUST audit the drawer or machine before we can give anything to them. I suppose it helps that our money is not really the bank's money: it belongs to the depositors. A manager who just gave out money left and right could get in some serious trouble.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

As much as I'd love you to write the newspaper, I'd also hate to see that get you in trouble with your bosses. The letter would imply that the management of your store folds like a full-service laundry when confronted... not what I would call good.

As for the 'mayor of Sucky Valley', write a personal letter to her, then tell her that this incident cost her the votes of you, your family, your friends, and anyone else she mentions the story to...


EDIT: in the letter, DEFINITELY tell her that you do not want the $10. Otherwise she'll just assume it's you trying to get some money out of her.

[Zellie Crescent]

Someone should let her know that being the mayor in a SimCity game doesn't count.

I might be steping a little over the line by saying this, but I would have said that to her.

[BrenDAnn]

Also, put the cash they give you on top of the register or keyboard and don't put it in the drawer until you've gotten the change out and given it to them.

Learned that when I was at the music/books/video place and we were getting hit by quick change scammers.

This, a thousand million times this, and what XCashier said! Customers watch you, trust me when I say they do. They want to see if they can get away with stuff like this! Saying "Out of$___" and leaving hte money they gave you in their view will stop them cold!

[Mike Taylor]

I would DEFINITELY write a letter to the local newspaper and take her up on her offer to send a notice that she did, indeed, cause your drawer to be short with an address where she can mail back the $10.

I so wish stores could work like banks.

We CANNOT purposefully be short on a drawer. A manager can refund fees all day long, but we cannot just flat out give money to a customer. If they claim they are short, we MUST audit the drawer or machine before we can give anything to them. I suppose it helps that our money is not really the bank's money: it belongs to the depositors. A manager who just gave out money left and right could get in some serious trouble.

At most retailers that I've worked for, that IS the standard company policy. It was part of counting down the tills at night or during a cashier changeover. If the register in question was over by the amount claimed by the customer, then the money was put aside and the customer was contacted the next business day.

[LadyAndreca]

I always take a few seconds to turn all the bills in the same direction and arrange them by denomination before I count them, then count them out for the customer. It annoys them when I do it with wads of bills, but...I dunno, I get twitchy when my drawer isn't straight, so it's best to do it when the money's still in my hand. "Twenty, fourty, sixty, five, six, seven. Out of sixty-seven." Same when I'm counting back change our counting out a refund. I've been corrected a few times, and will recount to confirm (sometimes I am wrong, sometimes they are), but so far I think I've never been scammed.

Of course, then there's times like the one morning I was counting out four hundred something in twenties and tens (didn't have enough twenties in my drawer for the whole amount) and my brain just would not work. Took me three tries to count it right to make sure I counted out the right refund, and the customer said "If you don't mind, I'll just double-check that..." My answer was "Go ahead. After that, I would too!" I got myself some caffiene soon after that...

[XCashier]

Also, put the cash they give you on top of the register or keyboard and don't put it in the drawer until you've gotten the change out and given it to them.

I used to do that at previous jobs, but my current bosses don't like that. (I can think of a few reasons why.) They prefer I count the money or hold up the bill in front of the customer. Either way, or both ways, you're showing that you can't be conned.