Customer Logic

[Dragon_Dreamer]

My coworkers and I were amused by the following brain teaser, seen in Scientific American Mind Magazine. It definately reminded us of some of our customers.

Pat picked up the ad for a local store. "This piece of furniture was originally $350. Then they reduced the price by 20%, then by $80, and today by 80%. It must be free!" What is the real price?

Just passing on the amusement.

We also received a return of a tampered bottle of Relacore today, so we needed the laugh. Someone at another store in the chain had opened the box, removed the saftey seal, taken off the cap, poked a hole in the foil, then closed the bottle and put the box back on the shelf, where a customer bought it. Said customer brought it back to us with a receipt, so we exchanged it. Tamperers are annoying. Whee. Hope you enjoyed the teaser as much as we did, at least!

[Reyneth]

Man, it's always a pain explaining to customers why 30% plus an additional 20% off is not actually 50% off. So that cartoon pokes fun at that.

Answer below (for those who haven't figured it yet)













$40 and a darn good deal!

[DarthRetard]

But since we had to do math (I'm taking this customer's logic thing too far, me thinks into reality....), and that slightly inconvenienced us, shouldn't we get a discount of say...oh....another 50% or so? And a free couch too? With a discount membership and back rubs for life?

[powerboy]

But since we had to do math (I'm taking this customer's logic thing too far, me thinks into reality....), and that slightly inconvenienced us, shouldn't we get a discount of say...oh....another 50% or so? And a free couch too? With a discount membership and back rubs for life?

No. Do not give them any ideas

[DarthRetard]

Sorry....had a...spiderman/spawn moment there.....brought out the evil in me....



Disc- NO! Must!......fight!....*grabs hair writhing, fighting the thoughts*

[Worker-Intellectual]

$11.20

Man, it's always a pain explaining to customers why 30% plus an additional 20% off is not actually 50% off.

And then once you finally teach them some basic math, you get "but the sign is misleading!"

[Reyneth]

$11.20

$350 reduced by 20% ($70) is $280.
$280 - $80 = $200
$200 reduced by 80% ($160) = $40, not $11.20

Or (350 x 0.8 - 80) x 0.2

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Reyneth has it right, I checked the section's answer key before sharing the puzzler with my coworkers.

Though in my head, I was imagining what some of our customers would answer:

"No, it's free! I'm the customer! Let me speak to your manager and gimmie that calculator!"

[Writer Cath]

$350 reduced by 20% ($70) is $280.
$280 - $80 = $200
$200 reduced by 80% ($160) = $40, not $11.20

Or (350 x 0.8 - 80) x 0.2

I'm just a poor English major. What are you people doing to me?!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a nice dark corner to rock back and forth in.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I'm just a poor English major. What are you people doing to me?!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a nice dark corner to rock back and forth in.

I'm a pooor english major too. But I've had enough people argue with me (bestseller is 30% off plus 10% with your member card = not quite 40%).... I could have done the math but I didn't feel like it so I just read further cuz I knew others would answer it. But I know how. Really, I do!!

-ams-

[Boozy]

Speaking of bad customer logic....Tax-free sales are a nightmare.
Its 8% here in Ontario. At the store where my sister used to work, they would occasionally advertise an item as "save the tax". Now, the government wants their cut regardless, so the store would just reduce the price of the item, and then add 8% to the reduced price.
Example: An item that costs $10 would cost $10.80 with tax. That same item for their "tax-free" sale would be rung in at $9.26 (about a 7.5% reduction) and then the absolutely mandatory 8% tax would be added on to THIS price. Final cost to customer was $10, thereby saving them the "sales tax".
Customers didn't get it when they looked at the receipt. "You took off the tax, but you added it right back on again!" Or "You reduced the price by less than 8% the first time, and then added MORE on!"
My sister would tell them, as delicately as possible, that if they suck at math, don't look at all the calculations. Just look at the final cost to you. Which is $10. You saved the damn tax, all right?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Speaking of bad customer logic....Tax-free sales are a nightmare.
Its 8% here in Ontario. At the store where my sister used to work, they would occasionally advertise an item as "save the tax". Now, the government wants their cut regardless, so the store would just reduce the price of the item, and then add 8% to the reduced price.
Example: An item that costs $10 would cost $10.80 with tax. That same item for their "tax-free" sale would be rung in at $9.26 (about a 7.5% reduction) and then the absolutely mandatory 8% tax would be added on to THIS price. Final cost to customer was $10, thereby saving them the "sales tax".
Customers didn't get it when they looked at the receipt. "You took off the tax, but you added it right back on again!" Or "You reduced the price by less than 8% the first time, and then added MORE on!"
My sister would tell them, as delicately as possible, that if they suck at math, don't look at all the calculations. Just look at the final cost to you. Which is $10. You saved the damn tax, all right?

Oh, god, we had the same problem with a certain coupon that BN does. When it's save, say $10 of your entire transaction, the computer doesn't just subtract the 10 off the subtotal. Instead, it takes an equal amount off each item. So if you have 10 items, it will reduce the price of each by $1. People look at their receipt and don't see the $10 off specifically listed (it just shows "transaction $ off" at the top but no amount), and we have to go through the whole receipt and show them how each item shows "list price - 1.00" and how it adds up to 10. Even worse if they used a member card or something because then each item will show the total amount taken off for both discounts. Sometimes it involves a calculator.

[Imogene]

Man, it's always a pain explaining to customers why 30% plus an additional 20% off is not actually 50% off. So that cartoon pokes fun at that.

Let's start with $100, cause it's a nice easy number to use with percents.
100 -30%= $70.
70-.2(70)=
70- 14= 56

.5(100)=$50
Voila, 30% +20%<>50%!

[Reyneth]

Let's start with $100, cause it's a nice easy number to use with percents.
100 -30%= $70.
70-.2(70)=
70- 14= 56

.5(100)=$50
Voila, 30% +20%<>50%!

Even easier - you take 100-% off to multiply, because that is what you have remaining after the % is taken off. So 25% off means you are paying 75% of the original cost.

70% of 100 = 70
80% of 70 = 56. - or for non-math majors, 10% of 70 is 7. Multiply that by 8 to get 80%

When my store does location shoots (preschool photos or the like), tax is figured into the cost of the photos. Makes it easy when they are on location - have nice, round numbers to deal with. However, when they come into the store to order we have to figure out the pre-tax amount (working backwards) before putting it into our POS where tax is automatically added. The customers freak that "that isn't the amount I was told!" I always am a little and tell them - "The final cost is exactly what this sheet says. Ignore everything else." (For both of our benefits!)