Rewarding Incompetence

[Dreamstalker]

There's a little bit of MiM here too.

Our flyer this week has a sale "Buy $25 of participating products, get $5 off instantly". We've bought from these sales before, and the 'catch' always has been that the $25 minimum must be AFTER any other coupons are used (I'm not even sure if coupons can be used with the promotion; we've never done so and just because the register accepts them doesn't mean management has to). Fair enough, right?

A guy comes through my lane with about ten of said products, six of which are on store special 2/$5, and the other four are 2/$6. So yes, that is $27, BUT:

He has two coupons for $1 off, both of which double at the register (and SC can see this on the screen). Bringing the total for the promotion down to $23. Further confusing the issue is that he has 3 trays of reduced produce ($2 each), so the only total he sees is $27 and change.

SC: "That total's wrong. It should be $5 less, I bought [products]."
Me: "Yes sir, but these coupons brought the total down. You have to spend $25 on $products after coupons." (I was going to offer up that he could buy another jar of peanut butter, but his phrasing of "I should get this" squashed any inklings of wanting to help the guy...who would probably still claim we were trying to make him spend more money)
SC: "I bought $25! Where is your manager, you don't know anything. You're trying to cheat me!" (yes, he did say this with a line building. The other customers are giving him WTF looks)
A shows up Amazingly, she tries to explain it to the SC who is having none of it.

She ends up entering a $5 "misc vendor coupon" (which even if it WAS valid is the wrong way to do it, I have never seen $5 manufacturer coupons for anything we sell). I made sure to work it so that SHE entered the coupon, and because of the value it did require a key (ASM was watching this and gave me a 'WTF is she doing' look).

The next customer in line also had $products and coupons, but played by the rules (calculated it so the total after the coupons was over $25). She actually slipped me a Starbucks free-drink coupon that she had ("I'll never use it before it expires and you look like you need one after that.")

[Rhania506]

I love it when the next customer after a SC is great. They always seem to diffuse some of the tension.

[emax4]

Wouldn't it be sensible to NOT take the one coupon that was doubled and let the customer keep it, and explain to him or her that by not taking it, it brings the total to $25 and THEN they can get the $5 off? On top of that, they can either go through the line again with more of the same product for the coupon and THEN use the doubled $1 off coupon, or simply buy the same product and present that coupon the next time they come in.

[Merriweather]

Wouldn't it be sensible to NOT take the one coupon that was doubled and let the customer keep it, and explain to him or her that by not taking it, it brings the total to $25 and THEN they can get the $5 off? On top of that, they can either go through the line again with more of the same product for the coupon and THEN use the doubled $1 off coupon, or simply buy the same product and present that coupon the next time they come in.

Yes, but that all depends on the customer listening to reason and accepting it - which I doubt this SC would have done in this case, judging by his attitude.

It also puts the burden on the cashier to look thru the customer's coupons (assuming they even present them all at once, rather than after each has been entered), to calculate how to use them to the customer's best interest, and explain that to the customer. Which, IMO, isn't part of the cashier's job. I know a lot of cashiers who will go above and beyond and point out things like that when they notice them, and I do appreciate it when they do. But they shouldn't be expected to do that for all customers any more than they should be expected to point out that a different size is on sale/cheaper/etc.

[Slayer]

I agree with emax4. I'd have removed one coupon versus buying more stuff.

Loved the customer with the free drink coupon. They're the people that make dealing with bullshit bearable.

Edit since I posted at the same time as merriweather XD. And yes, I also agree that it's not up to the cashier to explain everything though it is nice when they do. Maybe he planned with the coupons, but not the doubling. I wish stores here would double I think I would go crazy if they did hahaha.

Sorry, I'd quote both of you, but my phone gets bitchy at me when I do lately.

[earl colby pottinger]

I can see that people who are not good at math can be confused. EMAX4 method would be best, except we know some SCs will think you are trying to cheat them out of an extra $2 dollars.

One thing I do blame is how most cash register do not allow the employee to try out diffirent options in-front of the customers. Again SCs tend to be bad at math even when elsewhen they are very good at it.

[Dreamstalker]

Wouldn't it be sensible to NOT take the one coupon that was doubled and let the customer keep it, and explain to him or her that by not taking it, it brings the total to $25 and THEN they can get the $5 off?

I didn't realize the coupon doubled until after it had been scanned, and coupons can't be voided once entered (if there is a way, I'm not privy to it).

If a nice customer has a bunch of coupons I will try to scan them in the way that saves them the most money while staying within the t&c; I've done that before for a woman buying items for a charity who only had a certain amount to spend.

[EricKei]

coupons can't be voided once entered (if there is a way, I'm not privy to it).

I remember back at BoutiqueGrocery, we had a key marked "Error Correct" that allowed us to negate the last keypress entered/item scanned without a key -- in other words, as it ONLY functioned for the very last thing (it could not be used 2x in a row); it was seldom used as a result, and, even then, usually for things like having the wrong produce code entered or other minor errors that would be a waste of the manager's/customers' time to do.

The thing is, for no apparent reason, after years of having it that way, they one day reprogrammed the registers to require a manager's key and code for this nonsense x.x I still don't comprehend why. It's not like people were trying to use it to cheat/steal from the system. It just made line delays even worse and frazzled the managers who had to descend from up on high (elevated mgr booth) to mingle with us groundlings and use a key, making a process that should take three seconds, take a minute or two, instead >_< Of course, when SC's complained about it, whose fault was it? Say it with me, boys and girls: The Cashier's Fault!

[Dreamstalker]

We do have a similar key ("Void Last") but as far as I can tell it does absolutely nothing.

[emax4]

I think when reading the post, it took me a few tries to ensure the correct way of doing things, and when you're waiting on someone and especially if there's a line, you don't always think so fast. On top of that, you said yourself that once a coupon is entered that it can't be taken off (unless of course you void the entire order probably). It sucks that your system is set up that way.

Too bad she just couldn't buy a few more items at the register, like gum or candy to push her over the $25, and then it would end up having the $5 taken off, which means the gum or candy would be free, in addition to another $3 of free stuff.

[Jester]

I have had from time to time dealt with coupon idiots (luckily we only have a very few coupons, being a bar and restaurant), but I have had customers offer me sympathy after dealing with some particular jerky dimwits before. And while I've been given free drink coupons for various reasons, they were always for bars, never for Starbucks...which is fortuitous for me, as I drink alcohol but coffee, or caffeine of any sort.

[Dreamstalker]

I'm usually extremely diligent about checking coupons and items, I guess the guy got me confused with his nitpicking and Jedi mind trick fail (at that point there was also a line and A was giving me the hairy eyeball to get the line down).

A caves to the morons. I don't but unfortunately I'm not allowed to tell them they're wrong in the name of 'customer service' (SM can and has told the idiots to pound sand but he wasn't free at that time).

emax, this was a vendor promotion where the $25 had to be specific products. I suspect the SC knew exactly what he was doing with the coupons (I know some stores won't take internet coupons anymore, I wish we adopted that policy). I'm still astounded that the 'coupon' that A entered even went through.

[Gizmo]

The thing is, for no apparent reason, after years of having it that way, they one day reprogrammed the registers to require a manager's key and code for this nonsense x.x I still don't comprehend why. It's not like people were trying to use it to cheat/steal from the system.

We had that ... with a system that would regularly pick up both the case barcode and the bottle/can barcode on shrink-wrapped booze or cases of pet food. instant £10 void. The managers had to come over for anything over £3 individually or ~£4 in total.

I spent a lot of time apologising that we were busy but I couldn't finish this transaction and print the receipt until the override was done. (Even though I called as soon as it happened which was often early in the transaction!)