A Senior Mistake

I work at a theater chain that offers discounts to seniors 65 or older. My manager and most of the staff hate the policy because most of the time you can’t win for losing. Either you offer and the person is offended you’ve implied they’re old, or you don’t offer because the person looks about 45 and they’re indignant that you’ve overcharged them. I’ve gotten in the habit of just guessing, and basically if you look at least 50 or have some grey, I’ll go ahead and add the discount. No one has to announce their age, and they save money. I never got a complaint before or after this one.

An obviously older customer carefully perused the ticket pricing options and very specifically asked for two adults. I went ahead and used the senior price despite her specification, since she obviously qualified, and gave her the reduced total. She happily paid and entered the building. A few minutes later, she came storming out of the theater demanding a refund, since I charged her too much and didn’t give her the senior discount. I politely told her to check her ticket again. She hurried back into the theater, now red-faced.

She was obviously trying to set up a reason to complain, given that she specified a ticket she didn’t actually want and then came to yell at me for getting it wrong based on that specification. But she just ended up embarrassing herself in front of a huge Saturday crowd, since she didn’t bother to check what she actually paid for!