Her Ones And Zeroes Add Up To Less Than She Thought

(The store I work register in regularly puts out ads for our sales, so customers know when something has a pricing deal. We also have digital coupons for people who use our couponing app. On rare occasions, the physical ads will advertise a deal for if you have a digital coupon. This is one of those occasions. A customer comes up with five packages of [Laundry Detergent].)

Customer: “You take digital coupons?”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, we do. Just put your phone number into the card reader when the option comes up and it’ll find any coupons clipped to your account.”

(I ring up everything and make sure she can enter the digital coupons account number before getting her total.)

Me: “All righty, your total is [total].”

Customer: “Wait, that’s not right. Those [Laundry Detergent]s should be two dollars each!”

(I look back through the transaction on my end. The only digital coupon that applied for the transaction worked, but only on one of her items.)

Me: “My apologies, ma’am, but it looks like the coupon went through correctly.”

Customer: “No! See, look at the ad!”

(She then grabs one of the copies of our current ads we keep near the register and turns it so it’s facing me. Sure enough, it’s right on the front page, and says that the [Laundry Detergent] is two dollars with a digital coupon. It does not explicitly state that the coupon only applies to only one package of it, but it does not apply to multiple packages of it.)

Me: “I see what happened here. Unfortunately, the coupon only applies to one item at a time.”

Customer: “But it said that they were two dollars with a digital coupon!”

(I recognize her tone as the “I’m right and I’ll start a fight about it if you say otherwise!” tone and notice the line building, so I decide to take a different approach.)

Me: “Well, ma’am, let me see what my manager wants to do about this.”

(I excuse myself and apologize to the people in line for the wait before I run off and find my manager, who does not suffer fools gladly. When I find him, I explain to him what she wanted.)

Manager: “Just tell her coupons only apply once.”

Me: “Already did. She sounds like she’s going to keep at it and make a fight out of it, though.”

(Once we get back up there I apologize to the now angry line for the delay before standing near enough to the register to finish the transaction once my manager and the customer are done.)

Manager: “So, what’s the issue here?”

Customer: “I’ve got a digital coupon for this and it didn’t apply to them!

Manager: “Well, the coupon only applies to one product at a time.”

Customer: “The ad doesn’t say that! It should apply to them all!”

Manager: “Our digital coupons only apply once per transaction.”

Customer: “Oh… so, if I split this into five different purchases, it would work?”

Manager: *clearly losing his patience* “No, they’re like normal coupons. If you use one, it gets taken and can’t be used again.”

Customer: “So, I can’t buy all of these with the coupon?”

Manager: “Not unless you have multiple accounts and multiple coupons.”

Customer: *clearly angry now* “Fine! Take all but one of them off.”

(My manager gladly does this and goes to his register to help thin down the line. She pays her total and takes her stuff with her while muttering about the ad under her breath. My next customer comes up with a full cart.)

Me: “My apologies for the wait.”

Customer #2: *laughing* “It’s fine! It’s not your fault she didn’t understand how coupons work!”