I work at a local hardware store known for its low prices. We’re also known for our mailers, which have a lot of coupons. Most of our sales are due to the coupons, and customers are fairly good with presenting coupons. Keyword: fairly good.

Customer: Excuse me, I didn’t get the coupon price for this canopy!

Me: I’m sorry, we can fix that. Do you have the coupon?

Customer: Right here.

Me: Did you show it to the cashier?

Customer: Oh, you have to show them coupons?

Me:….yes. Yes you do.

I told my other coworkers about the experience, which left me wondering how she got that far in life.

(I’m a cashier for a hardware store and an older guy comes up to me with a return)

*Cashier* Hello, how may I help you today?

*Customer* I’d like to return these products

*Cashier* Sure, Sir (I scan all his products and the machine prompts me for his I.D.) Sir can I please see your I.D.

(at this point the customer pulls his I.D. out and shows it to me through his wallet)

*Cashier* Can you please take your I.D. out of your wallet.

*Customer* You can see my Drivers License number through the wallet I don’t need to take it out*

*Cashier* Can you please take it out Sir, I can’t see the expiration date through your wallet is covering it.

*Customer* Type in my f***ing drivers license number so I can go.

*Cashier* I can’t unless you take it out sir.

*Customer* I don’t want you to touch it.

*Cashier* Then I can’t process the return

(finally he admits the license is expired and it is against store policy for me to accept it so I tell him to get another form of I.D and he pulls out a paper I.D.)

*Cashier* I can’t accept paper I.D’s

*Customer* Call your manger your clearly confused

To my displeasure manager approves the I.D. just to shut the guy up.

We’re in the middle of quarantine, and my store is crammed full of people that don’t need to be there and I’m already on edge. We don’t sell wood by the foot. The price for a board of wood doesn’t change if you have us cut it for you. 

Customer: “So, this is only eight feet, I had them cut off four feet, so you need to only charge me for eight feet. 

Me: “This is the price it’s ringing up at, sir.”

Customer: “Right, but I’m only buying eight feet, not twelve feet.”

I stare at him blankly. 

Customer: “But I’m only buying eight feet.”

I keep staring at him blankly, because if I open my mouth it’s going to be to yell at him. 

Customer: “You’re not going to change the price for me, are you?”

Me: “No, sir.”

Seriously, dude, don’t come to me in the middle of a crisis and ask me to charge you less for a product that is non-essential because you threw part of it on our scrap pile.

My son and I are walking through a building materials store.

Random old guy (at the top of his lungs) IS THERE ANYONE WORKING HERE?”

I go to the store to pick up something for my mom who gave me a gift card but did not tell me how much was on it. At the checkout, my total comes to $80 and I hand the cashier the gift card. She scans it and then sets it back down on the counter.

Cashier: “Okay, it looks like it’ll be $4.”

I swipe my debit card and it looks like everything goes through fine from the terminal.

Cashier: “Oh, it looks like your card didn’t go through. Try swiping again.”

I go to swipe again and I see that the terminal says that my total is now $76.

Me: “I thought you said it was $4?” 

Cashier: “Oh, no, that’s how much was on the gift card.”

This is red flag one, but I decide to just swipe the card again and look at my receipt to see what happened. The gift card is still sitting on the counter so I go to reach for it, but before I get to it,the cashier grabs it and sets it under the counter. Red flag two.

This store no longer gives paper receipts, only email, so I go out to the car and pull up the receipt. It says that my debit card was charged twice, once for $4 and once for $76. She did not use my gift card at all.

I go back in and get back into the cashier’s line. There is one woman in front of me and the cashier gives her change. The woman realizes that the cashier has short-changed her, so a supervisor is called up to the register. That is sorted out and I approach the register, the supervisor still nearby.

Me: *Shows the receipt* “Hey. I checked my receipt and you didn’t use my gift card at all. You just charged my card twice.”

Cashier: “Oh, uh, sorry.” 

She kind of just stands there and looks at me. The supervisor starts talking to her.

Supervisor: “Do you still have the gift card? You have to give her the card back. There’s still money on it.”

The cashier reaches under the counter and pulls out a pile of old gift cards. Luckily, I am able to find mine on the top.

Supervisor: “I’m sorry about this. You can go up to customer service and they will get this sorted out for you.”

I go to customer service and explain what happened, and they refund my purchase and repurchase my items with the gift card.

Customer Service: “Can I ask you a question? Did the blonde girl check you out?”

Me: “Yeah, she did.” 

Customer Service: “Okay. She’s new, but this is like the seventh time this has happened this week.”

This fact and the fact that she short-changed the woman in front of me the second time tells me this cashier is doing something suspicious. I thought about calling the store to talk to a manager but it seemed like the woman at customer service was going to handle it.

This story was featured in our May 2020 roundup!

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