(I work at a very popular video game store. Two big-name titles just came out today. I’m scheduled off but get a call from my manager.)
Manager: “Hey, are you busy tonight?”
Me: “I mean, I was gonna play [New Game].”
Manager: “Apparently, so is [Coworker], who called off claiming food poisoning. Can I talk you into coming in?”
About a year ago, the store I work at got remodeled with all new self-checkout machines and registers at the front end. We have two kinds of self-checkouts: the traditional compact scanners that most people associate with the term and a smaller number of belted registers where customers with larger purchases can ring themselves up.
The other day, when I was assigned to monitor and help people at the belted self-checkouts, a couple came up with a basket of items and a handful of coupons. Our register systems, even for self-checkout, are actually pretty smart. If someone tries to cheat the system with a fake coupon, it’s detected and someone is supposed to go verify whether the coupons are, in fact, genuine. The couple in question had dumped out their basket onto the belt and split it into two piles. Basically their “haul” consisted of about ten scented wax candle melts, ten yogurts, and a $50 store gift card… each.
Even before we’re put on a register, we’re trained on coupons: how to scan them, which ones are valid, what to do if we can’t get a coupon to scan, etc.
Right away, I could tell the coupons were invalid. Our wax melts are maybe $2 and each coupon they had was supposed to take $5 off… Same with the yogurts. They’re normally priced at $1 and each coupon took $3 off. Riiiiight…
I informed them as politely as I could that the coupons were invalid, saying that the register wouldn’t let them scan — which was partially true. Immediately, the woman got very defensive, saying they were sent to them straight from the manufacturer.
In the past, we’ve had a lot of problems with fake coupons so, fortunately, I knew how to handle the situation. I paged my manager over so I would be free to help other customers and the couple grabbed their coupons, storming out of the store and cursing.
(A customer comes in with a coupon we are running that allows them to buy six bagels and get six free. We have some specialty bagels that are not covered under the coupon and add 55 cents more a piece to the final total.)
Customer: “Hi, I’d like to do this deal.” *shows me the coupon*
Me: “Great. Have you been here before, and do you know that the specialty bagels are 55 cents more?”
Customer: “55 cents? No problem.”
(The customer picks ten specialty bagels and two regular bagels. If he had picked all regular bagels the total would have been $6.60.)
Me: “All right, your total is $11.50.”
Customer: “What?! I thought it would be like $7.”
Me: “Well, yeah, but you got ten specialty bagels and I explained that there was a cost increase.”
Customer: “$7 plus 55 cents does not equal more than $11!”
Me: “I’m sorry, sir, maybe I didn’t explain it properly; they are 55 cents more each.”
Customer: “I thought it was just a one-time fee of 55 cents.”
(Sadly, one of the owners was there and told me to charge the specialty bagels at the regular price so it was $6.60. The same customer has pretended to misunderstand that explanation several times now and I have learned my lesson to say that the upcharge is for each bagel, not a one-time fee.)
My first and only job in retail was as a cashier when I was 16. One morning, I was opening, so I was the only cashier on duty as our store was a very small location. After checking out my only customer so far that morning, a man buying dog food, the manager on duty approached me. He pointed at a woman at the customer service station and said the woman claimed I refused to help her buy a table she wanted by refusing to get it off the shelf for her, and refused to check her out in my lane when she approached me.
I tried explaining that I have never seen that woman before, and I’d only had one customer all day and spent my downtime organizing the front lanes. I guess he didn’t believe me as I saw the woman walking out with a smug smile and her table.
I didn’t last very long before I quit, and vowed to never work retail again because of people like her. Luckily, I got a quick start to my career shortly after leaving that job, and they closed down a few months after I left. It must have been because of lying customers getting discounts and managers stealing money from registers.
(I work for a utility company in western New York. This customer calls asking for service. From time to time, people call and find out that somebody has used their info to fraudulently start service. This is not one of these situations. I have just informed this customer that he has had two different accounts under his name with our company. He insists he has never had service, so I take a closer look.)
Me: “Sir, I see here that the first address where you previously had service was taken over by your wife after your account ended.”
Customer: “I lived there but it was never in my name. It was only in my wife’s name. I have never had service; somebody must have stolen my identity.”
Me: “Hmm… I also see that the second account listed is at the very same address and it starts immediately after your wife’s account ends. You had service two times at an address where you actually lived.”
Customer: “I don’t know how that is possible. I mean, I lived there, but I have never had service under my name. Obviously, this is fraud.”
Me: “So, what you are saying is that somebody stole your personal info to fraudulently start service at an address where you were actually living before your wife had service there and then did it again after your wife’s account ended?”
Customer: “Yes, I think this is what has happened.”
Me: “The only way to dispute these accounts is to file a police report about your identity being stolen and fill out a fraud packet to start an investigation.”
(This usually stops the nonsense dead because nobody wants to file a false police report. Well, they have actually done this and been arrested on the spot, but I digress.)
Customer: “This is not fair. I have never had service under my name. What am I supposed to do?”
Me: “You need to be able to prove you weren’t living at an address you have already admitted that you lived in on a recorded line. “
Customer: “How much do I have to pay?”
