The Policy Is For Everyone Else But Me!
(If you work at my store, you get a discount card that entitles you to 10% off. You also get a partner card for a family member, but the holder of the partner card must live in the same household as you. Our tills are very old, and if a card doesn’t swipe you can simply type it in. To avoid colleagues just giving their discount card number to everyone they know to use, company policy states you must have the card with you in order to use it. Typing it in without the card is a fireable offence for both the cashier doing it and the holder of the colleague discount card. A guy walks up to the customer service desk with two jumpers.)
Customer: “Hi. Can I pay here, please? I have a [colleague rewards coupon].”
Me: “Yes, that’s fine.”
(I scan his jumpers and tell him the total. He picks up his phone and shows me the screen.)
Customer: “Oh, and this is my colleague discount number, as well. You can just type it in.”
Me: “Do you not have your discount card on you?”
Customer: “No.”
(I look at his phone screen. The number has been texted to him as part of a conversation with who appears to be his partner.)
Me: “Okay, well, without the colleague card present, I’m not allowed to type in the number. It’s company policy. Sorry.”
Customer: “No, it’s fine. [Nearby Store] does it for me all the time.”
Me: “Okay. Well, I still can’t do it. I have nothing to verify you are the colleague or partner. The company policy is in place to stop everyone just using one colleague’s number.”
(He stared at me and just repeated that [Nearby Store] does it all the time for him. We ended up repeating the conversation twice before I went to find my section leader and get her to reiterate that he wouldn’t be getting his discount today. He walked off in a huff and maintained we were “just being silly.” I’ll never understand why people can’t understand that company policy can’t be ignored. Just because the store you work in knows you and doesn’t mind typing in the number, it doesn’t mean any store will!)
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
