What a great fuckin’ morning. See below for copy of email submitted to Safeway. I know it’s petty, but “'sheesh!” And you didn’t even have to inquire about my day!
I am angered that I have another situation to share with you about my local Safeway. This morning around 10 I arrived at the store with my two small boys. I was in the parking lot and observed a theft take place. The behavior of the thieves was bizarre prior to the man running out of the store with at least a dozen cans of formula. When I saw him enter his “getaway” car I quickly tried to notice the license plate. I got it in my head and repeated it several times while I rushed back to my car to write it down. An employee and the manager came out at that time and I gave them the license plate number and a brief description. Now, this is the good part, I felt like a good citizen for reporting this. I was pleased.
I gathered my items and approached register #2 to check out. After my Club Card registered, my total was $32.77. I gave the cashier 77 cents and two twenties. The change machine cranked out 23 cents and she said, and I quote, “oh, you got extra, the price kept going down”. I thought about that and got out of the way after getting my bills ($7!). So, rather than the cashier saying “oops”, she clearly knowingly allowed me to receive the wrong change and tried to make me think I was getting extra. If she had handed me $8 in bills, then I would have gotten “extra”. I stood aside and pondered my receipt and told her she owed me $8. She didn’t even apologize. I told the Manager (that had been outside with me) and he was just boggled, I guess he couldn’t process what I was saying fast enough, because I did gripe to him rather quickly.
Here I was, thinking I’d done a good thing for the store, and now I’m feeling like they INTENTIONALLY tried to steal my money (2%)by making me think unclearly.
THIS is why I usually shop at PW or Trader Joes.
I’m highly disappointed, and this story is probably gonna end up on some messageboard somewhere when I’m asked what’s bothering me today. Word of mouth travels quickly. I wish the cashier had just owned up to the goof and given me the correct change. It was just stupid.
A response would be greatly appreciated.
My ongoing gripes are with the baggers who clearly haven’t been taught or figured out how to bag. I try to help by grouping things in bag-sized lots by type but that doesn’t do much.
But the latest, was the cashier asking me if I had the time?! So basically, you’re not even going to pretend your job is bearable, you’re just going to make it clear how you can’t wait to leave. And if I had the time, would you drop my order in midstream when your break time came??
The worst part was, he was preoccupied enough with that to not ask for my discount card before putting the charge through. Then he tells me, I don’t think anything was on sale. Doublechecks and yes there was something on sale. OK, it was only 20 cents, but I wouldn’t have had to go to customer service at all if he hadn’t rushed through.
Sounds to me like the cashier made a mistake. Doesn’t sound like “they” intentionally tried to screw you out of …a dollar?
I think you overreacted by writing a letter, but hey…maybe you’ll get a coupon or something.
You have some big-time non-sequiturs in that message. I feel that you have INTENTIONALLY tried to steal some of my brainwaves (2%)by making me think unclearly. The only thing I got out of it was that the cashier shorted you a dollar in change. That sucks but it happens and it is usually easily rectified if you speak clearly enough so that the manager can understand what you are saying.
You think a register jockey deliberately confused you in an effort to short you of 77 cents, rather than thinking they were merely personally confused about the arithmetic involved.
When an action can be fully explained by malice or stupidity, the best bet is to go with stupidity, it’s way more common.
Here in Germany you have to: a) bring your own bags; and b) bag everything yourself. So once the cashier has finished checking you out, she/he will stare blankly at you while you try to bag everything up yourself. While there is a line of 5 people behind you waiting to check out. I feel so spoiled when I go back stateside and not only do they give me a choice of bags but put my stuff in them!
I don’t even bother trying to do this anymore. Most cashiers can’t comphrend why you’re giving them the correct change and ‘extra’ money. They can’t even figure out how to enter it into the register.
That said, the Safeway where I usually shop is staffed with very competant cashiers. I almost always use my debit card when grocery shopping, so the whole ‘change’ issue never comes up.
Yeah, the cashier made a mistake. She didn’t acknowledge the mistake though. She attempted to con me by saying I got “extra” and the prices were lower because of my club card. That wasn’t true and she knew it. She didn’t enter the coin amount, which was stupid on her part, because the coins were in her hand before the bills were. When I looked at my receipt it clearly stated that she entered a tender of $40. Rather than cop to the mistake, she let it go through and hoped I wouldn’t notice. Now, is this stupid, or is this malice? God, if she’s just that stupid I hope they check her drawer frequently and thoroughly.
77¢ here, 77¢ there, it all adds up.
This cashier is probably pulling in tens of thousands a month. You should stake out the parking lot, see if she’s driving the top-of-the-line Mercedes there. Or maybe she needs the graft to pay for her gambling and drug habits.
Good onya.
That’s beautiful. I can usually keep up with the cashier on the rare occasions when there is no bagger, and I get things done my way. No, frozen doesn’t go next to bananas!! :mad:
Moved from IMHO to the Pit.
I hope neither of you are cashiers.
40.77 - 32.77 = 8.00 (Change due)
8.00 - .23 = 7.77 (Change received)
That is not 1.00 short. That is not .77 short.
I agree that I doubt the cashier was malicious. I do not see where Safeway has come across as some terrible place to shop (unless this is a constant occurrence). I’m not even sure that I see the problem with the manager, since we do not know how the short-change was presented–an upset customer’s comments are frequently a little hard to catch on the first pass, particularly if one is in the middle of writing up the paperwork for a shoplifting incident.
But how did a $7.77 short change get reduced to one dollar or seventy-seven cents?
I just want to say- the incident in the parking lot was completely unrelated to the cashier error and makes your letter confusing. Also, accusing the cashier of intentionally making you think unclearly is just crazy talk. In the future, stick to the facts of the complaint you’re making and leave out the conspiracy theories and accusations. You’ll get a much better response and they won’t just throw your e-mail away into the crazy file.
tom,
How do you like your crow prepared?
But isn’t the look of uttter delight when they see the whole dollar figure come up just so precious.
I’ve worked retail since I was 16 (I’m 21 now) and I can’t comphrend how anybody would have trouble entering 40.77 into a register for a 32.77 order.
Damn it, I was just about to prepare a delightfully sarcastic treatise on how subtraction works when you beat me to it. Sigh.
Dear Tom,
I hope you’re not a reading comprehension teacher…
It’s usually the fast-food monkeys. They just want the $40 for a $32.77 order. Getting the .77 throws them off.
OK. I took the “after getting my bills ($7!)” to mean that the $7 only showed up after the cashier had been prompted to return more than the change machine had provided.