I bought a set of headphones in Boston for $104.95 (by credit card) to try out on the plane back to Michigan. When I got back I decided I didn’t want them so I went to a local branch of the companies store and returned them. I didn’t realize until later that they credited by account for $105.95. At first I thought it must be the differance between state taxes, but exactly one dollar? A 1 percent differance should have been 1.0495 so I found it odd that it would be exactly one dollar.
What else could it have been? Seems like I could make some money doing this.
Based on my past experience in retail, this is the most likely scenario. Clerks are supposed to be trained to check the receipt and enter the price shown on it, rather than what’s in their computer, but in practice this often gets overlooked by clerks in a hurry or during busy times. This is one reason why most stores insist on a receipt for returns–the current price of the item is not necessarily what the customer paid for it.
It’s probably a dfference in sales tax rates. It’s usually a PITA to change sales tax on most systems when processing a refund, so the cashier took the easy way out and you got a little more money credited back.
You want an extra dollar type of puzzle? Here’s a chestnut from back in elementary school:
You and two buddles agree to split a cheap roadside hotel room when the car breaks down. The room is $30 all included, payable in cash up front. You each give the manager $10 and head to the room.
After you leave, the manager realizes that he charged a weekend rate when it is in fact a weekday, and the room is supposed to be $25 not $30. So he sends a maid over with the $5 change.
Since you can’t split $5 three ways very easily, you decide to each take $1 back, and give the remaining $2 to the maid as a tip.
So in the end, you and your buddies have paid $9 each out of pocket ($10 less $1 refund), which is $27, and gave the maid $2. Where did that extra dollar go?
Are you serious? The $2 should be subtracted from the $27, not added to it. You each paid $9; $25 of the $27 total went to the hotel and $2 went to the maid. There is no extra dollar.
Another possibility is that when you bought the headphones the store’s computer ran a token authorization on your card of one dollar to make sure the card was real and active. Then it ran a second auth for the full purchase price. When the headphones were returned it lumped both auths together for the refund. This is actually pretty unlikely but part of my job involves reviewing credit card auths and I have seen this happen.
Of course I meant it as a joke. I assumed this sort of “puzzle” was fairly common knowledge; and that Dopers would not be the sort to be confused by the bait-and-switch accounting
You’d be surprised how many people can’t figure out the logical flaw. You can explain, “You paid out $27, $25 of which went to the manager and $2 to the maid”, and they nod, but won’t be able to explain where the mistake is in the description, “You paid $27, the maid has $2, and 27 + 2 = 29 and not 30, WTF?”"
Maybe I should have stuck with the first reply about the “extra credit” in the OP, which was to say, “Did you know? CLERICAL ERROR IN YOUR FAVOR - COLLECT $1 was a Chance card in the original Charles Darrow handmade version of Monopoly (before he sold it to Parker Bros.), and you collected $200 for landing on Free Parking instead (hence the common “Free Parking” house rule)?” (Also a joke, but exactly the sort of Urban Legend I’d love to get started)
