What $27? Nobody was short anything, the sale was (presumably) canceled and re-entered properly for the correct sale amount by the second manager.
I dunno, I mean I really don’t think this cashier should be handling money, he obviously thinks its okay to mess with the cash if he makes a mistake. I mean, what about all the people who work minimum wage jobs, who shop at safeway? $27 is a lot to them, what if it the customer was someone who didn’t speak great English and couldn’t resolve the situation like OP did???
I would want to know that this wouldn’t happen again at this store, or I would be telling all my friends to go somewhere else. But you can’t warn everyone. Who knows what story he gave to manager #2? I think OP should do all their other customers a favor and complain. I’d start with the store manager and then go to corporate if that doesn’t do anything.
Huh?
Where would this somewhere else would be?
Do you think that the Safeway is just hiring from a different pool of cashiers than the Giant, or the Fred Meyer, or the Wegmans or whatever you have.
The checker should be pitted for his bad attitude. Confusion over how to make change, and accept checks is par for the course for grocery store check-out. Neither Safeway nor any of their competitors has the option of hiring workers with strong math backgrounds.
You can join the eternal chorus and add a drop of water to the ocean, but it is this way, it always has been, and it always will be.
You can rant against the world, or just adapt. ATM cards weren’t just invented so we didn’t have to carry around cash. They SIMPLIFY TRANSACTIONS so that when we go to the grocery store we don’t need to deal with a math-challenged prick and 2 of his managers. This is 2006. They’ve been in widespread use for roughly 20 years.
It has not always been that way. Most of the checkers I have encountered had a basic grasp of math. Don’t tell me Kansas is ahead in teaching math! I am one who refuses to roll over and “accept” such blatent stupidity from cashiers. On a sidenote, Trunk it appears you’ve lost a year there. 
ETA: I find myself boggling that a fellow Doper is advocating giving in to stupidity, instead of keeping up the good fight! Of course we shouldn’t just accept such things! :eek:
Sorry, not following this…?
Why would writing a cheque for $27 help anyone? Just means the OP would be $27 out-of-pocket, and the store would be $27 up.
I disagree. If an employer is going to hire someone to work the cash register and handle customers’ money on a regular basis, that employer had damn well better be able to count and to have good customer service skills.
Yes, mistakes will always be made, but your assertion that these employers don’t have the option to hire qualified staff and that customers should just suck it up and deal with it is just ridiculous.
And as long as the store accepts cheques or cash, the OP can pay any way they damn well please and expect the cashier to be able to deal with it in a competent (or at least friendly) manner.
If I understand it correctly, he’s making a joke that the cashier would still think that the till was out $27, offer to pay it up, and be fired on the spot for his gross and repeated stupidity. But of course we know that wouldn’t happen.
If he hadn’t been fired for that up to this point, what would this change?
You know, it’s not often I agree so whole-heartedly with Liberal. Seriously, the kid just shouldn’t be dealing that closely with the public- if he could make this big of a mistake, and then show that much attitude when (rightfully) called on it, he’s got the wrong job.
I used to work with people like this when I worked at a grocery store- the register says you still owe 27.00, logic and anything else goes out the window, the computer says it, therefore its true.
There is no battle. Stupidity won.
The battle from this point on is just to find the most efficient way to deal with it. It’s much easier that way.
People, there are college seniors (usu. with degrees in sociology) that still consider subtraction to be “addition’s tricky pal”. You’re not hiring minimum wage register jockeys that know how to work with numbers.
Basic math??? 85.60 does not equal 58.60. Thats not basic math, thats just f****n LOGIC. You don’t need a strong math background to know that you don’t tell customers to pay you money they don’t owe you. I’ve never had anything that bad happen to me at any grocery store I’ve every been too, so I’m pretty damn confident you can find cashiers to finish a transaction so that the money paid=value of goods purchased.
I’m from Western New York, I’ve shopped at plenty of Wegmans. The service there is always very good.
He’s saying the the bellhop stole $58.20 of the missing dollar. Personally, I think it was Mrs. White in the Ballroom with the bag of white grapes.
One way the OP could have handled it was to offer to write a check for the full correct amount instead. Take the original check back, then issue a new one for $58.20. Let the cashier puzzle over that for a while. He may have just gotten an “Aha!” moment. Or maybe his tiny head would have exploded. Either way, the OP would have done the world a favor.
To change topic slightly, Trunk, do we really have to change our small ways of life completely in order to cater to the horrifically stupid and rude?
About the second time he asked me for the $27, I would calmly tell him to call his Manager. It’s pretty obvious from this point that he just doesn’t understand. And nothing can help but getting someone who hopefully can think. Annoying in the extreme.
Back when I was a cashier, many moons ago, we didn’t have the machine do the change calculations for us. The stores I worked in would never put someone on the register who couldn’t work properly with numbers. Now some just spew whatever the machine tells them. Sad, but true.
Vinyl Turnip, here’s the puzzle:
Where is the other dollar?
Three salesmen decided to share a $30 hotel room for one night and split the cost evenly between them.
After they checked in, the hotel manager noticed that they should have been charged only $25 for the room. So, he gave the porter five one-dollar bills and said to return the money to the three men.
As the porter was walking to the salesmen’s room, he wondered how he was going to split the five dollars evenly between the three salesmen. So, he put two dollars in his pocket and gave each of the three salesmen one dollar.
Now, if each of the salesmen paid $10 for their share of the room and were given one dollar back, then they each would have paid $9 for the room. Nine times three is twenty-seven, plus the two dollars the porter put in his own pocket is twenty-nine (9 x 3 = 27. 27 + 2 = $29)
Where is the other dollar?
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/fun/brain.php
I loved that one in grade school . . .
Actually, the puzzle is: Where the fuck can I get a hotel room for $27? And if I pay $38 instead, can I get the Presidential Suite? I’ll even tip the bellhop the full $5.
And where would you find a porter these days? Not to mention a porter who would actually return any part of a refund . . .
Don’t be disingenuous. They weren’t arguing that $85 = $58.
The problem was more one of cash register logistics. The kid’s understanding what that because he rang up only $58 that the customer was charged only $58. That’s
“atm card” thinking. He didn’t get checks. After that, he was just being petulant.
It’s the former behavior that should be forgiven, not the rudeness.
Yes! Absolutely. I’m glad you asked.
Brief story: I give this guy a ride home from bowling every week. He doesn’t drive. What he does is rant about the pedestrians in Baltimore, the cabs in Baltimore, the other drivers in Baltimore, the buses in Baltimore. Pulling out, stopping in a lane, cutting you off. All legitimate complaints about stupid behavior and terrible drivers.
And, it’s been that way every single time I’ve been on a Baltimore street since I moved to this town.
You can wait for the world to change. You can wait for that glorious day that must be right around the corner when everyone around you reacts with common sense and good manners.
You can rant about it and be that guy I give a ride home to – beplagued on all sides by idiots.
Or you can chill, accept that that is just the way people drive here and go with it. I’m reminded of Ghost DOg in this instance. . .
Logic is indeed the issue at hand (as well as rudeness).
I can be a little forgiving, as it was December 23rd when this happened, and the store was a mob scene.
But I had about $15 left to spend on presents. I picked out three things that were, let’s just say, $4.95, $4.40, and $5.25. Now, I am no great math whiz, but a little rough addition tells me that my $15 might just cover it. So I took my purchases to the register and the cashier rang them up to something like $46.02. I complained that the amount must have been wrong, and I tried to explain my “three times about five” logic to her. She would have none of it. She was all “Sir, please just pay the amount due, I have customers waiting.”
My poor financial situation was just one reason I refused to budge. But she refused to hear my argument. It became a battle of wills. Finally, my superior psionic training wore her down to a shrivelling mass of “Yeah, whatever.” So she rang up the purchases again. “Oh, sir, I am so sorry! You were right. The actual total is $30.87.”
I headdesked on the counter.
Repeat until affordable.
Shh. The $27 is the penalty the cashier pays for being a dumbass.