The other day I went to our local coffee shop and bagel emporium to get my morning cup of java. They have a punch card that gives you every eight cup free, and on Wednesday morning the server accidentally punched it twice. I said I would not get it punched the next day to make it up. The person at the till laughed and said she wouldn’t punch it the next time she saw me.
The next day the owner was at the till and she wondered why I didn’t offer my coffee card. I explained what happened, and she said “I’m impressed, that’s honest of you”. I didn’t thing nothing of it and I left. This morning the original server was working and she mentioned the coffee card and I told her I had already taken care of it. She said “We need more people like you.”
My questions (since I have to make it an IMHO) are a) would you have done the same thing? and b) is it really that unusual? and c) have you done something above and beyond the normal course of events in order to be honest?
Isn’t it weird? Once I bought a scarf for someone as a gift at a Target-type store, and when I was refolding it at home to wrap it, a second one fell out that must’ve been tangled up with it. I brought it back to the store and when I handed it to the customer service gal I said “I bought a scarf the other day and there were two stuck together, I just wanted to bring back the one that wasn’t paid for.” Well I think just about the whole damn store froze and turned around and stared at me with their jaws dropped. The counter girl gushed “Oh my god! Thank you so much!” and some old guy making a return blurted “Well Merry Christmas! God bless you!” as his wife dabbed her eyes. It was bizarre, I mean it was only like a $5 scarf or something, I wasn’t saving them from bankruptcy or anything. I assumed most people would’ve done the same thing, but it seemed like everyone I told about it said “What!!! That’s crazy – you had a free scarf, man!” Ok, whatever. I believe what goes around comes around, and I would’ve ended up paying for that scarf sooner or later, if you know what I mean.
I was grocery shopping and I had pretty much filled the cart when I remembered that I needed soda. So I grabbed a couple 12 packs and stuck them on the shelf under the cart. I went to the check out line and paid for my stuff. Except I had already forgotten about the soda. I got to my car and started to unload my things to find the “free” 12 packs. I finished packing my groceries into my trunk, grabbed the soda, and went back into the store. The woman at the counter was so impressed because I could have “easily taken advantage of a situation such as this” that she called her manager and got the okay to turn the two 12 packs into a buy one, get one free deal.
I’m with you two. About 2 months ago, I was at a Target and was given $8 in change instead of $3 (cashier must 've grabbed my $5 and given it back to me with two ones.)
I returned it and got amazed stares (along with the remaining dollar).
Why keep it? Someone’s going to have to make up the missing money, probably the cashier). I’d rather give up $5 and be able to sleep at night.
To amplify Fenris’ sentiment …
I’d wager to say (any retail workers out there to corroberate ?) that once an item is scanned thru, there had better be cash to account for it, or guess who is paying for it. Probably not the ‘evil’ Walton empire, but the guy (or gal) just like you on the other side of the counter.
Even if an item missed the scan, if you discover the error, and then keep what is not rightfully yours, it is as dishonest as shoplifting. Well almost, it wasn’t premeditated theft, but you get my point. YMMV
I was having my CD player fixed a few years ago and the repair center gave me too much change. Only I didn’t notice until I got home and they were already closed for the day, so I sent five dollars back to Sony.
I was on the trolley in Boston and saw two women get off and walk up one of the side streets, then I noticed a small purse on the seat where they’d been. I grabbed the purse and chased after them. I caught up and the purse did belong to one of them, but by then the trolley had left so I had to wait for the next one and pay another fare.
It’s all a cheap price to pay for the stunned reactions I get. And the right thing to do, too. A friend of mine misplaced his backpack a few times and managed to track it down again. I’ve had strangers return things to me. Why do we all seem to think this is going out of style?
One day I found a wallet that had over $400 cash and some official looking international papers in it. I returned it to the address on the license but the lady at the door did not speak English.
The next day I got a call from the wallet owner’s son, he told me his father was impressed with my honesty and wanted to thank me personally at lunch.
It sounded nice but he never called back to set up a time.
It’s good to be honest. Even when interesting foreign people don’t thank you at a cool lunch where the interpreter explains they are impressed with your honesty, and offer you an exciting job at an embassy or something like that.
Honesty is almost always the best policy.
An exception is when your wife asks how something looks. I have learned the only right answer (true or not) is
Well, my dentist charged me $1095.00 for this crown and, oh forget it.
Here in DC it’s “buy ten cups and get the 11[sup]th[/sup] free”, but sometimes the girl stamps my card two or three times. It seems like the number of stamps I get depends on what I bought. So I really can’t say if I’ve gotten away with anything on the frequent coffee card.
The only thing I can come up with is that I found some guy’s driver’s license on the ground & mailed it to him. He wrote me back to say thanks. That was a nice feeling.
My coffee place gave me change for a twenty one time when I had only given them a five. I didn’t realize it until I was at work, so I phoned them. They said they would let me know if their till was short.
I never heard back, so I called them again. They said that yes, the till was short that day…but they were so impressed with my honesty that they wanted me to keep the extra change.
I didn’t expect that, but it doesn’t matter. The right thing to do is the right thing to do. I have to sleep nights.
I’m not sure if this is exactly the same thing, but once I was walking home from the bus stop and I noticed a car parked in front of someone’s house with its lights on. So I knocked on the door, and the guy answered, and at first he looked irritated because he probably figured I was selling something. Then I told him the lights were on in his car, and you would not believe the profuse amount of thanks I got from him. He couldn’t believe I would take the time to walk up to his door to tell him his lights were on.
Well, hey, I’d appreciate it if someone did it for ME.
The best feeling I’ve ever got from something like this was last year at Bumbershoot (big music festival in Seattle). I bought a huge five-dollar balloon in the shape of Buttercup, one of the Power Puff Girls. Well, I was standing around outside the restrooms waiting for the SO to get back, and I noticed this little five or six-year old boy who was staring at the balloon extremely enviously. Well, nobody ever gave me a balloon when I was a kid, and I always wanted one, so I asked if he wanted the balloon. His mom was rather surprised, but after she asked me about five times, “Are you sure it’s ok?!” (as though the kid had somehow blackmailed me into it!) she let him have the balloon. He was ecstatic. It was so great.
I try to live my life by this rule. But I do have a somewhat skewed perspective to this…
I really don’t like people that aren’t nice, especially in customer service areas. So, if someone makes a mistake and I benefit, I ask myself if they deserve to get shorted, and if the answer’s yes, I keep it. I’d expect the same to happen to me If I’d been acting the same way. Usually it’s no, and I correct the error, and feel good about it, which I love. It really is a great feeling knowing you’ve done the right thing and made someone’s day. I’ve worked retail before, and I know how great it is to encounter an honest shopper. But one thing that absolutely makes my blood boil is bad customer service. So if I get it, and if it’s within my power to screw 'em, then I’ll do it every time… a little out of spite, but also because of the principle of the thing.