Not The Brightest Bulb

[crokett]

I stopped at a bookstore in the airport last night and bought two books. Then I decided I wanted to exchange one for a Sudoku book. The book I wanted to return was 10 bucks, the Sudoku book was 5. The clerk said she needed a manager. So she called a manager who gave her his access code and told her to do the exchange. So she did something with the register and handed me 10 bucks and the Sudoku book. I tried pointing out I hadn't paid for it but she kept insisting I had, so I left.

[ironhat]

You just can't teach common sense, can you!? OTOH, when I read the title of your post I though you were talking about me.

[Uncle Cracker]

That's what happens when people rely on a computer to reason on their behalf. Try to get a grocery cashier to count back your change these days...

[cabinetman]

When the boss does a tally of the daily transactions her shift will be short. It'll come out of her minimum wage pay. She's a divorcee with 6 children, and they can't find her druggie husband to pay the back 4 years of child support. Her 1978 Chevy is still in the shop needing a transmission. But that's OK, because there's a bus stop only a half mile away. Her mother was willing to take her to work and pick her up, but, she's blind in one eye, and lost 6 fingers in a cooking accident from an exploding teflon pressure cooker.

She's down to two outfits that she can wear to work as her neighbors dog ate her dresses that blew off the laundry line in a torrential windstorm. She'll remember the transaction because she got sick and vomited right before you came to the register. She and two of her kids got sick that day from eating 3 week old bologna that was left out of the refrigerator because it broke the week before.

There is some good out of this transaction...
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>You got a book and $10.
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[Richard in Smithville]

Davey, you seemed to do everything in your power( except perhaps getting violent and scaring them into making them accept what you were saying: then being arrested by airport security, spending the night in jail, and getting a flying ban for the rest of your life) to do the right thing. As I explain to my daughters on some situations....."think of this as a lesson; and expensive lesson, but a lesson". When the staff realize their mistake, hopefully they will remember next time.

[radhak]

When the boss does a tally of the daily transactions her shift will be short. It'll come out of her minimum wage pay. She's a divorcee with 6 children, and they can't find her druggie husband to pay the back 4 years of child support. Her 1978 Chevy is still in the shop needing a transmission. But that's OK, because there's a bus stop only a half mile away. Her mother was willing to take her to work and pick her up, but, she's blind in one eye, and lost 6 fingers in a cooking accident from an exploding teflon pressure cooker.

She's down to two outfits that she can wear to work as her neighbors dog ate her dresses that blew off the laundry line in a torrential windstorm. She'll remember the transaction because she got sick and vomited right before you came to the register. She and two of her kids got sick that day from eating 3 week old bologna that was left out of the refrigerator because it broke the week before.

There is some good out of this transaction...
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>You got a book and $10.
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Trust you to give a positive spin to everything...!

But while I agree with you on the ethics of such situations, I too have been in similar situations and have had to give up on doing the right thing, short of getting arrested as Richard says.

And lets face it - her boss must not be such a stickler as you imagine him (otherwise she might never have got that job), so it should turn out okay... I think .

[BobSch]

The help in retail stores can be the source of some strange stories. I recently heard of a fast-food restaurant where both the counter person and the MANAGER refused to take a two-dollar bill. The both thought it was counterfeit because everybody knows there ain't no such thing as a two-dollar bill!

[Bruce Cohen]

Cab,

You are one cold dude, maybe that's why we get along so well together.

Whatever makes your face smile.

Bruce

[Mrs. Wallnut]

That's what happens when people rely on a computer to reason on their behalf. Try to get a grocery cashier to count back your change these days...

I count change back all the time, and I work in a convience store...but maybe I am the exception.

But I understand the frustration of "stupid" (in a Larry the Cable guy voice), cashiers. I have run into a couple of them.

But remember not all cashiers are that way, once in a while you run into one or two that are good at their jobs.

[Pappy]

I eat at a Burger King on my route a couple of times a week. I often order a "Texas Double Wopper" which comes with 2 patties, cheese, bacon, and jalopenos besides the normal burger stuff. Since I don't like mayonaise or tomatoes on a burger, I order it with mustard, pickles, lettuce and onions. These get put into the computer/register with 'only' by each one.

Last time, I handed it back and said it comes with bacon. The girl responded with, "You ordered it with... (and repeated all the only items). She seemed a 'bit' confused when I asked her why it had cheese and patties on it, since they weren't on the 'only' list. I don't think the manager had much better luck than I did!

[jonmulzer]

When I was 18 I worked on a construction crew with a fellow who was mostly very quiet. It was often difficult to hear what he was saying with machinery running nearby, but you could always tell he was the type of person you did not want to cross. One of those "it's the quiet ones you have to watch" sort of things. He and I often went out to lunch together because when he did speak it was something meaningful and I admired the guy. So many people in this world speak just to hear themselves talk and he was the antithesis of that. When we went to McDonald's he would order two Quarter Pounders, plain. Not even cheese. Well apparently one day someone in the back was having a bad day or just felt like being a smarta$$ because he opens his sandwich and it is covered with more toppings than you have ever seen. It was just a sloppy mess. He walks back up and stands patiently in the crowded noontime line with his bag in his hand and when he gets to the cashier he asks, "May I help you sir?" This fellow takes the sandwich from the bag and slams it down on the counter where onions, ketchup, pickles and mustard splatter everywhere and yells in a voice like a thunderclap, "BREAD AND MEAT, HOW F***ING HARD IS IT?!?!?!" He ate free for a week.

Common sense and decency are in short supply on the lower rungs of the service industry.