Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Leading questions and the fools who ask them

Our store recently started a system to get the prices at the register to match what it says on the shelf. I know stuff ringing up wrong upsets customers, but when you consider that a SuperCenter has thousands and thousands of items, and the Home Office in Bentonville is the one who orders price changes, NOT the people at the store, and can order up to a thousand price changes PER DAY, it can be a job just to keep up with it.

Anyway. I know you're pissed off because the paper towels rang up at $1.66 and not at $1.50. I've got no problem fixing it for you. If you'd told the girl at the register, she COULD HAVE and WOULD HAVE done it. But you were yakking on your cell phone, not paying attention, just like you were when you walked up here to Customer Service, blabbing to your friend about how Wal-Mart "ripped you off." Honey, that sixteen cents is less than a minute of airtime, OK? Now shut up.

Anyway. This woman comes up, tells me that the Downy detergent is the wrong price. That it is scanning at $3.26 and it is marked $2.98 on the shelf. Then she casually mentions that "some stores will give you the item for free" if it scans wrong.

Now, this witch just pissed me off. It is officially store policy now that any item priced $3.00 and under that scans wrong goes to the customer free when you fix the price. Also, when I correct it for her, it automatically sends a message to the computer to change the price for that item, correcting it thereafter. But she doesn't know that - she's just angling for some free fabric softener, not the twenty-eight cents price difference.

So I go "Ma'am, you WILL get it for free, if you just give me a moment." And I let a little bit of annoyance leak through. She blushed, realized I had caught her in a moment of naked greed, and then tried to stammer out "That wasn't what I was trying for." And I'm not behind this counter having to put up with greedy people like you.

Like the people that think if we scan it wrong we owe them 10 TIMES the price of the item PLUS the item free.

One man screamed at an assistant manager, then made her sign the receipt and promised he'd be back with the lawyer. He's still not back. Some states do have "scanning laws" as they're called. Florida is not one of them. And no, even if you mention that "back home" has a scanning law, I don't really care. I will correct the price for you, and do what store policy dictates. You won't get anything else.

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