Wednesday, May 17, 2006

I forgot my brain on register two

I'm always amazed by the fact that people "forget" a bag of stuff. YOU PAID FOR IT, YOU LUGGED IT AROUND THE STORE. HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO FORGET TO GET OUT THE DOOR WITH IT?

I had a couple of these Sunday. One, a woman came up with grandma and three kids in tow and said she'd left "two little toy bunnies" at the register in the garden shop. Oh, so you gave it to the kids after it was scanned and they put it down huh? When I asked her for her receipt, she said she didn't have it and "thought I wouldn't need it because they were only a couple dollars."

So. Did you pay for them or not? I looked in the book that forgotten merchandise is written in and didn't see any bunnies for registers 71-74. I told her she'd have to bring the receipt in. She left huffy but she left. Lesson = watch the brats next time.

The second one was a lot more unpleasant. This man, who was either telling the complete truth and I'M going to hell, or was a complete liar and HE'S going to hell, claimed to have left eggs, fish, asparagus, sausage and bread at the register. He did have a receipt.

His story was that he was "camping" and "woke up and didn't have anything to eat." When I pointed out that he was asking for the most expensive items on the list AND items at the top, middle and bottom, as well as eggs, which the girls, even the stupid ones, NEVER bag with anything else, he started to get angry and told me that he "worked with a Catholic Church" and was on a "camping retreat."

Now, if you were going camping, you'd PUT THE FOOD IN A COOLER BEFORE LEAVING THE PARKING LOT. You wouldn't just throw eight bags in the truck, drive 25 miles, then tote Wal-Mart plastic bags and your camping gear a few miles. AT SOME POINT BEFORE MORNING YOU WOULD REALIZE YOU FORGOT THE STUFF!

I know what he did. At some point he was in line, saw someone "forget" something and get credit for it or was told to "go get it." And being a homeless person, (he sure as hell smelled like he hadn't had a bath in weeks) figured he'd cadge a few free meals off of Wal-Mart.

The problem was that I could not PROVE he hadn't forgot the stuff. And I knew whatever dumb-a** manager came up would give him the crap. I made him go get it and then let someone else handle him. I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.

The liars are starting to get to me. I can feel the pressure of trying to hold back every time I KNOW someone is lying to me and just want to scream at them.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eggs, fish, asparagus, sausage and bread are not foodstuffs I would associate with the regular diet of a homeless person, even one living in a car with a cooler. But I have seen most of these items in coolers on camping trips.

Is everyone who comes to your counter - with or without a receipt - a liar?

Anonymous said...

Asparagus and camping? C'mon LOL. That's too funny. Yeah, he was putting you on. He probably picked that receipt up off the floor or the parking lot after someone's grandma dropped it getting into the car.

Anonymous said...

Just have the manager pull the video from that register. When I worked grocery, people all the time would come up saying they left stuff and if it was something big or alcohol, we would pull up the video and see if they indeed left it.

Larry Kollar said...

Heh. I don't think I've left a bag at the grocery, but I have left stuff in the bottom of the cart when loading the car. I just wrote off that gallon of milk & got another later.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't associate fish and aparagus as something you would take with you on a camping trip.

Anonymous said...

Be glad you didn't snap when you asserted your knowldege of the customer's lie to the CSM dispatched to the scene right in front of the customer's mother.
I nearly got coached, which at the time would have meant termination.
The item and issue was a printer cartridge that had been placed on a spot on the shelf that was near half the real price, and I had repeated to the customer not once but four times that there was nothing I could do and had the CSM take care of the situation. When I was sure the customer was out of range I asked what he did to remedy the situation. He did a little bit of wait-and-manipulate that he's way too good at. At the end of the story I asserted that she was trying to pull one over on us. The mother heard the whole thing, and it all went downhill.
It wasn't all that bright of me to say such things but the customer was being SO RUDE and treating me like such an animal that it got to me and I made a lapse in judgement that I normally wouldn't make. Sure, I was as big of a dumbass as the customer that day but damnit, at least I tried to listen.