An RHUer Has A Question About When A Cashier Doesn't Recognize Check; Rings It Up Wrong

This is a story with a question at the end - and I am the custy in this situation. I will not be Little Slave in the Big Northwoods for this caper, I will be playing the part of Big Shopper in the Big City!

It's Thursday afternoon and I need to run to my local grocery store for some stamps. I have been purchasing stamps at this location since 2005 and have always paid with a $45 business check (it even says freight & postage on the stub). Sometimes they ask for my license number, sometimes they put on the phone number, but most of the time, they just give me the roll of stamps and put the check in the drawer. Well, not this time.

I knew I was in trouble when the AWESOME little old lady who normally works was not there. But I think to myself, it's just a roll of stamps, I'll be okay. NOTE: anyone who is not the awesome little old lady takes wayyyy longer to do anything at this desk. I waited in line as Customer #1 purchased his $20 worth of scratch off lottery tickets - he rolls away and I look at clerk lady waiting for her to say "Next" or "Can I Help You" or even "What do you want?" She just looks at me blankly so I step up to the plate.

"1 roll of 100 stamps please." - hands her the check. What happened next is still a little foggy, still a little "HUH?!"

She looks at the check, up at me, back at the check and kind of cocks her head to the side - like dogs do and says: "Um, I don't know what to do with this? (to co-worker) Do you know what to do?" Perplexed looks are exchanged betwixt the two. I myself am mighty perplexed at this statement.

She gave me the "one minute" finger and leaves the cage. She walked out the door, took about 10 steps, stood there looking at the check, then scanning the front, then down at the check, more looks around - then turns around and comes back in the cage and said, "I don't know what I was thinking" then proceeds to run the check through a little electronic scanner.

This scanner was unlike any other check scanner I have seen before. It looked like a receipt printer. Next thing I know she says to hit ok on the credit card pad. I am surprised at the mention of the pad. Now, here is the issue: the total on the screen was $50, not $45 but I did not notice it until I had already hit the green button but before I had signed for it. I piped up and said "Wait that was $50?"  Sure enough, it was, and the transaction could not be cancelled, it was through.

As this is my fault for not looking, I stay quiet as the clerk is saying, "I don't know what I was thinking," and "Why did I enter 50?!"

Hitting buttons, trying to get the info back do not help. Her solution was to just give me $5 back ("Is that okay?" was asked twice). Which, if it was cash, or my money, I wouldn't have cared. However, this is a cash basis business and I have a check written for $45, not $50 - that is embezzlement chicklets.

I did kindly and nicely ask if it was possible to refund and re-run as I had time to wait and the counter was not busy. That is when the manager arrives to see what is going on: No, nothing more can be done, no, there is no refund, can she give me $5 back (Is that okay was asked so many more times I lost count at 5). Keep in mind I think I have now said 1 sentence in total.

I accepted the $5, receipt (with my notes on it), and then asked if I could please have my stamps now; which I finally got.

My question is, is that normal? Can check machines not be corrected at all even with the manager there? I didn't want to get pissy because we all know that feels, but, why did she put in $50?

The only half-assed, kind of apology was from weird clerk lady saying it's been a long day as she was handing me my stamps. Out of this entire situation, this is not really what bothered me because I explained the entire situation to my boss, who promptly laughed his ass of for at least 10 minutes, then we fixed the accounting error. All in all, I kept my mouth shut, said thank you when I was done, and proceeded to walk over to the bank where I had to re-tell the story and we all shook our heads in confusion. You see, our bank has a branch within the grocery store and they had been expecting me to come over and make a deposit - they waved when I walked in the doors - then they watched me at the service counter the entire time.

This final paragraph has to do with the phrase "Is that okay?" I understand why people ask this; I totally understand and have been trained to ask the same question in order to make sure the customer is alright with what has happened or is happening. But, when you ask this multiple times, and the same solution is offered, and when I have already stated that this particular course of action is not okay, STOP ASKING! By the time I left to walk over to the bank, I wanted to scream it at them - NO IT"S NOT OKAY, STOP ASKING ME THAT LIKE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!! But I didn't. That's all, now back to my cell, I mean cubicle.

--Big Shopper in the Big City

Comments

[CashierBtch]

I've accidentally cashed out a transaction with cash instead of a check and typed in the wrong amount for a check, but I always called a PIC immediately and they were always able to go back into my register to fix it, and its not even the fancy registers at customer service that can actually process large returns, it the crappy, everyone uses registers that only have the ability to ring things up. So I think the cashier is just a ditz or hasn't worked there long enough

[Fellow Slave]

Well, sometimes cashiers get auto-stuck on phrases...

That one might have been "Is it o.k.?"...
Mine is usually Sorry....

But I've always been thankful that my manager can purge a transaction if I foul it up. Thankfully that applies to most types of transactions (except one, but it usually is easy to undo and redo on my own if I goof without needing to purge it from the cue).

[Bored at the Bookstore]

Y'know, I would love to be a fly on the wall at end of day when they tried to balance the drawer. "Let's see... The register says there should be a check here for $50, but all there is is this one for $45; _and_ we're short $5 in the cash! MAVIS!!! You owe the store money! I think."

Really, registers do have void keys... Even our K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) register does. But they can be tricky to configure properly; probably no one on duty is any good at it. I had a clerk once who couldn't run a void to save her life. Once, she wound up with a $1400 error because she could _not_ understand that two minuses do not make a positive. Nor do three, or four, or five,or six minuses. After that, I had to tell her to just "Hit Cash Tend to end the fiasco and start over from the beginning. Save the messed up receipt(s) for me to correct when I get there. It was faster and easier than trying to straighten out an error that increased geometrically!

[cashykat]

I think that if the check is taken out right of whoevers account there, (example like wal-mart), they can only cash refund the difference.

It sounds like those girls were fairly new to the customer service desk.

[cashykat]

oops right out* lol

[Evie]

Oh man, I have had brain fart days when I cashiered. I always apologized profusely, though. I feel bad for the poor thing. x_x

[Queer Geek]

Sometimes working with checks can be a nightmare. The cashier made an error and since the check has not been cashed, it should have been voided and reprocessed with the correct amount.

Depending on the bank, sometimes the financial institution will accept the error or will reject the check entirely; thus bouncing it and causing further problems for both the custy and the store. (They look at little details like the amount being written in correctly or the numerical amount written out on the line.)

Again this goes with proper training by the company. Many companies skimp on training employees and shove them on floor and that point it's sink or swim. The employee is in the wrong too and should have apologized and handled it with tact but again that goes with some employees having the right people skills to handle a difficult situation.

Hopefully, it all worked out in the end for everybody.

[AmigaTech]

Brain-fart confession time:

I was once cashing out a register, banging in numbers, and accidentally hit the '00' key instead of the '0' key a few times in a row, and rang up roughly ten thousand bucks in spurious sales figures.

I could and did step back and erase them, but o lord my boss looked at me unhappily the next morning. It all added up... eventually.

--AT

[SammyKat]

They should have voided or post voided the transaction and re-done it. Even if the cashier was having a bad day, the manager should have known better.

[DFK]

Every day is a bad day when you're not trained properly.