So I have a slight moral dilemma on my hands... What to do?
As everyone knows I kind of like Amarula a little bit :P
When I was in town for a meeting on a Friday afternoon a month or so ago, I walked past a bottle store on the way back to my car. I decided to pop in and get a bottle on the way past, since I was in a good mood and it was a Friday and all.
I had just purchased a can of coke at a corner store, so as I walked into the bottle store I lifted it to show the lady in the bottle store that I had it. She looked rather morbid and unimpressed with life in general, and as I showed her my can, she snapped, ' We sell those here', to which I politely replied, ' I know, that's why I am showing it to you'.
I mean if you are about to buy alcohol= expensive+, who cares if you have a R4 can of coke purchased elsewhere? I mean did she not want me in the shop with someone else's can of coke?? Whatever...
So I browse around and select my bottle of Amarula, priced at R78.00. I proceed to the paypoint where she is sitting idly. She sullenly rang it up and when I handed over my credit card she actually sighed. I was thinking she was pretty rude, but gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking hey it's late on Friday afternoon, she could be tired, or have had a bad day or whatever. So she rings it up and half heartedly handed me the slip to sign, and I noticed it was very dark, and illegible, but signed and handed it back anyway. My credit card account is linked to an SMS service so I get an SMS whenever money moves in or out of the account, and the familiar SMS tone sounded to signal the sale was processed as she rang off the sale. I greeted her, she ignored me, and we parted ways. I am hardly going to become a regular there so who cares.
Later than night as I was going through my SMS's I noticed an odd one. There was an amount reserved for R0.78. I realised what had happened, checked my dark carbony credit card slip and sure enough the amount listed was R0,78. The silly woman in her disgruntledness had forgotten the 00, and had rung up R0.78 instead of R78.00. I figured when the final payment was processed (as opposed to the reserve amount) it would be rectified. I then more or less forgot about it.
Until now, when my bank statement arrived, showing a final payment of R0.78 to the bottlestore.
What Will Jane Do?
Do I go back, and show them the error and pay the proper price, or write it off as bad karma on her part for being sullen and bitchy with me? I can't decide.
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Jane should go back and fix it. It will come back and bite you if you don't.
ReplyDeleteI would anyway
Michael
I wrote this long reply about how you should but you know what... I don't think I would have. Because of the bad service. I wanted to say, that she just works there, that's its not her money HOWEVER if the owner wants to employ someone like her than it's his loss
ReplyDeleteYou have to go back. Maybe she was just having a really shitty day? You wouldn't like this if it happened to you.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, it may be her karma, but if you really believe that stuff, what happens to you karmically for failing to correct the error?
Right, well since everyone seems to think I should 'do the right thing' I have e-mailed the bottle store in question, and the ball is now in their court to respond.
ReplyDeleteJane
What usually happens, is that the cashier has to pay in ammounts that they are short in. What I would do is, go back to the store, and ask if that lady still works there. Then, I would give the money to her directly.
ReplyDeleteIf she doesn't work there anymore, don't bother, since the owners of the shop will just pocket the money anyway.
Actually I worked as a cashier in a grocery store (Checkers) over week-ends for my last 2 years of school.
ReplyDeleteWe were allowed to be up to 0.1 percent out on our cash-up before they got upset with us. Which in those days (gosh almost 15 years ago!) equated to about R20-40 over a week-end. Under that it was just not worth the effort of searching for the discrepancy and was written off.
In rare cases where a lot was missing, even after a second check and search for the error a warning would be issued and if it occured frequently the person would be fired or demoted to a packer (no money handling). The cashier never had to pay in. I was only earning R45 for the week-end!
I prided myself on my takings balancing 100% almost all of the time, and when the supervisors added up incorrectly in haste late on Sunday, and wanted to leave it for checking on the Monday, I would make them redo it, so as not to tarnish my good record.
I have e-mailed the store, but have not heard back, and if the cashier in question did have to pay in, frankly I think it is her own fault...
karmically you want to go back and sort it out, but inside you you want to say hey - she was lippy and annoying and gave you crappy service.
ReplyDeletewhether the shop pays it in or she pays it in, it is a lesson to both in service training and attentiveness.
when i ran my family's restuarant i impressed vigilance and care on my waiters/waitresses constantly because of just this...I can promise you it takes only one or two mistakes that they have to pay in for someone to learn to pay more attention.
if she had a bad day, its not your fault and it shouldn't be taken out on you - that is where professionalism comes into service and is something sorely lacking here in London.
serious kudos to you for making it right though...