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Original poster

Is this complaint unreasonable?

120 replies

mickeyfartpants · 13/01/2015 08:33

I went in to a large (old & prestigious) Oxford Street store and bought a gift for my son.

It was £12.99 and I gave the cashier £20. She asked me for £30 more. I was confused as I thought she might be asking for the penny or something so I said sorry, what? She answered that she had entered £50 on the till instead of £20, so all I needed to do was to give her £30 more, and she would give it straight back. All I had on me was the £20 I had given her.

I asked why she couldn't just take £30 off the change amount and she frantically started doing some sums on a pad next to the till. There was a queue mounting so I asked DP, please just give her the money and end this awkwardness

He only had two twenties. So he said again, its ok, just take £30 off what the till shows is the change. More frantic sum writing and she was starting to look very confused. I said to her, look, the change is £7.01 if you need to know. She gave us £7.01 and that was that.

Later on, we looked at our receipt and the gift should have had a 10% reduction. So we were effectively short changed. The receipt shows £38.31 as our change so she had to give us £8.31 back.

Anyway, should I email them about this? It was excruciating to watch her struggle to do basic maths while customers waited. I understand the human error of pressing the £50 by mistake, but I wouldn't have even had to know about that if she'd been able to work out the change and not ask me for £30 more!

I know its only by just over a quid but the whole thing was just like it was a monty python sketch.

OP posts:
PhaedraIsMyName · 14/01/2015 00:49

I really can't believe you would bother to follow up the difference between £7.01 and £8.38.

PhaedraIsMyName · 14/01/2015 00:55

The worst job I ever did was in a bookies one summer. They were ridiculously strict about it. It didn't affect me as my job was to mark up the starting prices, results etc on a board and I didn't handle cash. Other people had to stay behind until they got it to balance.

Possibly being a bookies there was less leeway.

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 14/01/2015 08:08

when I was a shop girl - quite recently, the total that showed to the customer on the till-top display did not include the discounts until you pressed a final button anyhow, so lots of people were surprised when we gave a different amount of change to what they were expecting.

Some were quite rude on seeing the display... "oh, that was marked as £x" would be a nice comment, "FFS can't you lot read what you put on the shelf" was a usual one... then we would press the button and ask for the right amount. Some apologised - most did not. Hence I am NoLonger....

Oh, and if the op offered to pay a different higher amount - "The change is £7.01 if you need to know", then she offered that amount for the goods - and the cashier accepted it - then there is nothing to question - the op paid more than she should have, but she offered to do so.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 14/01/2015 10:45

I just think "complaints" should be for serious, important matters, or negative matters which are done deliberately. If you complain formally, the chances are this worker will be hauled over the coals, possibly given a warning etc. Would you really want to do this and jeopardise her job over something which is really quite trivial?

I know you'll say it's the "principle" but what do you actually want to achieve? Disciplinary action against her? Your money back? Is your time that you would spend writing the email worth a pound something? If you needed that money that badly you would have gone back ASAP when you realised and were still out. I'm sure she doesn't do it to everyone, I'm sure it wasn't malicious just a mistake. Which we all make.

Rather than "it's the principle" can't you just be grateful you're not on your feet working a cash register for probably minimum wage? And of course if you do do this, can't you empathise a tiny bit?

PhaedraIsMyName · 14/01/2015 19:52

"The change is £7.01 if you need to know", then she offered that amount for the goods - and the cashier accepted it - then there is nothing to question - the op paid more than she should have, but she offered to do so

That is correct.

grocklebox · 14/01/2015 20:08

She didn'tknow it was meant to be discounted, and you're rather missing the point that she had to tell the woman what the change was as she was completely incapable of working it out for herself.

PhaedraIsMyName · 14/01/2015 20:18

It's not relevant whether OP knew if it was discounted. She offered to buy it for £12.99 by telling the assistant she wanted £7.01 back.

Shops don't offer to sell , customers offer to buy.

grocklebox · 14/01/2015 20:45

Bull hockey, and you know it. You pay what the label on the shelf says, you don't haggle for every item in your tesco shop. Hmm
Worst excuse ever.

usualsuspect333 · 14/01/2015 20:51

I wouldn't complain. She was a bit flustered, happens to us all.

itiswhatitiswhatitis · 14/01/2015 20:58

if it makes you feel better OP the girl at the travel agent used a calculator to take my £1000 deposit off the balance of the holiday. It did make me smile but she was a really lovely girl. Some people just have a mental block with maths I think, especially when it comes to dealing with other people's money!

BringYourOwnSnowman · 14/01/2015 21:02

what would she have done if you had wanted to pay by credit card?

usualsuspect333 · 14/01/2015 21:02

Not all cashiers can cancel transactions on a till. I would have just cancelled it and started again. Sounds like she wasn't authorised to void on the till.

IF everyone complained everytime I had a blank moment on my till my bosses inbox would be full,and I've worked on a till for over 15 years,

PhaedraIsMyName · 14/01/2015 21:52

You pay what the label on the shelf says, you don't haggle for every item in your tesco shop

You don't but doesn't change the law on this and there is nothing to stop you trying it. Depends on the shop. The shop has the last of this year's must have toy on Christmas Eve and 2 people want it? Or it's late on Christmas Eve and it's been a bad week at the florists ? No reason at all why you can't offer more in one case and less in the other.

tedturtle · 14/01/2015 22:45

She made a mistake. Maybe she'd been standing up with no break for hours. Perhaps her supervisors aren't approachable & she panicked. Are you perfect? Be kind.

Nosyman94 · 15/01/2015 01:52

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 15/01/2015 07:32

they are learning MATHS in the twelve years of MATHS lessons...

not Arithmetic...

She had a blank moment - Arithmetic is not taught past primary school in "this country".

UmizoomiThis · 15/01/2015 07:43

I'd absolutely complain - it's not her fluster or her additions - it's that she asked a customer to give her £30 additional quid!!!

That is not acceptable, full stop,

grocklebox · 15/01/2015 11:09

They arent learning much maths in those twelve years if they can't minus 30 from 37.

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 15/01/2015 11:11

she didn't have to minus 30 from 37 though - she had to work out what the ACTUAL change was (with the discount) WHILST the op was telling her the wrong answer.

grocklebox · 15/01/2015 11:26

Thats not much better, she couldn't minus 1.29 from 12.99?

But actually none of that is true (and OP wasn't telling her the wrong amount until after she had several attempts with a pen and paper to do the simple sum), she put it through the till and put in that op gave her 50 instead of 20. So she would have had a correct change amount given as long as she minused 30 from that amount.

So in fact she only had to look at the till amount (38.30) and cross out/minus the 30. So yes, my point still stands.

diddl · 15/01/2015 12:01

Well as the OP originally said, all she had to do was deduct £30 from the change shown.

Asking for more money perhaps showed how flustered she was.

When she was offered the first solution though, that didn't seem to register with her though, so OP offered another solution, which resulted in her being given too little change.

OP shouldn't have had to offer solutions.

i assume that there was no one who the girl could call for help?

pictish · 15/01/2015 12:42

Is this still going?

diddl · 15/01/2015 12:45

No, you're imagining it!

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 15/01/2015 13:56

Come on OP, put us all out of our misery - did you, in fact, email to complain or not?

wol1968 · 15/01/2015 14:01

I'm a bit Confused by the handing over of money to be given straight back. I work on tills and it's a real pain when this happens - you can't always alter what you've entered on the till, sometimes you get fat/twitchy finger or a key doesn't respond to your touch, it happens under pressure. But all you really need to do is to give them back their correct change (mental arithmetic is harder under pressure and on display) and the tills will end up with the right amount of cash in them. Sometimes I've made a joke about it to the customer, saying, 'Sorry, the numbers on that receipt are a pile of rubbish, you gave me £20 and I've given you £13.01 in change. The till won't care.'