Is this complaint unreasonable?

[mickeyfartpants]

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.

She wasn't particularly flustered I would have said. She was more like "just give me the £30, I'll give it straight back." She was more perplexed and sulky that I couldn't give her the £30 extra pounds she needed just so she could give it straight back to me. It was her "all you need to do is give me £30 more" that made me

I did send an email saying we had an odd experience and that I wasn't really happy with the exchange but that I didn't want anyone to get in trouble. I didn't ask for the money back as some are suggesting. What do people expect me to do, not try and help her by telling her the right change (and it WAS right without the discount that we discovered later) after at least 5 minutes of excruciating sum scribbling while her till was hanging open.

Regardless of the discount anyway, all she had to do was take £30 off the change amount. That's not hard. Not if you work at a till all day long. And if per chance you are new and don't know how to work a till, then Selfridges shouldn't put you in that position and are culpable. That is why I emailed.

Great. I bet you feel much better now eh OP? At the thought of someone being hauled over the coals for this heinous crime. Sleep sound at night.

Fucking hell I woud have sent you the pound. Really. I am gobsmacked that you have even remembered this. Let alone been wound up by it. Let alone started a MN thread. Let alone complained about it. I've seen it all now

Oh leave off, the assistant failed here. If she can't work out the simplest of sums, she should get a job where basic maths, money and customers are not a requirement.

Failed?

I assume you are perfect then? Never make a mistake? get a brain freeze under pressure? It was a minimal hold up and a pound - that the OP should have noticed at the till herself if she was so bothered about it

To complain is so so petty and spiteful.

Can you see Sir Elton getting this kind of service and being happy with it. These are the kinds of customers Selfridges attracts. I worked in John Lewis on Oxford Street years ago and you have to be hot on everything in case a customer asks. Its just not the same as going to the local Tesco. You would NEVER ask a customer for more money to rectify a mistake like that.

What? Unless the OP is Elton John I'm not quite sure what that's got to do with the price of fish.

And erm, I have been to Selfridges

And I am positive that the level of training is now very different from "years ago", as will be the churn

Well I hope you feel good about yourself. I'm seriously surprised that someone would actually go to these lengths of making a formal complaint over something so petty.

Christ, what do you when someone makes a serious fuck up - kill them?!

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

The point is that the level of service should be the same for everyone, regardless of the money spent.

No, I don't agree that standards have dropped. Everyone I have been served by in John Lewis since has been faultless. You may have said I am so sorry but I just need to see to my till, do you mind waiting but you would NEVER have said YOU need to give me more money. Selfridges works to the same high standard. Or should at least, and if it doesn't then an email to make them aware is not unreasonable.

I'm a professional complaint handler and there are many reasons to make complaints. It's not always about punishing people, but about highlighting what is not working well so that it can be done better in future. Good organisations really value the opportunity to do this and would appreciate that it's more cost effective to support and train someone adequately than sack them and recruit again.

Exactly, I haven't gone on a personal vendetta against this woman and demanded for her head on a stick. I just think that they should be made aware that their service was patchy that day for whatever reason; their own failure to give training, leaving her alone, putting an inexperienced member of staff on a really busy counter and so on.

Thanks onlydancing it was when she said all I had to do was give her more money like I randomly walk around with £50 cash in my purse! I wish

Glad to hear it's not always about punishing people

Like I say OP this massive issue has clearly niggled away at you for at least three days, I suspect longer. I hope sending the email has made you feel good.

Well obviously people do get sanctioned if the complaint investigation finds evidence that they have done something which counts as misconduct or gross misconduct.

Which isn't the case here.

Let's hope it only ruined her day then

Fucking hell I woud have sent you the pound. Really. I am gobsmacked that you have even remembered this. Let alone been wound up by it. Let alone started a MN thread. Let alone complained about it. I've seen it all now

Plus one. I did think of suggesting we have a whip round.

I think you should complain with an email.

Doesn't anyone think that at the very least, staff need to be told that if they make a mistake, they can't ask for more money!!

Surely that's the issue, not the extra £1 change that the OP should have had?

Some people can only think of the money in this situation, not the service which is OP's issue. OP, you shouldn't feel guilty like some posters are suggesting. This woman's customer service skills need work as well as her ability to do sums.

So everyone should be perfect 100% of the time, no blank moments or mistakes allowed, ever?

God, I'm actually quite glad I'm relaxed about this sort of stuff, people with a rod up their arse who would actually email to complain about something so trivial must be constantly frustrated that other people don't live up to their standards. And it is trivial in my book. One pound odd which you weren't even expecting and a couple of minutes out of your day...is it really that important to you?!. Your heads must explode when something really bad happens!

I prefer to keep my powder dry for when really big upsets happen....like Threads I'm On not fucking working! Now I have The Rage!

"this woman" is actually one of us -

a normal ordinary person doing a job probably for min wage, dealing with a different customer every couple of minutes for 5 hour stretches.

stuff happens...