To think common sense is dead?

[TheRightHonerable]

Today I nipped into M&S to take advantage of a 3 for 2 offer. I only shop there for special treats.

Bought 3 items at £8 each and 3 items at £1 each. So going through the tills I kept the 3 £1 items separate and asked the cashier to pop them through as a separate transaction.

The cashier, a supervisor, questioned why and I explained I’d rather save £9 than £2. I assumed it would be no issue but she wouldn’t drop it and started arguing with me that it made no difference and the till will automatically deduct the cheapest two items.

‘Yes but that will be two £1 items rather than one £8 and one £1’ I said, but she wouldn’t let it drop and refused to do the second transaction. In the end I had to go to the self service. At first I thought she was judging me for being a cheapskate but no she was adamant that she was right and I was wrong.

It just baffles me, surely this is common sense? Surely it’s basic maths? Surely you expect a cashier to understand the offers on or at the very least not get defensive and rude when disagreed with.

@Velveteenfruitbowl another degree-level former cashier and till supervisor here. Plenty of my staff members were studying for degrees. The ones that didn't have degrees could all spell properly. Don't write us off. If you persist in doing so, at least PROOF READ.

Also whilst OP took the overkill approach in this instance, not all tills would automatically do 8 + 8 + 8 (-8) then 1 + 1 +1 (-1) if done as one txn. I'd scanned all 6 items together into quite a few of my tills, as long as they were under the same blanket "offer" they would have removed two of the £1 items for max profit. It would have been up to the cashiers to put them through as OP wanted.

user yep, I've worked in places where we cannot do it exactly for that reason. Plus sometimes we dont actually have that note in the till, can happen!

www.notalwaysright.com

It's unusual to have 8 quid and 1 quid items in the same promotion though

Perhaps the machine would automatically save the higher amount for you rather than the lower amount and the cashier was just desperately bad at explaining this?

Can't recall where it was but this did happen somewhere.