Sacked for giving £6 discount

[Clarita12345]

Sacked for £6 discount..!!

My friend worked as a sales person in one of the known stores in London.
She gave £6 discount to a customer and she got the sack for it. She was told this was considered as theft.
I advised her to appeal and she is waiting for an appointment.
She is worried that this will stay in her file and prevent her from being employed.
She is so sad & depressed about it.
Please help with any advice you have.
Many thanks.

why did she give the discount? was she authorised to?

If she wasn't authorised to give discounts its a fireable offence.

But what file are you talking about?

The amount of discount doesn't matter if she is not authorised to give discounts

If she wasn't authorised to give a discount then there really isn't a lot she can do to defend herself.

Is it the sort of store that generally allows haggling?

What was the original amount? £6 might be a very hefty percentage of the cost, reducing profit. If she's not authorised to give discount or broke discount rules it may be a breach of employment conditions. Who did she give the discount to & why? We need more info.

Has your friend actually been dismissed OP? And if so, was it for Gross Misconduct?

There's no 'file' that gets passed from employer to employer. The most would be an unfavourable / neutral reference.

Difficult to advise without more details.

Why did she give the discount?

How long has she worked there? If under 2 years she has v few employment rights anyway.

I don't think any more info is needed. If the discount was authorised there wouldn't be an issue. Giving unauthorised discounts is a sackable offence with most retail employers.

It may well be mentioned in any future reference so in that way, yes, it will remain on her record. The best course of action would be to get another job quickly and build up some history with another employer. Not all companies check references.

OP, on what basis do you think she can appeal?

She should appeal on the basis that she simply made an error and that she is of a good character.
Also, should she mention if she gets an Interview that she was dismissed for that reason or should she not mention it at all...! Thank you

You did say in the OP that she gave a discount, not made a mistake.

I don't think lying is going to help her now, and is a really unsafe basis for an appeal (especially as people seem to know what she did, and that includes the employer). Yes, it was a huge mistake for her personally that she chose to give an unauthorised discount, but it was something she chose to do.

Previous good character won't come in to it.

OllyBJolly's advice about her future is sound.

When I worked in retails, some staff were authorised to give a 10% discount on damaged items without consulting a manager if the item wasn't being sold to a member of staff or one of their family members

A new member of staff had seen this happening and did the same but hadn't been authorised to do so

In her case it was a mistake, it was defendable and no action was taken other than ensuring all new staff were made aware that they couldn't give discount

If your friend is in the same situation then it's defendable, if not then there isn't much she can do

I think we do need more information in order to give advice.

Why did the friend think she could give a discount?

If she knew she shouldn't; why did she do it?

Who did she give the discount to; a random customer or someone she knows?

Is giving unauthorised discount specified as gross misconduct in the company rules?

What is her disciplinary and performance record like with her employer?

Firstly, I am looking for intent. Did she intend to deprive her employer of money, i.e.; did she steal or did she make an error of judgement or did she not understand the rules?

Secondly, I'm looking to judge whether the employer's response is reasonable in the circumstances or would action short of dismissal (demotion, final warning) be appropriate given all the facts?

Things aren't always as clear as they seem on first look.

The only way another employer will find out is if someone (eg; the friend, someone who knows her or the reference) tells them.

If she wasn't authorised to give a discount, ie for a damaged article or to close a large sale, or did so because it was a friend then yes she should face dismissal. It may not be a large sum in the scheme of things but will lay her open to suspicion of having done similar before or would do so again. It may have been an error of judgement but doesn't sound like a genuine mistake.

More details to my friend's story:
My appeal is based on the:
The facts are, I approached our clients to explore with them how I can help fulfil their shopping experience for the day, I took them through the product mix at the Candle division and there was an indication that they might buy some of the products which I estimated at slightly over £300 plus
The Daughter then indicated she would also like to buy a candle and the Mother insisted she would have to pay with her pocket money, the product cost £3, to induce a sale I make an offer that i would let her have two for £1.50 if they buy other products from me.
They indicated that they would like to have something to eat and they will buy from the store,when they came back I was serving another client, this took longer than I expected this is why the did not accept my colleague's offer to serve them.
By the time that I was able to serve them, they indicated that time was now against them and they would come back another day but now wondered if their Daughter could still buy the candles at the offer that I had made as she was pestering them.

As simple as this is , it created a marketing paradox, if I declined then my earlier offer would be like a “pressure sale” which is not The store's way, so I allowed the sale to go through hopping that by the time I am leaving I would bring this to my manager's attention and mitigate that with the days sales effected by me.

However my colleague had gone to the till to print out the receipt and was insinuating that I had deliberately mis sold and that they are my friends as they declined for him to serve them.

The next day, my colleague in question told my floor manager about what has happened the day before... I then explained myself to my floor manager who then said that an allegation has been made... Company procedure means it has to be investigated and I was suspended pending further enquires.

Despite explaining that I owned up to my spur of the moment and did not seek prior approval. the discount was an emotional response and I hoped to benefit from the satisfaction of the £300 plus sale plus other sales that I had made on the same day, the process scrambled my thinking.

Did you have authority to offer the original discount? i.e. the 2 for £1.50 if they bought the other items? Are you a target sales seller who has to manage margins per transaction?

YOU offered an inducement to buy conditional to a larger sale, therefore your introduced the pressure sale element. If you are authorized to do that, then you have more of a discussion, though you should have been clear that it was time bound. If you are not then you have behaved massively inappropriately. Scrambled your thinking or not, if you know that you have to get approval but offered and applied a discount without it then you are in the wrong.

Your should have said no to the sales add they had no intention of spending £300 and were trying it on. Poor judgment and decision making which has coat the store money. Sacking rather than a warning is harsh, unless there have been other issues previously.

I don't think you (or your friend) have a leg to stand on. Even if you have authority to offer discounts to induce a sale, you actually ended up selling the discounted item without concluding the sale. Regardless of the daughter's disappointment, you should have refused to sell the candles for £1.50 (each or together, not clear, but either way a massive discount). You did not own up to the error. Despite knowing that your colleague suspected you, it was your colleague who informed the manager the next day and only then did you explain yourself. I presume you haven't seen the original customers since then either!

Although you may have acted with the best of intentions, your actions were misguided at best and certainly not in the best interests of the company.

Should have refused to sell them on their own. Should have been clear that it was part of a "bigger deal".

I think the floor manager over reacted personally, sounds like your friend got taken advantage of and a bit harsh for a first offence. I do think advice to get another job as fast as possible is spot on.

If they've been there over 2 years I would consider appealing if it was a first offence, because sacking seems a little harsh if they've a good record up to now. Dismissals have been overturned at appeal / employment tribunal if it is felt that the employer had more appropriate sanctions available to them, I.e. written warning, additional supervision...

Did you have a disciplinary hearing before you were fired?