You're fired, you need to go back to school!
By mommyboo
@mommyboo (13174)
United States
May 19, 2009 9:40pm CST
First, a simple math problem for all of you! What is the answer to this - read carefully! 5 + 1 + 1 = ?
The answer is 7, isn't it? Isn't it? Ok, now let me make it a little more realistic. I was estimating here for effect. I went to buy some chili-dogs from a fast food place. Five chili dogs for five bucks! cool, huh? I had a coupon for an order of chili cheese fries for 99 cents (less than a dollar) and a coupon for a corn dog, which my daughter wanted for 79 cents (again, less than a dollar).
I ordered at the screen and then pulled out 7 dollars and some change, since I estimated my total including tax to be around $7.32. When I got to the window, the cashier girl says '$9.49'. Now I don't know about you, but since when does 5+1+1 = 9.49? Right, it doesn't. I told her - I have coupons, that isn't right, and she looked right at me and said 'I took the coupons off already'. Uhh... okay. I explained (rather nicely I might add) that there is no way my total could be anything close to $9.49 because what I ordered only amounted to $7 without tax. I asked her if I was accidentally charged for something else. She said no... and while she was staring at me I said 'Five dollars plus 99 cents plus 79 cents is about seven dollars.' She looks at me, looks at the receipt, looks at me again and said - do you want me to add it up again? (duh, of course I do). Yes please, I said. She shuts the window and adds it up again and has a COWORKER come over there and look at it lol. Then the coworker opens the window and says 'I'm so sorry, you're right, it's $7.32'.....
This might have been funny, but I do not like being jilted for more than I know I should pay for something. I also am having a hard time swallowing someone who actually got a JOB but cannot just do simple estimate math in their head. Just because the cash register tape for some reason says $9.49 doesn't mean it's right. I mean I went to Taco Bell one time and the guy accidentally keyed in 201 drinks instead of 2 drinks! I knew that my total wasn't really 279 dollars!
Anyway, do you experience this? Have you ever had to argue with someone who ignores common sense and simple math just because their register tape or computer or calcuator says something different?
5 people like this
11 responses
@thyst07 (2079)
• United States
20 May 09
As a cashier, I get the opposite more often. I ring up everything, and then the customer insists that I must have gotten it wrong because the total couldn't possibly be that high. So I go back item by item and show them what they bought, and then how much the tax was. I have gotten a total wrong a couple of times by accidentally scanning an item twice or something, but most of the time people just don't realize how much stuff they picked up or how much they're spending.
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
20 May 09
You know, I've questioned a total before if I happen to watch while things are being rung up and the price I saw on the shelf or a price tag on an item does not match what I see being rung up. That's pretty easy to fix though because a cashier can just look back at what the rung up price was and the price on the item, or check to see if it's actually the price I tell them. I estimate a lot when I shop, or when I order food, either to make sure I have enough cash if I'm using cash or just so I stay within a certain amount. If my total seems much higher than what I come up with, I will question because I don't want to get home later and examine my receipt and find out that I was charged $7.48 for a bag of apples because they were rung up at $2.49/lb under 'exotic fruit' instead of .89/lb fuji apples... I've had that happen before, or gotten some meat home and discovered they did not pull off and scan the coupon for $1 off (which may have been the reason I grabbed that particular package of ground beef, chicken, or shrimp). By the time I've gotten home from the store, it's a little late to gripe about a $1 coupon or a mischarge, so I do try to deal with it before I pay lol.
1 person likes this
@thyst07 (2079)
• United States
20 May 09
I actually have to make quite a few corrections for items that are supposed to be on sale but don't make it into the register system. My store seems to be really bad at keeping things up to date when we have sales. So in that case, I'm glad when customers keep track of how much their items are scanning as.
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
22 May 09
Some places have a policy where if the price rung up is wrong, you get the item free. I actually feel that a policy like that keeps them more on their toes, because i get considerably fewer incidents at stores with that policy. Probably because they don't want to have to give me a family pack of ribeyes that costs $27.53 free lol.
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
20 May 09
I couldn't remember of any incident such as that after the inclusion of calculaters at shops in our town but yes before that I used to calculate the bills before paying money to the shopkeepar. I don't remember how many times I have had asked the owners or cashiers to recheck.
But you case is an exception, may be due to the taxes these days people have more faith on computer rather than their own mind.!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
22 May 09
I just think it's funny because that is a basic math calculation that preschoolers or kindergarteners know! I can do that in my head in a second. I mean does this mean we are allowing people to graduate who cannot do that? Computers, calculators, and the like do not have a brain. They are certainly great tools for us but the operator must have a brain because otherwise all they do is make very fast very large mistakes....
1 person likes this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
23 May 09
Oh, I can remember one incident when I was so busy in my shop that I couldn't subratct 6 from 20. I was doing it like 20-6=16. You know the 6 was there in my mind on that particular day.
It can even happen with intelligent people too(only if you consider me an intelligent one but I am not graduate though, LOL)
@KrazyKlingon (5005)
• United States
22 May 09
In a case like this, she probably entered two more things than was supposed to be entered, & probably missed it. If it was a long line, it's called moving too fast, as in haste makes waste. Or ... OOPSIE!
There was one case where I experienced an error twice. I was working on the annual budget request for my department, & somehow, ended up coming up with around 450 trillion dollars! Tracing the error, I hit "times" instead of "plus" without realizing it when I added the last person's annual earnings. Another time, I got a negative number.
I say one and one and one is three
Oopsie - did I jump-start a song annoyingly playing in your head? 
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
23 May 09
That's what was so funny.... I asked her point blank if she charged me for something extra and she said no! LOL! I think she actually did, either 2 of something or something I did not order. I don't see what else would have made a total like that. Even without the coupons, it wouldn't have been $9.49 lol.
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
21 May 09
so far, it never happened to me... that's why i always make sure that i know how much my total purchases will be before i went to the register... and if the cashier charged me more than what i am suppose to pay, then i will definitely questioned him/her... good on you for pointing it out to her... i believe that the coworker must be really embarrassed after this incident... take care and have a nice day...
1 person likes this
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
21 May 09
Hey mommyboo! I am lmao! Now you can see that they don't place
the bar very high on who they hire for these jobs! And I guess
they don't even give them a simple math test or even test them
on working the register! Now that isn't funny! It is really
pathetic when you think about it! They just punch in keys and
don't ever have to use their little pea brains! Obviously,
the don't ever have to think! They just punch in keys and if
the customer is not paying attention, as you were they will
pay whatever the moron tells them to! I always pay attention
and guesstomate my bill! I would never trust those idiots
behind the registers who I'm quite sure barely made it out
of high school if they did make it out of high school!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
23 May 09
Yeah see, that is the problem. Being so dependent on a calculator or computer and never questioning the answer the calculator or computer gives you leaves you open to a lot of problems. I think this is funny considering that when you test out for a temp agency, you have to take a math test and usually a typing test among other things. At least you should be able to prove you can add and subtract reliably. That's why people who work at places where everything is just scanned OR the items are on the register like 'number 1 value meal' or 'combo #6' because what if the registers went down or the scanning system went down and you had to enter individual prices for things?
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
20 May 09
Yesterday I purchased a cutlass and a package of snow peas. total $606.00 (In our currency not US$)
I paid with a debit card and when I looked at the card is hsowed that she had deducted $6006.00 from the card. when I querstioned her she could not understand her mistake as 'it was done by the computer! Fortunately her supervisor eventually came to the rescue and I was reimbursed. Stupid in and stupid out!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
22 May 09
Good lord.... $606? $6006???! Eeek. Either one doesn't sound good to me, that is a lot of money. An average quick trip to my grocery might cost me $35 or less... if it's a big trip, it's still usually less than $100. I have to buy less and go more often, I buy a lot of fresh stuff so I cannot shop for 2 weeks a time. It not only doesn't last but I don't have enough room to store it either. If I had a bigger fridge maybe!
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
22 May 09
It takes $90 of our currency to buy one US dollar. My salary is not in US dollars either! So expensive to live.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
20 May 09
I work as a cashier and I can relate to the cashier here....sadly and sorry. You, after a while, get into automatic pilot mode and while usually, I can see clearly that I have hit a button wrong or something.....I have had those moments. I have to say also that many times, I have noticed the error before the customer. I don't understand the looking right at the reciept and not quickly seeing the error. It should have popped right out at her, i'd think.
@shubhosarker (99)
• Bangladesh
20 May 09
Calculator is the main culprit I think. We are so much dependent on calculator and other similar machine and the result is we miscalculate the basic calculation every time without machine. Can you imagine I find someone who doesnt know the result of 15*6?
But I think cashiers of all stores stay in very difficult enviornment as they work continuously and thats why they never try to use their head. This is the problem of them. But some people dont have any basic calculating skills.
I find that all the taxi trivers are very good at basic calculation.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
21 May 09
I think that in school people are allowed to use a calculator and it causes people to not really care or not really pay attention in school, because it can all be done by a calculator. There is math I still don't understand, and I don't think I was really given a chance to understand it, but at the same time I know I didn't want to either. I was convinced I'd never be at a job where that happened! People need to pay special attention when at a register, especially if they don't know math that well. It's not that they shouldn't be there, it's just that to avoid embarrassment they need to pay the utmost attention. I've been at a job, and I've done the same mistake as others when it comes to tallying up things.
I just hope that both the customer and the management understand, on all circumstances. People are dumbed down way too much, but it's not always there fault.
You have the right to want your order with the right money, but not allowing someone to work because they're strongest subject isn't math, is not equal opportunity employment.
As it is, I rather like doing stock more then anything!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
22 May 09
Well this is a unique situation. Here I am thinking 'my total is about 7 bucks' which is reasonable to figure easily by adding 5+1+1. I do not in any manner feel that everybody is non deserving of a job because they aren't great at math, but when you look at the level of an addition problem like that and consider that a 5 year old could do that without trouble and not ARGUE WITH YOU that 5+1+1+$9.49.....
That's why I was so shocked. Computers are never wrong? Right, and people are always truthful on the internet lol.
I don't know if that was the FIRST time she had ever done that or the 25th... I worked in fast food before too when I was in high school. If my register came up with a total that looked like it didn't match what they ordered, I would calculate it in my head - and if it was wrong, I'd re-ring it. I wouldn't automatically figure someone bought $42 worth of burgers if they only bought one meal... even if the register SAID that was the total.
@lupin0302 (137)
• Philippines
20 May 09
i too have the same experience in supermarket there was an item i think it was a chocolate drink and it was sold per box. one box is 10 item worth 110 pesos. the cashier cannot find the barcode on the box so she open it and take 1 item but because the item is sold per box therefore the barcode amount for any item in that box is the amount of the whole box but the cashier multiply it 10 items. therefore 110 x 10 items is equal to 1,100 pesos wow a thousand peso for ten items of chocolait drink in the box. so we complain it and end up wasting a half an our for the correction of the said mistake.
@Jhawkins99 (21)
• Philippines
20 May 09
Yes i encounter that kind of situations here almost constantly, for me i just ask for the manager and let them compute the pricing and also counter it with mine after the debate's done and he/she finds it that thier at fault here they either pay me the ammount in question OR they weaver the charges and give it to me free just for the troubles, Personally if this goes on i may have to find a way to eradicate this problem by talking to a senator or something ..
