# What Would You Do?



## Morpheus (Nov 12, 2008)

Went to one of the local boxstores down here to pick up two pieces of driftwood. Found two pieces I liked. One was $9 and the other was $27. Brought them up to the cashier, and while standing in line noticed that the $27 dollar piece did not have a price tag on it. She rang up the $9 dollar piece, and when she couldn't find a price on the other piece rang up $9 dollar piece again, potentally saving me $18 dollars.

So do you say nothing and get out of there as fast as you can? Or do you point out the mistake?


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

Morpheus said:


> ...So do you say nothing...Or do you point out the mistake?


 IMO, it depends on your desire to retell your stories of experience. on one hand...saving money this way, offers the opportunity to tell the story, to only a few types of people who could appreciate it. the story offers the risk of being judged in a negative way by some folk. similar to keeping a lost wallet. on the other hand, stories of exemplary honesty can be tough to ever misinterpret, or forget. they will be fun to retell for years, maybe even for generations, to anyone. 
once, i had the pleasure of correcting an invoice error in the company of my son. the error would have left me with $1000.00 extra in my pocket. the cashier had accidentally deducted my previous cash deposit, again from the remaining subtotal, and handed me the invoice 'paid in full'. 
that story is over eight years old. not only do both myself, and my son, relish the opportunity to tell the story, but the cashier still smiles and waves whenever he sees either of us.


----------



## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

Wow! It is interesting to note in your story how careless the store employee was. I deem this the age of customer no-service owing to the fact that "service" has become a novelty today. Based on the experience you had, it would seem that the no service trend proves to be a disservice to customer and employer, alike. Note to the box-stores: Perhaps availablility and minimum wage are not the best guages for profitablility? In asnwer to your question, I would have pointed out the mistake. Just an honest answer.


----------



## rjf (Oct 23, 2008)

I guess I'm wondering if the $27 piece of driftwood was three times as bitchin' as the $9 piece of wood. If it didn't have a tag, how do you know it was a $27 piece? If it was obviously 3 times larger I would have told the cashier the true price. If I felt the two pieces of wood were equal I probably would have let her ring them both up at $9.

If you're wondering what to do, apply the golden rule.


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

As much as I'd love to stick it to the corperate stores, I know karma would come back to bit me in the bum ... times three.


----------



## Skimboarder_07 (Mar 3, 2005)

I'm not gonna lie I would have paid for it then sat there for a moment and relished in the moment I mean look at it this way BIg stores have a tendency to overcharge on everything so even though they lost a lil money on this sale they probably screwed someone else out of the same amount later in the day. I say well done


----------



## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

I try hard to be ethical in all ways, and this is a grey area topic for sure... but, here's how I look at it. The price tag is the asking price... the price the cashier rings up and shows you is the final price that both buyer and seller must agree to. As a cashier, she IS the seller because she acts as the rep for the store. She's authorized to "sell" to you. If you had the opposite experience... a $9 bit ringing up as $27, you'd simply tell her to take it off the bill and put it back on the shelf. So the final transaction is AT the register... Reverse is that the price was acceptable or better than acceptable and now money changes hands.

I don't see that you have a responsibility to point out that what a store is offering may be worth more than what rings up at the register.

I do draw a distinction though to you "offering" less than you know something is worth. That seems different than seeing an asking price for less.

Perhaps I'm finding an excuse for myself... but perhaps not.

Hard to say...


----------



## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

The bottom line is the store takes the loss because it is the store's mistake.

You didn't ask her to do anything for you. She scanned the items and you agreed to pay, that is a perfectly good transaction.

If there is an issue here it lies within the store and the employee.

1.) There was no price tag.(store at fault)
2.) The employee was irresponsible.( both store and employee at fault)

The only thing you should be regretful about is not bringing up a few more pieces without price tags.


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

errors should not imply 'for the taking'. shop where you are treated well, and treat well the places where you shop.


----------



## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fault
http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/fault


----------



## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

I'm not saying this to be harsh, but I have a problem with the "store is at fault so no harm" theory. Frankly stated, what happened here is an irresponsible and ignorant employee was taken advantage of. Here is a principle example: When I was sixteen, I was eating out with my nine year old sister. A man approached us at our table and told us that he and his family was stranded and needed money for gas. He told us that if we would loan him money for gas, he would get his family home and return to pay us back in a half an hour. When I told the man that I had no more money (which I didn't), my sister quickly pulled out a twenty. Before I could even think about what had just happened the man had grabbed the cash and was out the door. Of course, he never came back. Now, many of you may be saying that this is in no way related to the driftwood incident in question. True, the man in my story used overt deceipt to accomplish a criminal design. However, the heart of the issue is the same. In both cases, someone took advantage of the ignorance of another to profit. In that regard, these two incidents are exactly the same. A very wise man once said that a lie is any communication sent forth with the intent to deceive. In this case, the lie was the failure to suspend the store employee's ignorance. Incidentally, as an older brother who should have been able to protect my sister from her own ignorance, I paid my sister back the twenty dollars she lost.


----------



## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

The accountability rests on the cashier and the store itself.

The cashier was obviously either not trained in how to handle the situation or used poor judgement or both.

I couldn't pass judgement on the customer only because from a business standpoint he did nothing wrong.

From an ethical standpoint I understand the difficulty of what to do.

I made the joke about buying more at the wrong price but had she manually entered $50 instead of $9 or even $27, I am sure we would all speak up in a heartbeat.


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

smellsfishy1 said:


> ...had she manually entered $50 instead of $9 or even $27, I am sure we would all speak up in a heartbeat.


 i've seen customers dive like soccer players when over charged. it's not a class act. :lol:


----------



## The Warden (Jan 13, 2009)

I havent read all of the replies to this thread and said nothing.

My reasons...

This is not stealing, you have paid what the cashier asked, end of story! If the cashier is wrong then this is the stores problem, not yours nor mine.

On saturday i was too purchasing bogwood, it was Â£6 per KG. This piece weighed approx 5kg. The young lad weighed it on the scales, and entered the price as '0.60 per kg', the scales then showed Â£3.00.

The lad had entered 60p per kg instead of Â£6.00 per kg.

I left the shop with a smile, i had just saved Â£27.00!

At the end of the day, the wood isnt priced, i asked the lad to weigh it for me and give me a price, he gave me a price, i paid it. The fact that he told me the wrong price is his problem!

Cheers

Gaz


----------



## The Warden (Jan 13, 2009)

I havent read all of the replies to this thread and said nothing.

My reasons...

This is not stealing, you have paid what the cashier asked, end of story! If the cashier is wrong then this is the stores problem, not yours nor mine.

On saturday i was too purchasing bogwood, it was Â£6 per KG. This piece weighed approx 5kg. The young lad weighed it on the scales, and entered the price as '0.60 per kg', the scales then showed Â£3.00.

The lad had entered 60p per kg instead of Â£6.00 per kg.

I left the shop with a smile, i had just saved Â£27.00!

At the end of the day, the wood isnt priced, i asked the lad to weigh it for me and give me a price, he gave me a price, i paid it. The fact that he told me the wrong price is his problem!

Cheers

Gaz


----------



## The Warden (Jan 13, 2009)

I havent read all of the replies to this thread and said nothing.

My reasons...

This is not stealing, you have paid what the cashier asked, end of story! If the cashier is wrong then this is the stores problem, not yours nor mine.

On saturday i was too purchasing bogwood, it was Â£6 per KG. This piece weighed approx 5kg. The young lad weighed it on the scales, and entered the price as '0.60 per kg', the scales then showed Â£3.00.

The lad had entered 60p per kg instead of Â£6.00 per kg.

I left the shop with a smile, i had just saved Â£27.00!

At the end of the day, the wood isnt priced, i asked the lad to weigh it for me and give me a price, he gave me a price, i paid it. The fact that he told me the wrong price is his problem!

Cheers

Gaz


----------



## The Warden (Jan 13, 2009)

I havent read all of the replies to this thread and said nothing.

My reasons...

This is not stealing, you have paid what the cashier asked, end of story! If the cashier is wrong then this is the stores problem, not yours nor mine.

On saturday i was too purchasing bogwood, it was Â£6 per KG. This piece weighed approx 5kg. The young lad weighed it on the scales, and entered the price as '0.60 per kg', the scales then showed Â£3.00.

The lad had entered 60p per kg instead of Â£6.00 per kg.

I left the shop with a smile, i had just saved Â£27.00!

At the end of the day, the wood isnt priced, i asked the lad to weigh it for me and give me a price, he gave me a price, i paid it. The fact that he told me the wrong price is his problem!

Cheers

Gaz


----------

