Check Out Experiences To Remember

The Mighty Bargain Hunter has a post today Any Jaw Dropping Checkout Experiences. Don't we all? If you shop, you have them. Here are some of mine.

1. Sam's Club - I shop here monthly for business #1 supplies. Part of my purchase is always tax-exempt (I am a reseller). Although not the whole purchase we do buy cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous store supplies there. Anyway, I know in advance that the cashiers are not always on the ball, so I separate my non-tax items from my tax items -always. My goal is always to put the exempt items on the conveyor and leave the big taxable items on the cart. So, before I hand them my card (membership) I try to look them in the eye and say "What's on the cart is taxable, what is on the belt is not". 2-months ago, I did just that and wheeled the cart for his easy scanning. What does he do - he hits the tax-exempt button and starts ringing up the cart items. I always watch the screen, so I stopped him as fast as I could. He says "oh" and starts deleting the items. Then he hits the tax-exempt button again and starts ringing up the conveyor (this time the tax-exempt button is off - 2 hits). I stop him again. He deletes all the stuff again. Then he finally starts on the cart again (why the back and forth - I don't know, seems obvious to do the big stuff first then stack the little stuff on). He is doing fine with everything on the cart, but skips the beer (for home - multitasking), sadly we need to pay tax on the beer. I tell him he missed it and he says "ok". He hits the tax exempt button and starts ringing up the belt and you guessed it, the beer. He can't get the beer off when I tell him, his error. We wait for the manager. The manager deletes the whole ring up and begins again. 20 minutes in the check out - with no line.
2. Sam's Club - Last month, I return to buy stock. I am coming up to the checkouts with only 3 things, no cart, I carried the items. 2 boxes of trash liners and Big Red Gum. All the lines are full. A supervisor behind the registers, as always, sees me and says "I'll ring you up on my closed register, so you don't have to wait - you only have a few items". I'm thinking - Score Big! I tell her the bags are regular tax, the gum tax exempt. I don't watch her ring it up - after all it is only 3 items. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She rang up everything and I go to sign the machine, press ok and stand there waiting (if you ever did tax exempt you must verify your purchases with a 2nd signature). The request never appears, she hands me my receipt and cards and asks if she can help me. Of course, I look confused. I tell her, her error and she deletes the sale. She begins to ring up the items again. Ok, my error again - I didn't watch. This time went all the way through and everything is tax exempt. ARGH!!! Got it finally correct, but by this time all the other lines were empty. She was a head cheese. Terrible. This isn't rocket science.
3. Arby's - Bar-none my worse experience. It was a few years ago, I worked in an office building at the time and I went to pick up lunch from Arby's for everyone. This particular Arby's is very busy and they have a lane away from the window for a second drive thru (like a bank) - this is where I was. By the time my vehicle made it to the shoot, I had calculated my order and realized there must be a mistake, so I send my money over and talk thru the crazy speaker. "I believe something is wrong with my order. I don't think it should be that much money". Young guy "oh, yeah I must have hit the wrong number". He sends me back the change with no alteration for the miscalculation. I push the speaker button and tell him he did not change my order, I got the first calculations change back. He says "oh, yeah" and sends me out some money. Then my food comes out. I push the button, he says "what" getting a little testy now. I tell him I need a receipt. He prints me out a receipt and sends it over. Wow, was I getting screwed. He must have been pocketing the difference. I was ticked. I left and went back to work. I called Arby's corporate office and complained - after all he was robbing me in front of my face. Arby's did send me free meal tickets, but I have never went back to that Arby's.
4. LaSalle Bank - Ok, not a check out, but another scammer. My grandmother left money to me and my son (separate CD's) at this bank. I went to withdraw this money and bring it to a bank closer to home. The "banker lady" (using term loosely), dawdled her way around the bank while we sat in her cubicle. She comes back and tells me that she can give me my CD, but I would need Guardianship papers for my son's money. I said "Guardianship....I'm his mother, see the birth certificate." She leaves, I call my attorney. My attorney says, that is impossible. Guardianship is for people who are not mother and child and it costs money to create and you must renew it with a judge each year. Then she said something I will never forget....Get Loud. Meaning they were scamming me I needed to make a fuss. I tried but I am not one to rock a boat publicly. So, I told the woman she was wrong. She barely even answered me, if you count the shrug. She gave me my money and refused to give me my sons. I was ticked, but after about a week, I realized this bank is huge. They have branches everywhere in the city and suburbs. I located one in a closer suburb and went in with all the same documents and was out in 15 minutes with the money. The banker that handled the withdraw had no idea why the lady at the other branch did what she did. She even said my documents were perfect. Again, I wrote to the head cheese of LaSalle Bank at the downtown corporate offices and I received a polite little letter that apologized for the inconvenience. A $25 gift card for Marshall Fields was included. The part that I appreciated most was a line in the letter that said "the employee that was involved has been reprimanded and will undergo further training". After all this all I really wanted, the gift was nothing. I just wish I knew why she did it. My brother believes it was close to a special closing date for that bank and our family had made some healthy withdraws and they were trying to keep deposits up. So this basically delayed the withdraw for that purpose.

Those are my nightmares. I hope everyone shares with the Mighty Bargain Hunter! Hope these also help you if you are in a similar situation.