have i forgotten how it used to be
 

and maybe ive become intolerant?

so here's the deal. i get a gift certificate for an online retailer that supports one of my many hobbies. i pick and choose all careful like to exhaust my 100 windfall of a gift to cover product and shipping. so i call 1st thing Tuesday morning so i can place my order to get the widgets shipped in time that i might be able to use them toward the end of my week of vacation. alls well, in fact i am told that there remains a $14 credit on my certificate and that the stuff will ship that day. skeptical of hired help i ask at least two more times if the shipping is included and i was assured of such.

so just about the time the sale was to close i am told that even though this is a gift certificate purchase i will need to provide a credit card number. this pisses me off but i relent and give up the didgets after realizing i wanted the widgets more than credit card & identity security.

i arrive back home Wednesday night expecting to collect the widgets early Thursday and decide to check the package tracking for the 1st time. it seems there is a problem with my order and i must contact retailer's customer service. after doing so Thursday AM i find that sales person did NOT include the shipping cost of the widgets in the $86 dollar total and the $100 gift total was exceeded. it was $100.07 and the additional cost would need to be applied to the credit card to complete the sale. well since a credit card will not accept a 7 cent charge the card is denied and my widgets sit marooned and out of my reach.

has this computerized world led to a more complete civilization or has the information highway put us in piles of inactivity over 7 cents that no one will ever notice until we call to straiten out?

have i lost my mind and am i sweating the small stuff? i know this would piss zeke off to no end.

T$

I'd tend to write off the hundred, tell 'em to keep their gift certificates and widgets...of course, they'll know they've lost a customer.

Too many tailers forget the old adage that part of something is better than all of nothing.

Their loss.

It is stupid to lose a sale of $100 for seven cents.

Personally I hate "gift cards"

It's a gift card from the retailor. They don't want you to use it. They prefer that you forgot about it and that it expires so they get to keep the $100 and not ship goods.

Better profit margin that way.

Next time you're making a small purchase, say for $1.49, hand the teenage clerk 4 pennies AFTER the sale has been rung up.
Watching their brows furrow is a hoot!

Add my name to those who dislike gift cards...for the reasons posted above.

Just steal the wheels off of another shopping cart...problem solved.

you need more cougar time

"They don't want you to use it. "

All retailers factor in a certain percentage of attrition which goes directly to the bottom line. They ALREADY have the $100. They want tomake it difficult to collect. Same as mail in rebates.

I bought a bottle of Scotch at a liquor store last night, it came to $40.04... I handed him two twenties and started digging in my pocket, he smiled and said forget about it.

You know that wouldn't have happened at the supermarket.

That clinches it. My new Years resolution is to do all my shopping at the Liquor Store. Do they do "double coupons'?

I had a lady at the tax office when I had everything to pay the exact amount but one penny, pull one out of the cahs drawer, set it down on the stack of money, then said thank you very much and printed out my receipt. :D

No, you haven't. Had they really been interested in doign business with you they'd have made an effort to contact you about the issue.

Buy something then return it. Though they'll probably charge you a "re-stocking fee"

Whatever. Gift cards have become both a blessing and a curse.

Re: have i forgotten how it used to be
 

Enough to call game over. And since you chose not to identify the "retailer," it's painfully obvious.

i was on the new york thruway a couple of months ago at about 2 am. pulled into one of the gas and food stops on the road, got a cup of coffee, price was 93 cents, hand over a dollar bill. the cashier hits the total button on the register and tells me;" that comes to $1.01." i fork over another dollar and she takes a full 20 seconds to count out my 99 cents change. seems to me the amount of time for her to count my change cost more than the one extra penny.
conversely, i was in the post office recently and was 6 cents short for a few stamps and the postmaster reached into a drawer and pulled out the extra pennies that i was short and told me to forget about it. of all places to be treated nicely, the post office.
i was very pleased with my government that day.
well , sort of .

During my stint as a retailer, I'd tell people to forget a lot of small change. I'd take about a $5-6 hit a day but customers became very loyal and often paid me back!

Sounds like the retailer needs to review his orders better and make a policy to ensure things like this don't happen.

Re: Re: have i forgotten how it used to be
 

Not to most, I think.

heading up the hill to see the cougar tonite as matter O fact. hope to show her the widgets that arrived late yesterday!