Why Won’t You Take My Money?

Have you ever gone to a place of business when you have a gift card, but it’s not for the dollar amount you need so you want to pay with the gift card and cash or another credit card?  Let me just clarify, whenever anyone gives me any type of gift, I am always thrilled. We all should be.

I was faced with this situation the other day.  I realized the transaction was going to be annoying to the checker-outer person (and unintentionally the people behind me) but I was going to give it a try.

I said, “Okay, please put $25 on this one and $25 on this one and the remainder on this one. BUT you can’t go over $25 on the first two cards because I’ll get a fee.”  She looked at me like a deer in headlights. Uh oh. I explained once again. See above quote but say it a little slower.

The reality is that it’s hard to buy something for JUST that dollar amount so they have to be able to key that dollar amount in.

She wouldn’t budge.  I KNOW restaurants will accept payment on more than one card. They just want to be paid! Is this just a function that restaurants have mastered because they expect people to split the bill?? It was frustrating because THAT is what I wanted to spend the gift cards on. I know it’s not the gift cards fault OR the generous gifter’s because, again, I am very appreciative. Once again, I digress.

Keep in mind, I was already frustrated with myself  because I missed a $10 birthday present coupon for that business that expired a day earlier because I didn’t see it because it was in my junk mail account.  But junk mail is a whole other blog post. I was able to find 10 percent off. Yay!

Regardless,  I took my bag of treasures and left. I know other people, like the fictitious Lauren David, may have chosen to leave without the items and not give them the business – based on principle.  I know I also could have asked her to back out the purchases and have a manager assess the situation, but why should I have to do that?

I just had a conversation with a friend about this scenario the other day. It’s the frustration of the checker-outer not being able to split the payment on more than one card. 

If it’s a system issue, fine. I will accept that answer but then why are other businesses able to do it?  Was it just that this particular checker-outer didn’t know how to process the transaction like that? 

Let’s think about it. How many gift cards have you had that have small balances on them (and probably don’t get used) because of a situation like this?  Will you please put $.87 on this card and I’ll pay the rest in cash?!

The next morning, I realized that one of my coveted picture frames had a faulty opening so every picture I tried to put in there didn’t fit.  I took it back. Who should be there, waiting to be baffled by yours truly?

“I would like to exchange this frame….”

She proceeds to process a refund.  I shook my head.  Okay, really, I KNOW you can exchange this frame.  You take the zapper thing and track the inventory number of the old item and then replace with the new item, right?!!  Did she just not want me to get 10% off the replacement frame -which was the same price? This time, I chose NOT to give them my business because why would I?

Were these both cases of an under trained checker-outer who wasn’t empowered to give quality customer service or are my expectations too high?  For those who know me, I was being nice!

At any rate, I have $8.01 left on one of those gift cards, I can’t wait to figure out how to spend it!  How do you spend your gift cards? I see a lunch in my future…or wait, can I get a drink?!!