This Darn Consience...

I was raised to be honest.  I was raised to be nice.  I was raised to think of others before myself.  I was raised well, and I think I turned out great...Which means my parents did an outstanding job:-)

Now, as an adult, my conscience is still very strong.  Let me explain with a story that happened yesterday...

I was done work fairly early, but decided to stay and work through some of the required reading I need to complete for training and my 6 months.  Lots of reading on this job.  After work, I decided that instead of going to church for the 30 minutes that remained, I would check out some stores and hopefully find an XBOX Kinect. 

We had spent some time with Petes brother over the holidays and got to play a little bit of Kinect there, and I played with one of our clients on Sunday...she says it is nicer to play it with someone else.  I was sold.  We definitely HAD to get one...not really, but you know what I mean;-)

So, I stopped at one store on the way home and their price was OUTRAGEOUS!!  $299 for the XBOX 360 and $149 for the Kinect.  Way too much for me to justify.  So, instead of driving all over, I came home and started phoning all the stores that would have it.  No one had any in stock, I even looked online for availability and really, who was I kidding?  This is the last day of the boxing week specials...No one was going to have it anymore.  So, we were just going to have to wait.

Then I remembered one other store I had not phoned.  ToysRUs...It should have been the first one I called, since I was told that this is where someone else had gotten theirs.  Anyhow, they had one more left, on the shelf and that was it.  It was within our price range, so we rushed off to the store (not telling the kids anything) and hoping that it was still there when we got there.

Sure enough, there it was.  The last one on the shelf.  Pete quickly grabbed it and I checked out some of the other games that were available.  We picked the Kinectimals for the younger girls, particularly Hope and Faith and off we went to pay.  There was a bit of chaos going on at that moment.  The cashier didn't know how to take the security band off the box, and the other cashier was waiting for his lunch break and the store was packed. 

They rang us through, we purchased the extra 2 year accident insurance and the Kinectimals game and they sealed the bag shut and off we went.  We were driving down the road about 2 blocks away when I realized that we had not been charged for the game.  Some people in this situation would think "Ha, we got a free game" or "they are a big corporation, they will never miss it" but I said "I can't play this game knowing that it wasn't paid for"...because that is how I was raised.  My hubby on the other hand thought this was wonderful!!  Haha...

In the end, we turned around and headed back to the store.  I went in with just the game and the receipt and went straight to the electronics counter.  What do you think should have happened?  I will tell you that I thought all they needed to do was scan the game and I pay for it...right?  Does that make sense?

Let me tell you...First of all the girl that I dealt with before, wasn't at the counter.  She was dealing with another customer, so I went to the counter.  I told the new cashier (who was covering for the guy on lunch) about the mistake, and that I was too honest to just leave it alone and she (I hope my kids are raised better then this) pulls the other girl over and says "look at the mistake you made" in a snarky, oh you are going to get in so much trouble, tone...

I felt really bad for the other girl, because it was so chaotic behind the counter at the time that the mistake happened.  There were 2 people using the till and it was a small miscommunication.  I made sure to speak up about how busy it was, and it was just a mistake.  This other cashier then left the counter and told me to "hold on, I will be right back".  I told the first girl that we had dealt with that all they needed to do was ring the game through and it would be done.  Easy, right?  Well, the other cashier came back, in her own little whirlwind, and proceeded to REIMBURSE my bill...then recharge everything adding the game.  I asked her if it was necessary to reimburse the ENTIRE bill first.  All that I needed to do was pay for the game, everything else was fine. 

She said, yup, this is how it was done.  So, I waited.  She reimbursed the whole bill, rang it all through again and added the game.  I paid, took the receipt and headed out the door.  On the way home, I looked over the bill again and realized they also charged me $3.99 for the replacement insurance on the video game.  I don't remember signing up for that one...but couldn't be bothered to stand in line again. 

It is kinda frustrating when you are being honest, and go to rectify a situation and then you get this kind of run around and end up being charged for something you didn't sign up for...I am still glad that I went back, my consience is clear, but I can understand why some people don't even bother. 

I think that cashiers or anyone working in the sales field, should be trained completely on how to be thankful when someone is honest and how to show some sign of appreciation...