The Customer Is Always the Rumpus of the Joke

I'm not happy with my treatment at the Sis-Town Casey's on Thursday. ME! A loyal customer who buys gas there once a week! I'm sure I'm keeping them in business.

 

To begin with, there was some jackrumpusery going on behind the counter. It was not clear which of the two registers were open, nor who was woking. I stood at the counter between the registers. Patiently. Two women were chatting, and one gave the side-head to a young man of about 20. "Go help her over there." Nodding at the left register.

 

I stepped over and told him I wanted $40 on Pump 3. T-Hoe is thirsty, with a hollow tank. That would only fill him halfway. I also told Young'un that I was cashing in two draw tickets (a $2 and a $3 winner), and buying more. He set to work scanning the winners, then tore off and printed my new tickets. It's always hard to hear in there, talking through the Plexiglass the the VIRUS can't jump over or slither under, and the employees wearing masks, and some machinery always humming. Perhaps their freezer. 

During Young'un's activities, two different employees stood by and watched. Nodded and walked off. I assumed he was training, since I hadn't seen him before. I didn't look at his name tag. He had everything done, and scanned my new tickets to ring them up. I saw that he had given a wrong ticket.

"Oh, I don't want this one. I said two Cash4Life with EZ Match. This is only one, without EZ Match." An honest mistake. I was just bringing it to his attention, to get what I'd asked for. This discombobulated Young'un. A bigger older women came over. I assumed she was the manager. She was quite short, and I don't mean in height.

"What did you DO?"

Before Young'un could explain, she locked eyes with me through the Plexiglass. I explained about the two Cash4Life with EZ Match. She printed them, and removed the other ticket I didn't want.

"That will be $52."

"Um. No, I think that's wrong. I had planned on giving you $60, and getting $5 back."

"Oh. Did you have gas?" [Seriously, she was asking ME, a customer with a possible motive to lie and save $40, rather than Young'un, her own employee?]

"Yes. $40 on Pump 3. And here are the tickets." 

 I started grouping like tickets together, to show how they added up. Then she got all snippy with me!

"CAN I JUST!"

Sure you can, Hitlerzilla. I thought, but didn't speak. She proceeded to turn over the tickets I was buying, one by one, calling out their code numbers, while looking at the register readout. They all checked out just fine. The whole time, she was sighing and giving side glances at Young'un.

 

I was the only one in line when we started, and now there were two customers behind me, a man with two grade-school kids, and another man. 

"Jeannie, see if anyone has cash."

"No, I already asked."

"Well, take HIM at the drive-thru register." Hitlerzilla turned to Young'un. "Now what did she give you? Did you take that off?" Young'un said he did. $5 worth of winners.

At the risk of having my head bitten off through the Plexiglass, I said, "I had one $2 winner, and one $3 winner."

Hitlerzilla looked through the receipts Young'un had printed out. "Oh. That's it. $55."

I gave her the money, grabbed my tickets and change, and turned to leave. The next guy stepped up, and laughed. Hitlerzilla was ROLLING HER EYES! It was all I could do to hold my ire by muttering under my breath, 

"Can't ANYBODY do a job right in this place?"

Pardon the Not-Heaven out of ME! How dare I do business at their store, and purchase the products they offer for sale! 

The way I see it, this whole crapshow could have been avoided by:

THEM:

 - Training new employees completely, or supervising them until they learn all transactions.

 - Less personal conversations and more work.

 - Fix their card-scanner that's been down a month, so they don't need to do cash-only at one register.

 - Do not mock the customers or berate the help

ME:

- Accepting $8 in change instead of the $5 I was owed, thus cheating them out of $3.

- Taking a ticket I did not want, and foregoing two that I did.

I'm sick of their shoddy customer service! I'm not going back there... until next Thursday, when it's time for T-Hoe's gas.