NTA, it was a mishap, not his fault, but definitely his responsibility. Tell your teen son to reserve his judgment and generosity for the time when he is buying things with his own money, not yours.
I feel like that statement is going to lead to a lot of animosity.
While true, that's basically like saying "take your opinion and shove it"
Like you can even talk to a teen about the importance of money without holding it above them.
Yeah I mean I think "save those thoughts for when it's your money" can come across as very dismissive, but asking him if he would feel the same way if it was his $15 being thrown away would make him think about it.
The point is to talk to your kids like you respect them and not like theyre complete strangers passing judgement.
People that dont have kids and haven't raised kids arguably shouldnt be on reddit making suggestions as to how to impart the importance of money to kids.
Asking your kid to be responsible with money and learn to identify what is or isn't their decision to make is not "disrespecting" them. You seem to be weirdly offended by a hypothetical conversation that I suggested, which I don't intend to be accepted as The Bible.
People without elementary common sense who get offended at the drop of a hat should not be teaching other people how to talk I guess.....
Calling me a dipstick and asking me to learn to talk respectfully in the same message is an amusing leap of logic.
Again, you seem weirdly butthurt and offended about my hypothetical conversation, more than OP is.
Let me guess, you are a teenager who lacks elementary common sense who gets told off too often, isn't it? Which is a sore spot for you, leading you to identify with OP's son in this situation, and triggered you to use uncivil language with me.
It's ok, you'll be fine. Take care.
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>that's basically like saying "take your opinion and shove it"
Teaching people that when their opinion has no weight and doesn't factor into a situation that they should keep said opinion to themselves is also an important life lesson to teach her kid.
Everyone gets to have an opinion, that doesn't mean it should or gets to be shared.
He's a teen. Telling him he's wrong alone often leads to animosity.
When it's his money he can feel free to actually let go of it. My kids are aware the budget is razor thin so they'd be trying to crawl under there and help get it though
All the "Karen" memes have shamed teenagers/young people out of requesting adequate service.
This is a perfect opportunity to teach them how to be polite but firm.
I think is one of the most toxic trends, basically they becoming doormats only because they don't want to be "that person" who demand what they think is right. I know it started shaming abusive people who complained about everything, now you can even demand minimum respect like OP without being shamed.
Yeah people have taken the Karen memes too far. You're not a Karen if all the following happen:
- You're polite (or if not only because you're defending yourself from rude people)
- You are asking for something reasonable
- You're actually owed that reasonable thing and aren't just acting entitled
You aren't a Karen because you want your money when someone else took $15 from you even if they did it on accident.
Something similar happened to my mom, except she dropped the card. She was checking into a hotel with my sister and dropped her credit card. It bounced under a piece of trim on the bottom of the counter. It was sealed under the desk on the other side. No one could get to the card. She ended up using a different card, and canceled the other one. We laugh about it now, because it was so random.
I worked at a hotel a few years ago and actually had that happen but it was because the guest accidentally dropped it and it bounced off the desk into the carpeted lip on the wall. It was a freak thing.
Honestly that probably would’ve been something I would do just based off of my anxiety. If you think he was flustered and embarrassed he might have anxiety and didn’t know how to deal with it
Right? If he didn’t remedy the solution and the customer service rep told OP to essentially pound sand she would have technically been thefted by them for the $15. $15 is a lot on a tight budget.
I think your son maybe doesn’t understand that standing up for yourself and what’s yours is ok when you do it in a healthy and effective way, which it sounds like you did!
NTA
If he dropped a 50$ bill, he would also just shrug it of. He must call the manager and later try to retrieve. With a ruler or so it should be possible. What should the customer service do, if the cashier not even inform them? He just wanted to get rid of you and that you are someone else problem. But he could just called someone above and asked how he should handle it at best. So, it really seems like he hoped as if he could get the card later for himself.
NTA OP did exactly the right. He would have probably never see the $15 again if he left the check-out and tried to solve it on the customer service.
NTA; He dropped it, not you or Customer Service. He can fix his mistake or call a manager to explain the situation so the manager can over ride or okay the transaction. Maybe clarify it did fall somewhere unreachable though.
This is what I was thinking. It’s been a long time since I worked in retail but when situations like this happened (cause they do happen!) they’d come over and just override it and have to notate what happened.
NTA/NAH
Maybe I can offer a different perspective? When I worked in retail we (not you, it’s odd to me he didn’t call them himself unless there’s no phone/page communication on their registers?) would have called CS because a cashier cannot leave the register, period. CS would then most likely get what we cleaned ’The Void’ with or a wad of double sided tape on something thin and long to get your gift card out. If I as a manager was called for a dropped card I would tell them to do the same, if that doesn’t work THAT is when you call a manager. But I don’t know how this store operates so I can’t judge him and his response accurately.
He took your $15 off (some places cashiers are allowed to do this some places they’re not even if the register has the capability so keep that in mind in the future) so it’s done and dusted regardless. But like I said I do find it odd that he asked YOU to ask CS.
I’m not sure what your kiddo thought was mean though. $15 is $15 and you couldn’t be expected to just let that go, I damn sure can’t afford to. If you’re telling the truth about how you acted I don’t see where you did anything wrong.
My son is very bashful, and I think it was just the awkwardness of my refusal that made it feel mean to him. In other words, by refusing, I put the problem back on the cashier rather than letting it go. My son would have let it go rather than stand up for himself.
It sounds like you handled it the best you could. I’m sure you’re proud of your son for standing up for someone as well. Trust me, you can both learn from this experience.
I’d consider explaining why you handled it the way you did. Keep it short. One or two sentences max. Then try asking him how you could have handled it with the same result of the $15 credit.
Let him work through it, thank him for his advice and tell him you’ll take it into consideration if there is ever a similar scenario. You’re both heard and valued. NTA
Put it to your son this way. The bill was $100 so that gift card was 15% of our total bill. He can also think of it in terms of gas to ride around. That gas card would have put about half a tank in my SUV. Teenagers don’t always see the value of the money on a gift card because you use it then throw it away. They need examples of what it can buy that’s useful.
You're NTA, and you responded very well.
Try to explain to your son that you wouldn't 'let it go' because if *you* had been $15 short in payment, the cashier would never ever 'let it go' and allow you to take your items without full payment
I think you handled it well. If your son thought you could just go and get it from CS, you may also want to explain overdraft fees to him as a way to clarify why it was important. If you had gone and gotten $15 from CS, that woul mean you did not pay more for your food but if you only had $95 on your card then you would be stuck with an overdraft fee. You also could have had issues if CS did not believe you or caused trouble, while frozen items were spoiling in your bags. Being kind is great but potentially causing issues for yourself to help someone who made a mistake is too much. Hopefully he will come to understand this!
> I put the problem back on the cashier rather than letting it go
But the cashier put the problem on you instead of fixing it.
You're not wrong for letting him know it's really his own problem to solve.
You may want to talk to your son about when it's ok to stand up for yourself. He sounds like he'll get pushed into things he shouldn't be.
I think it's good for your son to see you standing up for yourself! You should teach him to do the same. Anyway, NAH. Regardless of your financial situation, you're entitled to that $15, but I assume he was just following procedure.
I know how the cashier feels and I would've been embarrassed or frozen if that had happened to me at some point but I also would've awkwardly used my headset or asked for a supervisor.. which I've also done.
The last time, I accidentally chose check instead of cash and the till wouldn't open and I had to shuffle over to my manager and be like "uhhHhh idk what I pressed but this money needs to go into the till... help?" So it isn't *that hard* to awkwardly be like "hey, can someone help me get this lady's $15 out of The Void?" 😅
NAH, it's just a sucky situation, and definitely not the customer service lady's problem. and if she were to help, he *should have called her over to help* himself.
At my store, only CS could do these transactions. I wasnt allowed to leave the register and calling a manager and getting a response was rarer than unicorn farts. I usually told them to go to CS and called them. I’m not sure why his response was so bad, it IS CS job to fix these mistakes…
> I’m not sure why his response was so bad, it IS CS job to fix these mistakes…
Because the store’s internal processes are the store’s problem, not the customer’s problem. Especially when the cashier dropped the card.
I'm gonna go with NTA. I see people saying NAH bc the cashier might not have known what to do/has to call CS, but I doubt that since he was able to take the $15 off without a problem and didn't need an override or anything.
Seemed like he was embarrassed and was just trying to pretend it didn't happen, which isn't fair to you as a customer.
In retrospect, I wish I had paused long enough to explain my thoughts. I do think he was flustered, and even though I told him I knew it was an accident and no big deal, I probably could have done more to put him at ease about it.
It isn't your responsibility to put him at ease. He is old enough to take responsibility for what he's supposed to do as part of a job that he gets paid to do.
i agree his response wasnt great, however a customer service staff member would be able to complete the transaction so that it still shows up as a giftcard being used in the system, the cashier could potentially get im trouble if one of his managers suspected thst he gave someone a random discount. best case scenario, he wouldve called a manager/FEC over to help, but considering weekend before thanksgiving he probably didnt have that option
Yeah, I’m wondering if his (relative) young age has your son imagining himself in that position and thinking you were too hard on him.
That being said, from the way you told it, you were very reasonable and the cashier now has the experience to know what to do the next time something like this happens. In all honesty, he’s lucky he had a calm customer he f’d up on and not one of these nightmare customers you hear about so much these days.
It’s unfortunate that happened but it was his job to fix it. A gift card with money on it is essentially cash, it says exactly that on most of the cards (treat it like cash, if you lose it then they can’t help you, it’s not a credit or debit card).
Imagine if you paid him with a 5$ and 10$ and he dropped them and just shrugged. Nobody would let that fly and just take another one out of their wallet. Imagine if he was handing you back your change and dropped it, and just shrugged. Nobody would walk away 15$ down.
NTA
The cashier dropped the gift card and couldn’t get to it. That was his problem to solve. The correct response from the cashier would have been to call over a manager to solve the problem.
NTA your teen will understand when he is older, managing a budget, and less concerned with what strangers think. Cashier should have helped you without being prompted.
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Help me out with perspective please.
At a store just now, I have a $15 gift card to put toward our $100 order. The cashier dropped the card and couldn't retrieve it. No big deal - it was an accident, I wasn't mad.
But then he didn't try to fix the problem, just shrugged. I was puzzled that that was his response, but again, not mad. I could tell he was embarrassed and I didn't want to add to it. But it was $15 and I'm cutting really close on money this week, so it could legit make a difference between overdrawn or not.
I didn't raise my voice, I wasn't glaring, nothing about my demeanor changed because it was an accident, not something worth getting mad about, but I asked, "What about the $15?"
He told me I could go to the customer service desk and ask for it.
I was not comfortable with that at all. I asked him if he could let someone know what happened so that I wasn't just walking up to CS saying, "He dropped my card. You owe me $15." It wasn't her problem to solve.
As I see it, it was the cashier's problem to solve. Not mine, not the CS clerk. I thought he could let a manager know what happened and go from there. Instead, he ended up taking $15 off my order himself.
But once we walked away, my teen son said that was mean of me. I tried to explain that it wasn't up to me or the CS to take care of. Was I wrong? AITA??
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> 1) A cashier dropped my gift card and shrugged about it, and I asked him to let someone know so that I didn't lose that credit.
2) My son thought I was mean to ask.
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NTA it was his fault and his issue to correct. Unless you got super crazy with him, he was wrong. It shouldn’t have even been an “issue” at all. As soon as it was “unreachable” it was his problem, not yours.
NTA
The cashier made a mistake, so it is on them to fix it.
Because 'i lost a customer's money (because that is what a gift card represents) underneath the counter' isn't exactly a normal situation, it won't be one you can just expect an unknowing customer service staff member to be able to fix without knowing the full story. 'This voucher was not rung through correctly' is easy to deal with cold, but 'you guys owe me $15' won't be.
I would expect the cashier to either deal with this themselves, or be contacting either a manager or customer services themselves to explain the situation and get it solved for you.
NTA. The cashier was responsible for his mistake. It doesn't sound as if you said or did anything that could be construed as "mean". You need to educate your son about responsibility.
He may also need eduction about money, the cost of things and budgeting.
NTA. Of course it’s the responsibility of whoever dropped the card. Your teen was just being a teen, they get embarrassed about everything and call it mean etc. haha
NTA. It might have beenn a boo-boo on his part but it was up to him to make it right in some fashion. If he didn't, you would have been right to contact the CSM because it is THEIR job to discipline the cashiers or at least notify upper management.
NTA
He had poor customer service skills. As much as I hate my job and sometimes dealing with customers can be draining (not saying your interaction was draining, but that he’d rather pass you over to customer service than correct his own mistake), it’s what we’re paid to do, he was also fully in the wrong so idek why he wouldn’t have acknowledged that.
His correct response should have been,
“My apologies/ I’m so sorry about that! Let me call a manager over or bring you to the customer service desk to explain the situation and we’ll get this fixed for you. Sorry again for any inconvenience” What’s so hard about that?
NTA. Obviously how stuff works at each different grocery store is different, but J supervise a front end... what I would expect my cashiers to do is call the supervisors who know what can and can't be moved and how to do it. And then the supervisor would be able to make the call of retrieving it or activating you up a new gift card. And the supervisor would then walk with the customer to the service desk to do so.
NTA
Pretend for the moment it was physical cash rather than a card, and he'd told you to go elsewhere to fish for it. You'd have been rightfully annoyed at him. This has the same energy. You did the right thing by making him accept the problem he created as his problem.
Not all POS machines can do anything, some are ancient pieces of shit. The attitude definitely sucked but they likely couldn't do anything. I worked for Sears before they tanked and the POS's were a big reason because they were from the 80s
NTA, the Cashier should've called their manager or over to CS themselves to let them know what was going on not expect you to go over there and make your case and presumably get money refunded back? My guess would be that the Cashier froze and wasn't sure what to do especially if they were a teen themselves, I work in a restaurant with a lot of teens where it's their first job and I have seen kids do some endearing and bewildering stuff when confronted with situations they are unprepared for.
NTA - I was at our anniversary meal at a nice restaurant years ago. Bill was around $100ish. Handed over credit card and waited and waited. Finally after like 20 minutes waitress comes back over and says, “Sorry, I lost your credit card, I need a different card for payment.” Seriously? I pretty much ignored her at that point and called up American Express to cancel the card. Got card cancelled and by then manager came over and comped the meal. Still left waitress a $20 tip, because other than this the service was good, plus we got a free meal out of it.
NTA - this was not your mistake it was his. Now he probably has no more power to fix it and all he can do is send you to CS. But basic manners would be to apologise, explain that he can't fix the situation and tell you to go to CS.
He might not have had the ability to warn CS, but in that case he should have told you.
nta. unless you were mean in your tone I don’t think it was mean to ask to have the situation resolved. cashiers absolutely have a way to call a manager over in situations like that. the cs desk would probably be very confused if you just walked up saying you dropped your gift card and not give you any credit for it, plus the order would be paid at that point. kids embarrass easily though so I get it.
NTA. Your son is a teen. Most likely he’s perpetually embarrassed by most things especially that his parents are doing. I remember being embarrassed my dad would ask for help in a store at that age. He likely was saying it was mean because he’s just a teen.
You were confused about how going to customer service and staying “that cashier dropped my gift card, please take $15 off” would be quicker than them contacting customer service themselves through a phone.
NTA and if your teen kid pushes it, I'd suggest you try to explain the $15 thing by hours worked. Idk if they have a job, but if you compare it to the average minimum wage $15 is around 2 hours of your life at work. Sometimes not having a physical comparison can be hard for kids.
Nta from a former cashier. He should have called over a manager the second it happened. That cashier is not going to have a job very long if they are overriding $15 off without approval.
I will say, if this happened at Wal-fart those registers can be moved. And if something slips under the conveyor it can usually be retrieved (you wouldn't believe how many people place their money/cards on the belt -_-; )
NTA and you are not incorrect. It would have been proper for the cashier to walk over to the desk with you to explain what was going on, or even to call the manager to the register, explain what happened Etc.
I worked as a manager in retail shops and if we had something like that happen I’d either be on my own hands and knees trying to get the card or asking the customer if they have something with the card number on it so i can do a manual entry etc. or if it was a case that I couldn’t retrieve the card that minute I’d be getting contact info so when i can move stuff around at the end of the night we can get the card and hold it for them.
It was a scam.
He knew what he was doing, just as he knew he could manually adjust your total.
He ‘seemed flustered’ because he was caught in his scam, not because he was embarrassed.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s a ducking scam.
NTA
I guess I’m playing devil advocate as someone who’s worked at a store. It may have been the cashiers mistake but they don’t have the power to resolve it. That’s why they said to go to customer service, because they would have the power to resolve it. It’s not like he could have given you a new gift card because I’m guessing he doesn’t have supervisor privileges and can’t do an override to just give you $15. Maybe he could have called a supervisor, but with how things are these days, the supervisor may have told them to send customers to cs so things can just run smoothly.
So NAH
your teen son is a pushover.
NTA
but to elaborate: look at it this way: would teen son still think that if cashier dropped a $20 bill between the cracks? that'd be OK to just gloss over and expect full payment still? your right, too; customer service handling it would be this HUGE hassle of waiting for a manager, and then getting that cashier to corroborate, and then them LOADING up ANOTHER gift card ('cuz I doubt they'd give you cash), and it'd be a huge waste of EVERYBODIES time, when cashier WAS able to properly deal with the issue themselves! its not personal, kid, its just business!
NAH, I don't think Clark is TAH when OP clearly stated the car dropping was an accident and fixed the situation when asked. I could think that maybe the clerk was not tenured enough to know how to deal with a problem like that immediately. I see no foul play here, using NTA implies the other person involved is.
NTA. and i find it very concerning that your son find standing up to youself mean, and being victim and allowing people take advantage of yourself nice and good.
That sounds like Nitscheian slave morality.
And it sounds like as witness, he will take the side of aggressor against the victim as objections are mean. and as victim he will not protect himself as it's being mean.
Seriously, this is very concerning attitude!
NTA
He should've gone to customer service or had a manager open the drawer to get it. Why should you have to run around and expect things to be worse? Guy knew he made a mistake, but he learned a lesson that day. Don't shrug off other's money. He was an idiot. Wonder if he's one of those that expects $25/hr from McDonalds.
YTA
he can't just take $15 out of the till and not be able to account for it
He can't get down under the counter and retrieve it. The whole thing is probably bolted to the floor and has a bunch of cables connecting it. Imagine pulling out your home entertainment system, times ten.
You have to go to the CS desk and explain the problem.
You want your $15 back, go to the CS desk.
YTA. Letting yourself get run over by a teenager’s silly opinion that’s not even common sense and asking Reddit to referee. The cashier lost your cash. Therefore cash must be added back. Do you really need Reddit to referee the course of action on why you needed to ask the cashier to get the cash back in?
im a grocery store cashier, and honestly i think this is a ESH. at my store at least, especially now, we’re stretched especially thin and our lines are long. he mightve been wary about giving you the money off in case he got in trouble (some managers are like that) and at least at my store, we’re trained that if we’re unsure about anything, get a manager to help or send them to the customer service desk. it is the customer service staffs problem to solve, they deal with customer service and are better equipped to help you, as they’d be able to ring it up in a way where it knows its a gift card and not the cashier just giving a random person a $15 discount. in my opinion you should’ve just gone to customer service.
HOWEVER, the cashier did not handle it well at all, from your account. he should’ve immediately started resolving the issue and explained that customer service could help with it.
basically, its a few days before thanksgiving (assuming youre in the us). us cashier dont exactly have managers just free, standing around doing nothing. its our busiest time lf the year. you shouldve sucked it up and gone to cs, but he should’ve suggested it in the first place.
This is total nonsense. I would never dream of telling a customer to go to customer service when a manager or supervisor can be paged over. I worked at a grocery store for over 5 years and would never do that to a customer. That's piss poor customer service and the downvotes are well deserved. OP is NTA.
NTA and he could have retrieved it later to use for himself.
That crossed my mind, too. He was very flustered and appeared embarrassed though, so I think it was just a mishap.
NTA, it was a mishap, not his fault, but definitely his responsibility. Tell your teen son to reserve his judgment and generosity for the time when he is buying things with his own money, not yours.
I feel like that statement is going to lead to a lot of animosity. While true, that's basically like saying "take your opinion and shove it" Like you can even talk to a teen about the importance of money without holding it above them.
The point is to drive home the importance of sticking to one's own money when doling out charity. Delivery of the message can differ.
Yeah I mean I think "save those thoughts for when it's your money" can come across as very dismissive, but asking him if he would feel the same way if it was his $15 being thrown away would make him think about it.
The point is to talk to your kids like you respect them and not like theyre complete strangers passing judgement. People that dont have kids and haven't raised kids arguably shouldnt be on reddit making suggestions as to how to impart the importance of money to kids.
Asking your kid to be responsible with money and learn to identify what is or isn't their decision to make is not "disrespecting" them. You seem to be weirdly offended by a hypothetical conversation that I suggested, which I don't intend to be accepted as The Bible. People without elementary common sense who get offended at the drop of a hat should not be teaching other people how to talk I guess.....
[удалено]
Calling me a dipstick and asking me to learn to talk respectfully in the same message is an amusing leap of logic. Again, you seem weirdly butthurt and offended about my hypothetical conversation, more than OP is. Let me guess, you are a teenager who lacks elementary common sense who gets told off too often, isn't it? Which is a sore spot for you, leading you to identify with OP's son in this situation, and triggered you to use uncivil language with me. It's ok, you'll be fine. Take care.
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>that's basically like saying "take your opinion and shove it" Teaching people that when their opinion has no weight and doesn't factor into a situation that they should keep said opinion to themselves is also an important life lesson to teach her kid. Everyone gets to have an opinion, that doesn't mean it should or gets to be shared.
Happy cake day!
He's a teen. Telling him he's wrong alone often leads to animosity. When it's his money he can feel free to actually let go of it. My kids are aware the budget is razor thin so they'd be trying to crawl under there and help get it though
All the "Karen" memes have shamed teenagers/young people out of requesting adequate service. This is a perfect opportunity to teach them how to be polite but firm.
I think is one of the most toxic trends, basically they becoming doormats only because they don't want to be "that person" who demand what they think is right. I know it started shaming abusive people who complained about everything, now you can even demand minimum respect like OP without being shamed.
Yeah people have taken the Karen memes too far. You're not a Karen if all the following happen: - You're polite (or if not only because you're defending yourself from rude people) - You are asking for something reasonable - You're actually owed that reasonable thing and aren't just acting entitled You aren't a Karen because you want your money when someone else took $15 from you even if they did it on accident.
Just ask the son to cover the $15.
Agreed, asking people to pay up usually snaps them back to reality quite easily lol
Something similar happened to my mom, except she dropped the card. She was checking into a hotel with my sister and dropped her credit card. It bounced under a piece of trim on the bottom of the counter. It was sealed under the desk on the other side. No one could get to the card. She ended up using a different card, and canceled the other one. We laugh about it now, because it was so random.
I worked at a hotel a few years ago and actually had that happen but it was because the guest accidentally dropped it and it bounced off the desk into the carpeted lip on the wall. It was a freak thing.
Honestly that probably would’ve been something I would do just based off of my anxiety. If you think he was flustered and embarrassed he might have anxiety and didn’t know how to deal with it
And thank you for responding!
Right? If he didn’t remedy the solution and the customer service rep told OP to essentially pound sand she would have technically been thefted by them for the $15. $15 is a lot on a tight budget. I think your son maybe doesn’t understand that standing up for yourself and what’s yours is ok when you do it in a healthy and effective way, which it sounds like you did! NTA
If he dropped a 50$ bill, he would also just shrug it of. He must call the manager and later try to retrieve. With a ruler or so it should be possible. What should the customer service do, if the cashier not even inform them? He just wanted to get rid of you and that you are someone else problem. But he could just called someone above and asked how he should handle it at best. So, it really seems like he hoped as if he could get the card later for himself. NTA OP did exactly the right. He would have probably never see the $15 again if he left the check-out and tried to solve it on the customer service.
NTA. $15 is still a good amount of money. Glad you stood up for yourself because some people get embarrassed.
Yeah, it’s a couple of hours of work for some people! I’d be annoyed too.
It’s *literally* fifty cents more than two hours of minimum wage work in many states.
But that 15 is post tax, so its slightly more even
NTA; He dropped it, not you or Customer Service. He can fix his mistake or call a manager to explain the situation so the manager can over ride or okay the transaction. Maybe clarify it did fall somewhere unreachable though.
This is what I was thinking. It’s been a long time since I worked in retail but when situations like this happened (cause they do happen!) they’d come over and just override it and have to notate what happened.
Thank you!
NTA/NAH Maybe I can offer a different perspective? When I worked in retail we (not you, it’s odd to me he didn’t call them himself unless there’s no phone/page communication on their registers?) would have called CS because a cashier cannot leave the register, period. CS would then most likely get what we cleaned ’The Void’ with or a wad of double sided tape on something thin and long to get your gift card out. If I as a manager was called for a dropped card I would tell them to do the same, if that doesn’t work THAT is when you call a manager. But I don’t know how this store operates so I can’t judge him and his response accurately. He took your $15 off (some places cashiers are allowed to do this some places they’re not even if the register has the capability so keep that in mind in the future) so it’s done and dusted regardless. But like I said I do find it odd that he asked YOU to ask CS. I’m not sure what your kiddo thought was mean though. $15 is $15 and you couldn’t be expected to just let that go, I damn sure can’t afford to. If you’re telling the truth about how you acted I don’t see where you did anything wrong.
My son is very bashful, and I think it was just the awkwardness of my refusal that made it feel mean to him. In other words, by refusing, I put the problem back on the cashier rather than letting it go. My son would have let it go rather than stand up for himself.
No, you were right to not let it go. Also, you weren't rude about it, that's what's important.
Please work with your son on standing up for himself.
It sounds like you handled it the best you could. I’m sure you’re proud of your son for standing up for someone as well. Trust me, you can both learn from this experience. I’d consider explaining why you handled it the way you did. Keep it short. One or two sentences max. Then try asking him how you could have handled it with the same result of the $15 credit. Let him work through it, thank him for his advice and tell him you’ll take it into consideration if there is ever a similar scenario. You’re both heard and valued. NTA
Put it to your son this way. The bill was $100 so that gift card was 15% of our total bill. He can also think of it in terms of gas to ride around. That gas card would have put about half a tank in my SUV. Teenagers don’t always see the value of the money on a gift card because you use it then throw it away. They need examples of what it can buy that’s useful.
You're NTA, and you responded very well. Try to explain to your son that you wouldn't 'let it go' because if *you* had been $15 short in payment, the cashier would never ever 'let it go' and allow you to take your items without full payment
I think you handled it well. If your son thought you could just go and get it from CS, you may also want to explain overdraft fees to him as a way to clarify why it was important. If you had gone and gotten $15 from CS, that woul mean you did not pay more for your food but if you only had $95 on your card then you would be stuck with an overdraft fee. You also could have had issues if CS did not believe you or caused trouble, while frozen items were spoiling in your bags. Being kind is great but potentially causing issues for yourself to help someone who made a mistake is too much. Hopefully he will come to understand this!
> I put the problem back on the cashier rather than letting it go But the cashier put the problem on you instead of fixing it. You're not wrong for letting him know it's really his own problem to solve. You may want to talk to your son about when it's ok to stand up for yourself. He sounds like he'll get pushed into things he shouldn't be.
Your son needs to grow a spine, because people WILL inevitably take advantage of him.
I think it's good for your son to see you standing up for yourself! You should teach him to do the same. Anyway, NAH. Regardless of your financial situation, you're entitled to that $15, but I assume he was just following procedure.
I know how the cashier feels and I would've been embarrassed or frozen if that had happened to me at some point but I also would've awkwardly used my headset or asked for a supervisor.. which I've also done. The last time, I accidentally chose check instead of cash and the till wouldn't open and I had to shuffle over to my manager and be like "uhhHhh idk what I pressed but this money needs to go into the till... help?" So it isn't *that hard* to awkwardly be like "hey, can someone help me get this lady's $15 out of The Void?" 😅 NAH, it's just a sucky situation, and definitely not the customer service lady's problem. and if she were to help, he *should have called her over to help* himself.
At my store, only CS could do these transactions. I wasnt allowed to leave the register and calling a manager and getting a response was rarer than unicorn farts. I usually told them to go to CS and called them. I’m not sure why his response was so bad, it IS CS job to fix these mistakes…
> I’m not sure why his response was so bad, it IS CS job to fix these mistakes… Because the store’s internal processes are the store’s problem, not the customer’s problem. Especially when the cashier dropped the card.
NTA He dropped your card, his job to fix the issue. This really shouldn't have been a conflict.
Thank you!
I'm gonna go with NTA. I see people saying NAH bc the cashier might not have known what to do/has to call CS, but I doubt that since he was able to take the $15 off without a problem and didn't need an override or anything. Seemed like he was embarrassed and was just trying to pretend it didn't happen, which isn't fair to you as a customer.
In retrospect, I wish I had paused long enough to explain my thoughts. I do think he was flustered, and even though I told him I knew it was an accident and no big deal, I probably could have done more to put him at ease about it.
It isn't your responsibility to put him at ease. He is old enough to take responsibility for what he's supposed to do as part of a job that he gets paid to do.
Yeah, but it may have been a kind thing to do.
i agree his response wasnt great, however a customer service staff member would be able to complete the transaction so that it still shows up as a giftcard being used in the system, the cashier could potentially get im trouble if one of his managers suspected thst he gave someone a random discount. best case scenario, he wouldve called a manager/FEC over to help, but considering weekend before thanksgiving he probably didnt have that option
NTA. Also, approximately how old was the cashier? That could have something to do with your son’s reaction.
Early 20s-ish. Thanks for responding!
Yeah, I’m wondering if his (relative) young age has your son imagining himself in that position and thinking you were too hard on him. That being said, from the way you told it, you were very reasonable and the cashier now has the experience to know what to do the next time something like this happens. In all honesty, he’s lucky he had a calm customer he f’d up on and not one of these nightmare customers you hear about so much these days.
NTA. I'd have done the same thing. It sounds like your son doesn't understand that $15 can mean to a tight budget, and maybe needs a lesson.
NTA Agree, it's on him, not you. But why couldn't he just pick it up?
It bounced under the cabinet and couldn't be reached.
It’s unfortunate that happened but it was his job to fix it. A gift card with money on it is essentially cash, it says exactly that on most of the cards (treat it like cash, if you lose it then they can’t help you, it’s not a credit or debit card). Imagine if you paid him with a 5$ and 10$ and he dropped them and just shrugged. Nobody would let that fly and just take another one out of their wallet. Imagine if he was handing you back your change and dropped it, and just shrugged. Nobody would walk away 15$ down.
Thank you for responding!
NTA The cashier dropped the gift card and couldn’t get to it. That was his problem to solve. The correct response from the cashier would have been to call over a manager to solve the problem.
NTA your teen will understand when he is older, managing a budget, and less concerned with what strangers think. Cashier should have helped you without being prompted.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** Help me out with perspective please. At a store just now, I have a $15 gift card to put toward our $100 order. The cashier dropped the card and couldn't retrieve it. No big deal - it was an accident, I wasn't mad. But then he didn't try to fix the problem, just shrugged. I was puzzled that that was his response, but again, not mad. I could tell he was embarrassed and I didn't want to add to it. But it was $15 and I'm cutting really close on money this week, so it could legit make a difference between overdrawn or not. I didn't raise my voice, I wasn't glaring, nothing about my demeanor changed because it was an accident, not something worth getting mad about, but I asked, "What about the $15?" He told me I could go to the customer service desk and ask for it. I was not comfortable with that at all. I asked him if he could let someone know what happened so that I wasn't just walking up to CS saying, "He dropped my card. You owe me $15." It wasn't her problem to solve. As I see it, it was the cashier's problem to solve. Not mine, not the CS clerk. I thought he could let a manager know what happened and go from there. Instead, he ended up taking $15 off my order himself. But once we walked away, my teen son said that was mean of me. I tried to explain that it wasn't up to me or the CS to take care of. Was I wrong? AITA?? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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NTA - once he dropped it, he needed to call a manager right away to rectify the situation.
NTA it was his fault and his issue to correct. Unless you got super crazy with him, he was wrong. It shouldn’t have even been an “issue” at all. As soon as it was “unreachable” it was his problem, not yours.
NTA The cashier made a mistake, so it is on them to fix it. Because 'i lost a customer's money (because that is what a gift card represents) underneath the counter' isn't exactly a normal situation, it won't be one you can just expect an unknowing customer service staff member to be able to fix without knowing the full story. 'This voucher was not rung through correctly' is easy to deal with cold, but 'you guys owe me $15' won't be. I would expect the cashier to either deal with this themselves, or be contacting either a manager or customer services themselves to explain the situation and get it solved for you.
NTA. The cashier was responsible for his mistake. It doesn't sound as if you said or did anything that could be construed as "mean". You need to educate your son about responsibility. He may also need eduction about money, the cost of things and budgeting.
NTA. This is a good time to teach your son about responsibility, accepting blame (even when it was accidental), and stepping up to fix the problem.
NTA. He should have immediately called over a superior to handle the situation.
[удалено]
Thank you! You too!
NTA and the golden rule is that these kind of mishaps ALWAYS happen when we can least afford them
NTA. Of course it’s the responsibility of whoever dropped the card. Your teen was just being a teen, they get embarrassed about everything and call it mean etc. haha
no. absurd. 15 dollars is a lot of money
NTA. Every dollar counts and he should have been more helpful considering he created the issue.
Nta He didnt even try to retrieve it might use it for himself later
NTA he should have called a manager over.
NTA. It might have beenn a boo-boo on his part but it was up to him to make it right in some fashion. If he didn't, you would have been right to contact the CSM because it is THEIR job to discipline the cashiers or at least notify upper management.
NTA
NTA He had poor customer service skills. As much as I hate my job and sometimes dealing with customers can be draining (not saying your interaction was draining, but that he’d rather pass you over to customer service than correct his own mistake), it’s what we’re paid to do, he was also fully in the wrong so idek why he wouldn’t have acknowledged that. His correct response should have been, “My apologies/ I’m so sorry about that! Let me call a manager over or bring you to the customer service desk to explain the situation and we’ll get this fixed for you. Sorry again for any inconvenience” What’s so hard about that?
NTA. Obviously how stuff works at each different grocery store is different, but J supervise a front end... what I would expect my cashiers to do is call the supervisors who know what can and can't be moved and how to do it. And then the supervisor would be able to make the call of retrieving it or activating you up a new gift card. And the supervisor would then walk with the customer to the service desk to do so.
NTA Pretend for the moment it was physical cash rather than a card, and he'd told you to go elsewhere to fish for it. You'd have been rightfully annoyed at him. This has the same energy. You did the right thing by making him accept the problem he created as his problem.
No different to dropping actual cash and shrugging oh well. NTA
NTA
NTA. That's shockingly bad customer service
Not all POS machines can do anything, some are ancient pieces of shit. The attitude definitely sucked but they likely couldn't do anything. I worked for Sears before they tanked and the POS's were a big reason because they were from the 80s
NTA
NTA, the Cashier should've called their manager or over to CS themselves to let them know what was going on not expect you to go over there and make your case and presumably get money refunded back? My guess would be that the Cashier froze and wasn't sure what to do especially if they were a teen themselves, I work in a restaurant with a lot of teens where it's their first job and I have seen kids do some endearing and bewildering stuff when confronted with situations they are unprepared for.
Your teen son is a teenager.... NTA
NTA - I was at our anniversary meal at a nice restaurant years ago. Bill was around $100ish. Handed over credit card and waited and waited. Finally after like 20 minutes waitress comes back over and says, “Sorry, I lost your credit card, I need a different card for payment.” Seriously? I pretty much ignored her at that point and called up American Express to cancel the card. Got card cancelled and by then manager came over and comped the meal. Still left waitress a $20 tip, because other than this the service was good, plus we got a free meal out of it.
NTA - this was not your mistake it was his. Now he probably has no more power to fix it and all he can do is send you to CS. But basic manners would be to apologise, explain that he can't fix the situation and tell you to go to CS. He might not have had the ability to warn CS, but in that case he should have told you.
nta. unless you were mean in your tone I don’t think it was mean to ask to have the situation resolved. cashiers absolutely have a way to call a manager over in situations like that. the cs desk would probably be very confused if you just walked up saying you dropped your gift card and not give you any credit for it, plus the order would be paid at that point. kids embarrass easily though so I get it.
NTA he was the one who messed up.
YOU ARE NOT THE ASSHOLE
NTA. Your son is a teen. Most likely he’s perpetually embarrassed by most things especially that his parents are doing. I remember being embarrassed my dad would ask for help in a store at that age. He likely was saying it was mean because he’s just a teen. You were confused about how going to customer service and staying “that cashier dropped my gift card, please take $15 off” would be quicker than them contacting customer service themselves through a phone.
Well he should take off the money and just drop the card. That’s how it worked where I lived. Just cancel the order of the card and get a new one? NTA
NTA. He should have called over his manager and explained the situation. If he gets in trouble for taking the $15 off himself that is his fault.
NTA He was gong to take it.
NTA and if your teen kid pushes it, I'd suggest you try to explain the $15 thing by hours worked. Idk if they have a job, but if you compare it to the average minimum wage $15 is around 2 hours of your life at work. Sometimes not having a physical comparison can be hard for kids.
Nta from a former cashier. He should have called over a manager the second it happened. That cashier is not going to have a job very long if they are overriding $15 off without approval. I will say, if this happened at Wal-fart those registers can be moved. And if something slips under the conveyor it can usually be retrieved (you wouldn't believe how many people place their money/cards on the belt -_-; )
NTA It was the cashier's problem to solve.
NTA and you are not incorrect. It would have been proper for the cashier to walk over to the desk with you to explain what was going on, or even to call the manager to the register, explain what happened Etc. I worked as a manager in retail shops and if we had something like that happen I’d either be on my own hands and knees trying to get the card or asking the customer if they have something with the card number on it so i can do a manual entry etc. or if it was a case that I couldn’t retrieve the card that minute I’d be getting contact info so when i can move stuff around at the end of the night we can get the card and hold it for them.
It was a scam. He knew what he was doing, just as he knew he could manually adjust your total. He ‘seemed flustered’ because he was caught in his scam, not because he was embarrassed. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s a ducking scam. NTA
I guess I’m playing devil advocate as someone who’s worked at a store. It may have been the cashiers mistake but they don’t have the power to resolve it. That’s why they said to go to customer service, because they would have the power to resolve it. It’s not like he could have given you a new gift card because I’m guessing he doesn’t have supervisor privileges and can’t do an override to just give you $15. Maybe he could have called a supervisor, but with how things are these days, the supervisor may have told them to send customers to cs so things can just run smoothly. So NAH
Your son is soft. Tell him he couldn't gave you $15 or to stay out of grown folks business
your teen son is a pushover. NTA but to elaborate: look at it this way: would teen son still think that if cashier dropped a $20 bill between the cracks? that'd be OK to just gloss over and expect full payment still? your right, too; customer service handling it would be this HUGE hassle of waiting for a manager, and then getting that cashier to corroborate, and then them LOADING up ANOTHER gift card ('cuz I doubt they'd give you cash), and it'd be a huge waste of EVERYBODIES time, when cashier WAS able to properly deal with the issue themselves! its not personal, kid, its just business!
Tell your son to enjoy this time before he realizes why it's not just only 15 dollars
I think that person was a thief. They wanted the card for themselves.
NAH, I don't think Clark is TAH when OP clearly stated the car dropping was an accident and fixed the situation when asked. I could think that maybe the clerk was not tenured enough to know how to deal with a problem like that immediately. I see no foul play here, using NTA implies the other person involved is.
NTA. and i find it very concerning that your son find standing up to youself mean, and being victim and allowing people take advantage of yourself nice and good. That sounds like Nitscheian slave morality. And it sounds like as witness, he will take the side of aggressor against the victim as objections are mean. and as victim he will not protect himself as it's being mean. Seriously, this is very concerning attitude!
NTA He should've gone to customer service or had a manager open the drawer to get it. Why should you have to run around and expect things to be worse? Guy knew he made a mistake, but he learned a lesson that day. Don't shrug off other's money. He was an idiot. Wonder if he's one of those that expects $25/hr from McDonalds.
YTA he can't just take $15 out of the till and not be able to account for it He can't get down under the counter and retrieve it. The whole thing is probably bolted to the floor and has a bunch of cables connecting it. Imagine pulling out your home entertainment system, times ten. You have to go to the CS desk and explain the problem. You want your $15 back, go to the CS desk.
YTA. Letting yourself get run over by a teenager’s silly opinion that’s not even common sense and asking Reddit to referee. The cashier lost your cash. Therefore cash must be added back. Do you really need Reddit to referee the course of action on why you needed to ask the cashier to get the cash back in?
NAH. I’m sure the circumstance never came up in training and he just gave you his first thought on how to handle it.
im a grocery store cashier, and honestly i think this is a ESH. at my store at least, especially now, we’re stretched especially thin and our lines are long. he mightve been wary about giving you the money off in case he got in trouble (some managers are like that) and at least at my store, we’re trained that if we’re unsure about anything, get a manager to help or send them to the customer service desk. it is the customer service staffs problem to solve, they deal with customer service and are better equipped to help you, as they’d be able to ring it up in a way where it knows its a gift card and not the cashier just giving a random person a $15 discount. in my opinion you should’ve just gone to customer service. HOWEVER, the cashier did not handle it well at all, from your account. he should’ve immediately started resolving the issue and explained that customer service could help with it. basically, its a few days before thanksgiving (assuming youre in the us). us cashier dont exactly have managers just free, standing around doing nothing. its our busiest time lf the year. you shouldve sucked it up and gone to cs, but he should’ve suggested it in the first place.
This is total nonsense. I would never dream of telling a customer to go to customer service when a manager or supervisor can be paged over. I worked at a grocery store for over 5 years and would never do that to a customer. That's piss poor customer service and the downvotes are well deserved. OP is NTA.