Honesty is the Best Policy
Posted on March 21, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Life.
The other day Brian and I discovered that ABC Wine and Liquor (the liquor store around the corner from our house) also carries Lindeman’s lambic and at a lower price to boot. All this time we’d been going to Jacob’s when we could’ve been saving money and gas (ABC is literally within walking distance from our place) by going to ABC.
We decided to go there yesterday after work. I wanted to buy a couple of bottles of fruit beer to take on our trip. While there we saw a sign for their free cigar promo. So we bought my stuff and Brian picked out two cigars and his free one.
The two cigars he picked out came out to almost ten dollars altogether but when the guy rang it up he only charged Brian $2.83. I was surprised but there were a couple of other people waiting to be helped so we went ahead and took off. As we were driving to Dillon’s, I told Brian he (being the store clerk) really messed it up. Your cigars should have cost you more. Brian said that he must have neglected to ring up the third cigar (the free one) before taking it off. Our guess is that he just rang up the first two cigars and then took the discount. The proper way to do it is really to ring up all three and then taking the third one off.
“We have to go back,” Brian says. “I can’t smoke these with a clear conscience if we don’t.” I think we were almost to 29th Street when Brian has this epiphany. He copped a u-turn risking life and limb just so he could point out the error get the charge corrected. Seriously.
With my lack of trust, I was really afraid that we would go back to point out the error but they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to correct it. We’d be there for a half an hour figuring it out and perhaps even end up overcharged in the process. Too many times I’ve gotten burnt doing the right thing so as you can tell I’m kind of jaded when it comes to these things. It’s one thing if you are talking about cash (we had to do the same thing the other day at Sonic; the girl gave us too much change so we had to call her back out to the car to give it back; tell you more about that later), but you are talking about giving your debit card back to someone who couldn’t figure out how to ring it up correctly in the first place. I tried to talk Brian out of going back, but there was no talking him out of it. He was convinced that not doing the right thing in this situation would cause us to have bad karma. And we couldn’t afford any bad karma since we will be playing poker at Harrah’s.
“I hope he hasn’t been doing that all day,” I told Brian because they would’ve lost a lot of revenue. Actually, I hope that the promo hasn’t been running all week. That would really be crappy. Besides that, I don’t think any other customers would be as honest as Brian. Some of them may not notice the error but those who do might think, “Wow! That was a really good sale. Let’s go back and buy some more cigars.”
When we got back there, I decided to just stay in the car. I was afraid that my negative aura would make things worse. After a few minutes Brian came back out. He told me that the store clerk appreciated his honesty but he could not figure out how to correct the mistake. Instead he ended up just charging one of Brian’s cigars which cost about four dollars and change to our debit card in order to make up some of the difference. It’s not quite the amount that it should be (the store was still shorted) but it was as close as he could get it. Brian said that would be alright with him as long as it was alright with the store clerk.
This time when we took off Brian felt good about himself. His conscience is clear and that’s all he really wanted. He wanted to enjoy his cigars with a clear conscience. I guess I am more selective when I point out these types of mistakes. If I am in a hurry, I am less likely to point it out, or if it will be incovenient, or if it will be too complicated to explain, or if it is food-related. I’ve always had this believe that if you are not honest when it comes errors in ringing up your food order then you end up with indigestion.
Situations like these don’t come up very often but in the times they have, I can’t say that I am always honest and pointed out the mistake. Most of the time I am except for the cases mentioned above. If I had to quantify it, I’d probably say 1 in 10 times I won’t say anything. The store still comes out ahead, though, because I never really point out when they make a mistake that is not in my favor. I think it is too much hassle to do so. I figured, they make more mistakes in their favor than in mine so it all washes in the end. Actually, I’m shorted in the end if you really want to be a stickler about it but that is the price you pay for a hassle-free existence.
The girl at Sonic I really felt bad for.. On Sunday we decided to hit Sonic on the way to poker. Brian was actually grumbling because the Sonic by the police station is notorious for being slower than a dead snail. I talked him into it going anyway because he said he was hungry. Naturally, he was right. Our food order took forever. The sad thing is we were only one of three cars there so it’s not like they were busy.
After what seemed like an eternity our food finally gets delivered to our car. The girl goes, “Sorry it took so long. I dropped it.” She handed the bag to Brian and then goes, “Oh how much is it?” She forgot to check the price of our ticket. It was $7.12, we told her. Brian told her he didn’t want the coins so she proceeded to give him his dollar bills.
“I sure hope they remade your food,” I told Brian. I only got a shake so I didn’t have anything to worry about. Although, I think they remade my shake but didn’t remake Brian’s. His wrap was all falling apart. My poor baby. Anyway, as Brian was putting his change back into his wallet he realized the girl gave him three dollar bills instead of only two. I was the one who insisted we give the dollar back. Brian agreed. I am not too happy about having to wait so long for our food and being told it was dropped but I am not one to take advantage of the intellectually-challenged. She should have her .88 cent tip. If she hasn’t been calculating change correctly all day, she will probably need it.
The funny thing is, when she came back to the car she tried to give Brian two more dollar bills. So Brian declined the two extra dollars and explained that we owe her one dollar. She accepted the bill but still looked confused walking away. It was very, very sad. What is happening to our teenagers these days? They can’t do simple math? I think it is too much reliance on calculators. Which isn’t necessarily bad as long as one knows how to use it, I guess… Believe it or not there are people there who don’t know how to use a calculator.
Case in point was a thread I was following on the “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” message boards. The show itself is okay, but the message boards are hilarious! Anyway, this person really thought half of 144 is 288 because that’s what their calculator spit out. Think about that for a second. How can half of something be greater than the original number? At least have the common sense to know when your calculator has given the wrong answer.
This was a case of user error. The person thought that to get half of something you divide by half. Of course, anyone with a half a brain (no pun intended) knows that in order to get half of something you divide by two (or multiply by half). When you divide by half you are actually multiplying by two so that is how the calculator arrived at the 288 number. The person punching in the numbers didn’t have enough of an understanding of how it all works, ergo they do not know how to use to a calculator. Why you would want to use a calculator for such a simple division is beyond me? How they couldn’t tell that 288 is not half of 144 is even more baffling.
It’s a sad, sad world we live in when teenagers and adults alike have to use a calculator simply to figure out what half of something is. It’s even worse knowing that some of the people out there don’t even know how to use a calculator.
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Replies to "Honesty is the Best Policy"
Ching on March 24, 2007
Au contraire. =P
Someone really was that stupid. They were so stupid that they actually tried to argue it on the message board. I think they finally realized their folly because they quit responding to the rest of the messages.
They might have even created a new handle. How embarrassing!
Have a great weekend to you and your hubby also. =)
Don Low on March 25, 2007
Yes people can be hard headed, but they are not really stupid, they have a job. All of us have diferent talents, some of us can’t add, but we can do other things.
Remember “you can bring a horse to water, but you may have to drown it, trying to get it to drink !
Ching on March 31, 2007
Don, that’s true. We each have our strengths and weaknesses. This was kind of a mean-spirited post. =P
I wish all the mathematically-challenged people all the best and may they find success in their non-mathematical endeavors.
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pinayhekmi on March 23, 2007
I don’t believe you. I’m following this message board. Nobody can be THAT stupid.
Have a great weekend!