My job involves planning large events. Most of the time they are out of state, but once a year there is a big to-do here in town and I am in charge of getting the supplies for it. Last May I was preparing for such an event, which involved buying cases of water for the attendees. I would run into the local Wal-mart, where the greeter at the front door is a kind older man from my church. On one of these occasions, I bought 15 cases of water. Rather than go through self-checkout, as I normally do, I went to a cashier thinking it would be easier (I wouldn't have to put every case over the scanner, or even one case 15 times). She rang me up, I paid, took my receipt, and went on my merry way. When I got to the door, the greeter just waved. He didn't ask to see my receipt -- this in itself isn't all that odd, they don't always make you show a receipt, and after all, he knew me from church.
When I got to my car and started to unload -- I noticed the cashier had only charged me for 14 cases. So I unloaded the rest and went in to pay for the other case. As I passed the greeter, he gave me a confused look. "Small mistake," I said, and went back to the cashier, she added the case to my bill, I paid again, problem solved. Right?
Not so much. See, now, every time I go to Wal-mart (which is every week -- I do my grocery shopping there), there stands the same greeter. And every time he says, "Now the last time you were in here, you assured me that everything was paid for and then you came back in all red-faced because you'd missed something." The first time he said that, I was honestly confused as to why he was bringing it up. He went on to tell me, "Now, you make sure you pay for everything so you don't have to be red-faced." Um, whatever.
First of all, I came back. I wasn't legally but rather morally obligated, and only because I happened to look over my receipt. I don't always do that, to be honest. Second, I wasn't upset -- 14 instead of 15 is an easy enough mistake to make, and I fixed it with little trouble. Also, I have a red face. I just do -- if it was any redder, it was likely from the heat of the spring day or moving 15 cases of water into my trunk, not from embarrassment. And finally... He says the same thing EVERY WEEK. "Now the last time you came in here...." It was six months ago! And I was not the one who forgot to pay. I wasn't deliberately trying to steal a $15 case of water from Wal-mart. Seriously, move on.
As I will, now that I have ranted.
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