No, someone wasn't asking my opinion on a product.
The first time it happened at Wendy's. Wendy's has these newfangled natural fries with sea salt or some shit like that, and to promote their new product they posted a coupon for a free small order of fries on their website. Two things I love are free things and Wendy's fries. This was a match made in heaven.
Andy and I headed over to Wendy's to get us some dinner one evening. We ordered our burgers and fries and I presented the coupons which I had left full-sheet with the Wendy's logo all over it. Since one doesn't normally coupon shop at a fast food restaurant, I figured it was best to leave the page whole.
The cashier stared at the coupons as if I were trying to hand her a live duck. She took them after a moment, looked at the coupons, looked at me, and called out very loudly to her manager "Hey (manager's name), are these good?" while waving the coupons above her head in his direction.
The manager's eyes went wide. "I printed them from the Wendy's website," I told the cashier firmly but politely and she stammered what seemed like an apology. The manager quickly came over and muttered something to her I couldn't hear, and she fumbled with the register to apply the coupons.
I was aggrivated. Worse yet, the new fries were not very good.
Then, last week at Wags, I was purchasing some scissors. I've gotten into the habit of checking out in cosmetics because there's almost never a line and the gal who normally works that register is knowledgeable, friendly, and efficient.
I was faced with a conundrum the night of the scissors. There was a steady line at the front register and absolutely no one in cosmetics, but the normal cosmetics cashier wasn't working that night. I vaguely recognized the cashier who was working there and something told me to just go wait in line up front, but I wanted to be in & out quickly. I went with the cosmetics register.
The cashier ignored us for a few minutes, busying herself shuffling some papers around next to the register. I set my first transaction on the counter and had my coupons in hand and I waited for her to finish. Hell if I know what she was doing with the papers, but it could have been important. When she finally said hello, I did my usual "Hi there, I've got two transactions today!" spiel and silently urged her to get moving because someone had gotten in line behind me and the front register was backing up even more.
She rang the tissue paper, she rang the scissors, and I handed over the coupons for the scissors.
She looked at them and sighed. "Hang on," she mumbled and at that moment I realized why my gut had told me to check out elsewhere. She had rang me out once before at a front register; it was a small order and I had one printable coupon with me. She examined that coupon like it might hold the secrets of the universe and then called a manager over to ask if she could take it. I had been a bit surprised and asked if they had a new policy or something. I'd familiarized myself with Walgreens' coupon policy before I started shopping there and I knew that they accept legitimate printable coupons. She told me "Well, no, but people make fake coupons all the time and I'm not gonna get in trouble over it so I have the manager check them so it's not on me." It was odd, but the manager told her to go ahead after a quick glance at the coupon.
So, the scissors coupons - she paged a manager over. Said manager came to the register after a few minutes and, in an eerie repeat of the Wendy's experience, the cashier waved the coupons and called out loudly "Are these good?"
The manager gave her a funny look. "Yes, just scan them!" she told the cashier. I finished both my transactions, took my receipts and my RRs (I refuse to call them Jingle Cash - what a ridiculous marketing term), and stormed out to the car.
I was pissed.
I was still pissed the next day, and a satisfaction survey had printed on my second receipt. I filled out the questionnaire expressing my lack of satisfaction with the cashier's insinuation in front of customers and other employees that my coupons could be fraudulent - twice now.
And that's what it comes down to. Both cashiers, with a paying customer standing in front of them, insinuated that my coupons were somehow fake by loudly asking, "Are these good?" in an unpleasant tone of voice. The Wendy's incident I can forgive - I'm sure they don't get many printable coupons, but I've been in that Walgreens pretty much every week (some weeks multiple times) for months now. I buy lots of products. Every other cashier I've dealt with seems able to determine that I'm not handing over forgeries or photocopies without embarrassing anyone. I don't expect to be treated like a queen when I shop, but I do expect decency at the very least.
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