So I tried to buy a gift card...
I needed to go to Target to buy a few cards tonight, and while I was out, I figured I'd run another errand. A certain coworker is celebrating a certain milestone birthday next month and he likes to shop at a certain small-chain grocery store, and one is near my house, so why don't I get him a gift card? Easy enough.
I wandered the store for a little bit in case something caught my fancy; nothing did enough to carry it to the counter, but I spotted a selection of gift cards and grabbed one. Only one checkout lane was open, not too surprising since it was after 8 PM on a Friday, and one lady was just finishing up and another was just getting rung up. No biggie.
The girl then helps me. She does something to show in her register that I'm buying the gift card, and then I put my credit card in the reader, and my charge goes through...and then she goes and swipes the gift card in the same reader. That seemed odd to me. Like, anywhere else you go, you apply the money onto the gift card, then you pay for it. The girl repeatedly swiped the gift card with nothing happening; the money was not being put onto it. But it appeared, clearly to me and the checkout girl, that my credit card was charged the money.
After trying multiple times to get the gift card to swipe, she gets on the intercom to call someone named Janine to the front. A second girl comes by and says Janine's outside; she has to call Todd. By now there's at least one person in line behind me. Todd comes over and is like, you can't ever call me when I'm up front; you always call when I'm in the back! I feel your pain, dude. So now he's trying to figure out what happened, and he can see the receipts that printed, and the gift card has had sort of a pre-authorization, and my card has been charged, but the money has not been transferred onto the gift card itself and is in limbo somewhere. He tries to figure it out for a minute, cannot, then goes outside to fetch Janine. She must be the register whisperer. By now, three people are behind me in line. I say to the girl, are you able to open another register?
Todd returns with Janine, and Todd immediately jumps onto the register behind me to ring up the poor people stuck behind this mess. Prior to going outside, he'd apologized to me a couple times and appreciated my being patient; I went, I could throw a tantrum if you'd like. I also apologized for causing a problem and he went, this is minor compared to how the rest of the day went. Yeah, me too. My morning did not go well. He was also surprised that they were having such trouble with one of their own company's gift cards. It would be one thing if it was a card for another store or restaurant, you know?
I'm not sure what all Janine was having to do, but I counted at least five separate times where she had to scan her employee badge to be able to do whatever she needed to do in the computer. Eventually the screen on the counter, facing me and to the right of the credit card reader, showed a negative balance. It was around that time that Todd returned and was saying, we probably have to put this all on one transaction; we should refund her money to her card first, then run it again. This made perfect sense to me, so they ran the refund and did another transaction. They also made sure to grab a different gift card. Okay. Ring up the gift card, take my money, scan the card in the credit card reader...First time, it angry beeped. Second time? Was more of a happy ding. Oh, that's a sound that's new. ...Success! Here came several receipts, showing that the card was activated and my card was charged. Todd apologized, again, and joked about how many lines would appear on my credit card statement. Hey, as long as I'm only charged the correct amount, I don't really care. All I know is, this person REALLY better appreciate this gift.
I wandered the store for a little bit in case something caught my fancy; nothing did enough to carry it to the counter, but I spotted a selection of gift cards and grabbed one. Only one checkout lane was open, not too surprising since it was after 8 PM on a Friday, and one lady was just finishing up and another was just getting rung up. No biggie.
The girl then helps me. She does something to show in her register that I'm buying the gift card, and then I put my credit card in the reader, and my charge goes through...and then she goes and swipes the gift card in the same reader. That seemed odd to me. Like, anywhere else you go, you apply the money onto the gift card, then you pay for it. The girl repeatedly swiped the gift card with nothing happening; the money was not being put onto it. But it appeared, clearly to me and the checkout girl, that my credit card was charged the money.
After trying multiple times to get the gift card to swipe, she gets on the intercom to call someone named Janine to the front. A second girl comes by and says Janine's outside; she has to call Todd. By now there's at least one person in line behind me. Todd comes over and is like, you can't ever call me when I'm up front; you always call when I'm in the back! I feel your pain, dude. So now he's trying to figure out what happened, and he can see the receipts that printed, and the gift card has had sort of a pre-authorization, and my card has been charged, but the money has not been transferred onto the gift card itself and is in limbo somewhere. He tries to figure it out for a minute, cannot, then goes outside to fetch Janine. She must be the register whisperer. By now, three people are behind me in line. I say to the girl, are you able to open another register?
Todd returns with Janine, and Todd immediately jumps onto the register behind me to ring up the poor people stuck behind this mess. Prior to going outside, he'd apologized to me a couple times and appreciated my being patient; I went, I could throw a tantrum if you'd like. I also apologized for causing a problem and he went, this is minor compared to how the rest of the day went. Yeah, me too. My morning did not go well. He was also surprised that they were having such trouble with one of their own company's gift cards. It would be one thing if it was a card for another store or restaurant, you know?
I'm not sure what all Janine was having to do, but I counted at least five separate times where she had to scan her employee badge to be able to do whatever she needed to do in the computer. Eventually the screen on the counter, facing me and to the right of the credit card reader, showed a negative balance. It was around that time that Todd returned and was saying, we probably have to put this all on one transaction; we should refund her money to her card first, then run it again. This made perfect sense to me, so they ran the refund and did another transaction. They also made sure to grab a different gift card. Okay. Ring up the gift card, take my money, scan the card in the credit card reader...First time, it angry beeped. Second time? Was more of a happy ding. Oh, that's a sound that's new. ...Success! Here came several receipts, showing that the card was activated and my card was charged. Todd apologized, again, and joked about how many lines would appear on my credit card statement. Hey, as long as I'm only charged the correct amount, I don't really care. All I know is, this person REALLY better appreciate this gift.