Short changed in Clarks!!

helliesin

Ok... here goes (it's a long one!)...

So, I went in Clarks (shoe shop) today to buy a can of shoe protector. Assistant clearly had learning difficulties, and I do not by any means mean that to sound nasty but think it is relevant. I gave her a £20 not, she gave me change of £10. I pointed this out very politely, she couldn't remember and had put the note away in the till. I am 100% certain that it was £20, I didnt have any £10s in my purse. Another assistant stepped in, and said they would have to count up the till and check it was £10 over. Fair enough. She counted up the till using money scales, and report showed that it was £10 short. Assistant asks other assistant (whith learning difficulties) if she has 'been making mistakes again'. Manager said count it again, they did it again and it balanced. At this point they said they dont believe and refused to give me my money back. Very embarrassing in front of loads of other customers. I refused to accept this, and also said I had to get going soon as had to pick dd1 up from school. Manager said he would check cctv, and that I could leave and they would call me when they had looked at it. I said no I would wait and off they went.

After about 15minutes they came back and said they couldnt see either way on camera. Manager phoned customer care and counts till up again whilst on phone, dropping all the money all over the floor in the process. Comes out 26p over. After they had had a conversation, he gave me the phone. Lady on phone tells me she is choosing to use the middle reading as accurate and they are not prepared to do anything about it. End of (as far as she is concerned).

I asked manager to count till again, manually, which he did. This time its 46p over. Still refusing to do anything about it, even though their tills are clearly inaccurate. He eventually agrees for me to watch cctv, but says I cant bring dd2 (who is 3!) into the office and expects me to leave her alone in the shop. Reluctantly agrres to show me cctv. Camera isnt even pointing at till and shows nothing. After a long, and very frank talk in the office he says he doesnt disbelieve me and understands my point about being prepared for mistakes if you have people with learning difficulties working for you (I really am not being mean) he still refused to give me my money back. By this point I was getting REALLY late to pick dd1 up from school, he offered me a £10 clarks voucher which I refused. He insisted he wanted me to take voucher, eventually I said just give it to me but I'll return it to customer services when i write to them. He apologised loads of times but still refused to give me the money back.

I phoned customer services when I got home and spoke to manager of lady on the phone in the shop. She half listens to my story, is clearly uninterested and doesnt care, and then says shes not going to do anything about it. She reluctantly gave me customer sservices address and told me she didnt want to talk about it anymore.

So now, where do I go from here? It seems like no one at Clarks cares....:mad: I will be writing to them, but dont really know what to say except what they already know and dont care about!

Thank you in advance!
x

hcb42

just write to them, paper can be more effective than telephone conversations

arcon5

Where can you go really? You have no proof, their till balanced (whether this was as a result of an earlier mistake you can't proof). I doubt you will get anywhere with it, file a formal complaint by all means & make your voice heard, with any luck they'll get sick of you and offer a so called 'goodwill' gesture of £10 cash -- or a voucher to a greater value.

McKneff

I only ever had this done to me once, now whenever I hand over a tenner or a twenty, I always say, I'm sorry, I only have a £10/£20, its a bit more memorable then.

Good for you for standing your ground and making them do the till there and then though.

MamaMoo_2

Ask HO if the till balanced at the end of the day?

unholyangel

MamaMoo wrote: »

Ask HO if the till balanced at the end of the day?

Tbf it doesnt sound like it was balancing even within the space of an hour or so.

When i worked in the club we'd always leave the note on top of the till while getting the change to remind us what the customer had given. Of course with some people, this doesnt help. We had a woman working who was really quite slow. She gave out wrong change quite a few times.

If the worker is really making mistakes on a regular basis - especially with money - then perhaps they shouldnt be put on the till and asked to perform other duties instead.

MackemPunk

Quick tip, when you pay with a note, quickly memorize the last four digits of the serial number.

dontone

Someone once attempted to short change me out of £10 at the Doctor Who museum in Blackpool. I gave a £20 and she was adamant I gave her a £10. She then just went "er, yes you did give me a £20" and gave me a £10 back.
Now when I pay with a £20, I actually say in a clear voice "TWENTY" as I hand the note over. I notice that some staff lay the note on top of the till drawer until the change is counted.

But as someone has already pointed out - why is there someone on the till who is prone to making mistakes? That person should be nowhere near a till.

NiallB

unholyangel wrote: »

Tbf it doesnt sound like it was balancing even within the space of an hour or so.

When i worked in the club we'd always leave the note on top of the till while getting the change to remind us what the customer had given. Of course with some people, this doesnt help. We had a woman working who was really quite slow. She gave out wrong change quite a few times.

If the worker is really making mistakes on a regular basis - especially with money - then perhaps they shouldnt be put on the till and asked to perform other duties instead.

In my shop I always take the money and say "That's ten then, thankyou" so we both know. More for my benefit than the customer's though, got a memory like a sieve! Try it, it works well for me

unholyangel

NiallB wrote: »

In my shop I always take the money and say "That's ten then, thankyou" so we both know. More for my benefit than the customer's though, got a memory like a sieve! Try it, it works well for me

I dont work on tills anymore. I only ever had one customer say they gave me a £20 and not a £10 but we cashed up the till then and there and the till was fine. Guy said he was mistaken and still had his £20 note then walked away. I wasnt sure if he was genuinely mistaken, drunk or trying to pull a fast one :rotfl:

texranger

we once has someone try it on saying that they gave a £20 and not a £10, but what they never knew was that their was no £20s in the till at the time, one the customer was shown this they quickly grapped their correct change and then decided to knock over a standing display before trying to leave, but other customers blocked his exit until he could be restrained and police called.

he was eventually charged with criminal damage and attempted theft (pertaining to give a £20 instead of £10) he was known to the police and often did this