I do not plan to make my personal open-letter-movement a movement of constant complaining and fault-finding.
This letter, though, will be a little complaint.
Dear companies (at lack of having a better addressee)
I have a problem. When I pay, there are always one of two things that happen on my till-slip. 1.) The prices of items are rounded to the nearest 10c; 2.) Prices are 99c, but the till immediately calculate the total price to a “cash rounding” of (for an example) 10c if the amount payable was 19c.
Thank you very much for this “cash rounding” (I call it a “discount”).
Here is my problem. Why is it that sometimes, when my slip say R2-10 change, I only get R2 change? Sometimes my slip would even say R2-40, and I will still only get R2 change.
Is that a new view on “cash rounding”. I know what it really is: The person at the till most likely doesn’t have the correct change in the till; or worse, he/she doesn’t care enough to give me the correct change.
I have worked it out. On a quite day, when a there are only 25 customers at one till during a day, and each customer gets 10c short changed, that till makes a “profit” of R2-50. (I think I am aiming low when I talk about 25 customers). Many big shops has about 10 tills. So multiply that R2-50 by 10, and that shop would make R25 a day, and in a month of 30 days: R750. Again, this would be a very quiet month for even an average small shop. (If a shop serves only 25 customers a day, I will gladly give an extra 10c, especially if the service is good).
Please, all owners of shops around the country, could you make sure that the tills in your shops have the correct change? Every time I get “short-changed”, I feel like an idiot to actually ask for my change.
I mean, R2-50 a day might not be a lot to you, but if I give every place I buy an extra 10c, I will pay an extra R20-25 a month to your shops. (Again, maybe not a lot to you, but that is enough for one week’s milk for me, at current prices).
Kind regards
One of your dear customers
Freddie's Coffeebar Blog 