I went to Fry’s tonight to look around. I found a Zelda: Twight Princess guidebook for 15 bucks and went to register where this dialog took place:
Fry’s Clerk: Did you find everything you were looking for?
Me: Yep, I did. (as I’m holding out $17 in cash)
Fry’s Clerk: Would you like to put this on your Fry’s account?
Me: No thanks, I’ll just pay cash
Fry’s Clerk: I see that. We have to ask everyone and I don’t want to get fired
I wrote about these dumb questions employers force their associate to ask customers a few weeks back and here’s yet another example. I have the cash out of my wallet. The clerk can clearly see I want to pay with cash. But because of some lame corporate mandate, he has to ask me a dumb question and make both of us uncomfortable.
Why not train your employees to use good judgment in offering credit and let them figure out the best time to make such an offer? Asking me to put a $15 book on a credit card I probably don’t have is just lame and the clerk who asked me that knew it. I knew it and Fry’s corporate should know it too.
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