How to make an auto parts clerk go crazy

[TR6oldtimer]

Tell him you need a Tach and Dwell meter.

The eyes of the young gals or guys roll to the back of their heads.

 

[Brosky]

Oh you had me worried for a minute. I thought that you might have given him $20 bill for $10.14 in parts and had to watch him make change without help.

 

[Gliderman8]

Oh you had me worried for a minute. I thought that you might have given him $20 bill for $10.14 in parts and had to watch him make change without help.

:lol: funny, very funny! :lol:

 

[Guest]

I guess as an ex-counterman, I should be offended. HOWEVER, I always seem to get the dumbest guy in the company when I buy parts. I won't shop anywhere I can't go behind the counter and look my own stuff up.

Oh you had me worried for a minute. I thought that you might have given him $20 bill for $10.14 in parts and had to watch him make change without help.

:lol: funny, very funny! :lol:

 

[poolboy]

I'm just surprised that the first question as they went to the computer was, "What car ?"

 

[ekamm]

I love the "what's that go on"
A '59 TR3A
Oh? Ok (He's looking for the old guy or manager)
It's ok I was just messing with ya!

I wander around my FLAPS waiting for the guy to not be with another customer so I can talk to
(THE GUY)

 

[Brosky]

Kelly,

Don't be offended. It is no reference to your generation. You have told me your age by stating that you won't shop at a place that you can't go behind the counter and look your own parts up. If you can do that, you have learned long ago what many kids today have not, and that is how to count.

I could have applied that statement to a Dunkin Donuts, Sears, Fashion Bug or any place at all that hires young people just out of high school. It is scary what these kids don't know how to do for themselves.

 

[Sarastro]

Some time ago, I stopped at the local Arco station. The guy who ran it had some time on his hands, so he showed me his new cash register. You entered the amount paid, and of course it told you how much change to give the customer--but then, it also showed how many quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies to count out!

A sign of the times.....

 

[bgbassplyr]

True story.

Have a friend who was hiring a baby sitter. Offered her $800 a month. Girl, 19, thought about it for a minute, and said that wasn't enough, she wanted $75 a week.

A deal was then struck, then and there for $75 a week. Both parties went away happy.

 

[TR6BILL]

Try telling the young lady behind the counter you want a <span style="font-style: italic">Flat Bastard</span>....

 

[jsfbond]

Sad to say the modern "Fast Food" parts store is the thing. Its cheaper to run and stock (top ten moving parts in any one product line) and the "kids" are not going to be around long enough to learn the books. I have a counter guy working for me who just received his 49th anniversary card with the company, and if he does not know the requested part off the top of his head, he will go to the books almost everytime. Needless to say anybody with a car ten years or older comes to us and not the "kids" across town. The last parts house I worked for wanted me to go to this format for years. I fought to keep my older, expirienced guys in place. Now that I'm gone that store has rolled over too.

 

[BobbyD]

I worked in retail during my college days in the 60's and they taught you the correct way to "make change" and give it to the customer. Using Paul's $20 for a $10.14 purchase.........you'd start at $10.14....give him a penny $10.15, a dime $10.25, a quarter for $10.50, another quarter - $10.75 and another quarter to $11.00, then $1 to $12, another to $13, to $14 and to $15 and finally a $5 to get to his $20. I actually had a guy at the Post Office count out my change that way the other day. The kids and adults to day only know how to give change based on what the register says.....if you really want to mess with them, give them an extra penny or two so you don't get any pennies back.

 

[jsfbond]

I have a friend who will make a purchase from a young clerk, and the tranaction goes like this, $13.52, out of twenty, He will say wait I've got the change. Then proceed to count out 73 cents and hand that to them, then he waits.... unfortunately so does everyone behind him.

 

[3798j]

Working for a Pennsylvania based supermarket chain in the sixties as a teenager, we could be fired if management became aware of a cashier being lazy and not "counting back" change from the purchase total to the amount tendered (as Bobby D described). Subsequently, because of this instruction I continued this practice in my shop for over 32 years. Surprised customers would comment favorably on this "lost art".

 

[DrEntropy]

I comment on it if receiving change "properly". Worked retail businesses all my adult life, all my sales peeps were told it was a condition of their employment.

Now if a counter person hands me change by first putting the coins in my hand instead of tossin' 'em on top of the bills I'm stunned.

 

[dklawson]

Moving away from the money aspect of this, I have a similar story from work regarding metric vs. inch stuff.

Our products are metric. My mind works both ways but I design (mentally) in inches since rough stock is typically only available to inch dimensions. Our electrical department needs to know exacting wire lengths to get everything to fit inside new products. On a new project we gambled and gave all the wire lengths in millimeters since it was VERY easy to mark and cut 25mm instead of 63/64". The ladies on the assembly bench could NOT handle this. They found a metric scale, placed it next to an inch scale and used a Sharpie to transfer each metric unit to the inch scale... then they wrote the inch equivalent on the drawing. All they needed to do was take that metric scale and count "25" and make a cut... way too complicated I guess.

BTW, I usually just tell the guys at the parts store that the car I need parts for is not going to be in the computer... or I'll say "it's for a 1967 Triumph GT6, it won't be in your computer" to see how else they can help. Mainly, I browse.

 

[swift6]

I worked in retail during my college days in the 60's and they taught you the correct way to "make change" and give it to the customer. Using Paul's $20 for a $10.14 purchase.........you'd start at $10.14....give him a penny $10.15, a dime $10.25, a quarter for $10.50, another quarter - $10.75 and another quarter to $11.00, then $1 to $12, another to $13, to $14 and to $15 and finally a $5 to get to his $20.

That is exactly how I was taught to count change in my step dads drugstore when I was 12 (in 1983 :wink: ) That is also the way that I prefer it and saddened by the inability of people to such simple arithmetic (yes I know what that word actually means too :wink: ).

The kids and adults to day only know how to give change based on what the register says.....if you really want to mess with them, give them an extra penny or two so you don't get any pennies back.

That is fun, but give them the extra change after they open the drawer and watch them panic, let them twist in the wind a while and then explain to them what change they should give you back. Then tell them how they should never let a customer direct how change should be given because its a good way to get ripped off, as you pocket your change. Yet another panicked look usually follows. Then, wink, smile and walk out.

Another habit I have never been able to break is facing my bills. I do it with my cash all the time. I can't put it back in my wallet without it being faced. It's almost a sickness.

 

[AngliaGT]

Shawn,

Me too - I have to have all the bills facing
the same way,& in order ($1,$5,$10,$20,etc.).How-
ever,I don't go as far as having the serial numbers
in order.
When I started checking (Safeway),we had to
count the change back to the customer aloud.
I did the same thing with the change at a fast-
food place.I gave the kid behind the counter the
change so that I would receive less change.I thought
that he was going to have a nervous breakdown.
If that happens,I tell them to give me the change
& then put in my money & have them exchange it.

- Doug

 

[angelfj1]

Yes, and it drives others (folks not from the USA) crazy that ALL of our bank notes are the same size. I never gave this much thought until I started traveling internationally in the 1980's.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

Vision impaired people have problems with all the bills being the same size also.
There was a group a few years ago that wanted to change all the bills. Nice idea, but impractical at this point. Every cash drawer and vending machine would have to be changed.

I watch a kid yesterday trying to figure out what to do with t two dollar bill. The drawer did not have a place for it.