Do you ever say that? Usually these words are spoken during an argument where you are not necessarily going to win or gain anything for choosing your position except for the fact that you believe that your position is correct and your arguing about it is justified.
Take for example the other day…
I was out shopping (what else is new?) and I bought a couple of things from this store. I’m always slightly shocked when the sales girl tells me what my total is (“What?! I spent that much!”) and I am one of those people that as soon as I get my bill, studies it to make sure I wasn’t over charged in any way. I pull out the calculator on my cell (the ease of pulling up the calculator on my cell phone is one of the major criteria I look at when choosing a cell – what can I say? My family is full of accountants, well, except for me. I’m a left brain thinker…or is it the right brain? Well whatever side of the brain is the creative side instead of the analytical side) and begin calculating the taxes to ensure I was charged correctly. This day was no different. As I walked out of the store I had a nagging feeling that what I was charged just wasn’t correct! I had bought a gift card so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t charged the tax on the gift card. As I calculated my total, I saw that my nagging feeling was correct. I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t adding up though! Until I saw the taxes…the girl had somehow charged me 8.5% tax instead of 7%! I called my dad (who is a retired accountant and constantly pulls out the calculator to tell me exactly how much savings I should have.) as he would know if tax had suddenly been upped to 8.5%. He said “No! We would have heard that on the news leading up to January 1st! Go and get your money back!!” (Incidentally, he is also constantly glued to CNN, so he knows ALL current events. Even stuff that hasn't happened yet. Yeah, THAT current.) Unfortunately, since I was getting picked up and was already late to meet my husband, I decided I would give the store a call later to let them know what happened.
So, later that evening I called to inform them of their mistake, thinking that there must have been tons of other people they were overcharging. I was somewhat surprised that the salesperson who answered had no clue what to do in this situation (I imagined crowds of angry people holding up their bills shouting "Too much tax! Too much tax!"). Anyways he took down my information and told me their manager would be informed the next day.
The next day I decided to go back to the store to see what their solution would be. I went up to the counter to tell the girl what happened. She took my bill, scanned it and said “Honestly, it’s only a difference of like 50 or 60 cents” and gave me a look that said “Really? You came back here for THAT?” which incensed me so I answered back, matter of factly, “Yes, I know that, but I’m more concerned about the fact that I’m not the only one who might have been overcharged.” So she called her supervisor, who didn’t completely understand what happened. The salesgirl explained “We charged her 8.5% tax and it only should have been 7% tax”. The supervisor looked at my bill and said “Wow, that’s weird. Would they have changed the tax to 8.5% for like a week or something?”
Um…seriously?!
Inwardly I said to her “Are you crazy? How are you even a supervisor?!”
Outwardly I said “Um. No. Probably not. Plus I bought something else yesterday and the taxes were still 7% . Didn’t anyone else get charged this 8.5% tax?!”
The “supervisor” said “No. You were the only one.”
Hmm….YEAH RIGHT.
Anyways, after much calculation and confusion, I ended up getting my $0.57 cents back! (plus some samples!)
PS. I refuse to believe that I was the only one this happened to. I do believe, however, I’m the only cheapskate that decided to go back for her $0.57 cents under the guise of “being concerned that it happened to other people”. Heh heh. Principles.
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