We Know The Sign’s Broken, But What’s YOUR Major Malfunction?
I used to work at a gas station. One day, our sign malfunctioned and displayed a lower price than was actually charged by the pumps. It was something like four cents a gallon difference. We couldn’t fix it, and we couldn’t make the pumps charge a different price, so we were just giving anyone who complained a refund in cash. (My manager said he’d sort the shortage with corporate later.)
I had some version of this conversation about a dozen times that night.
Customer: *Raging* “YOUR PUMP OVERCHARGED ME!”
Me: “Yes, they’re malfunctioning, but I’d be happy to refund the difference to you. Which pump are you on?”
Customer: *Raging more* “THIS IS FALSE ADVERTISING! BAIT AND SWITCH! I ONLY STOPPED HERE BECAUSE THE GAS WAS CHEAPER!”
Me: “Uh-huh. Which pump was that? Give me a second to figure out your refund…”
And then I’d give them their refund, which was inevitably an amount less than $2, and loudly count it out for them.
They’d slink off, and as a bonus win, everyone else in line who had the same complaint would be chill.