Constant Vigilance

On Monday, I went to a local grocery store — Shop ‘N Save. The sign said $2.99 for baked ham. The deli worker charged me $3.99. I explained to the deli worker their error. Instead of looking at the card associated with the baked ham, the deli worker pointed above them at a sign that read “$3.99 for Bologne.” Oh… well, that would have been helpful. It is just that I was buying ham, not bologne. After explaining to the genius behind the counter that I expected to pay the price associated with the item, he finally corrected the problem.

On Tuesday, I was in a Wendy’s. I ordered two Junior Bacon Cheesburgers and a small baked potato. I was charged for three Junior Bacon Cheesburgers and a small baked potato. I thought something was wrong but couldn’t figure out what. I handed the cashier $10 and felt something was wrong when I received less money back than I had been expecting. When the cashier placed my receipt on the counter, I leaned over to see what she actually charged me for. Then, I called for her and I informed the cashier of the oversight. She refunded my money for the burger that I did not want. As an interesting side note, the cashier opened the register and handed me the refund in cash without doing anything, that I could discern, to account for the burger that Wendy’s did not sell or the cash that was returned to me that Wendy’s would now have to pay taxes on…

On Wednesday, I was at a Busy Beaver — a hardware store in my area. I was returning a flashlight for $3.49. I received $2.14 with tax. First, the associate told me that the item was discounted. Strangely, there was no item discount when I paid. Then, the associate asked someone else who searched for the previous price. They couldn’t figure out that it was, but they both decided to explain to me that the cash register doesn’t lie. I explained to them that the receipt didn’t lie either. The reason that the receipt was showing $3.49 cents for the item was because I had indeed paid that much for it. The reason it was showing up for $2.00 on the refund was because it was now on sale. The reason for the problem was that the cashier didn’t understand that they needed to … umm… read the receipt and override the price. Eventually, I received the refund. The cashier just handed me cash without accounting for the difference that they gave me. Gee, that is the second time in two days that a retailer ended up paying taxes on money that they didn’t have.

Lastly, on December 10th, 2008, I was reviewing the settlement documents for the two unit that I purchased. I discovered that even though the seller was supposed to give me the prorated rent that they were collecting from the tenants before we went to closing on the 11th of December, I, instead, was PAYING the seller for rent that the seller had kept. Hmm… something seems wrong about that. It was corrected, needless to say. The title company simply made a mistake.

Mistakes happen. Everyone is not out to get you. Some people are just not paying attention. Nevertheless, no matter what mistakes are made by the people around you, you need to be vigilant and verify that you really are getting what you expect to receive. If you do not watch to ensure that people provide what they are supposed to, you will lose money. It might not always be a sizeable sum of money, but every penny that you allow to slip through your fingers is money that you cannot save, invest, or pay down debt with.