Warning: ranting and winding ahead.  Proceed with caution.

One of my favorite scented candles, a large Yankee Candle in “Macintosh,” is down to half an inch.  I decided to try and find another high quality but less expensive brand, and based on the suggestion of a friend, went to Walgreens tonight to try the Patriot Candles line. As luck would have it, many of the scents in the large 20 ounce jar were on sale for only $4.99 each.  The regular price is $8.99 or 3 for $24.  Unfortunately, the “Crisp Apple” scent wasn’t on sale.  I debated buying just one of the $4.99 jars and getting the regularly-priced “Crisp Apple,” but in the end, I wanted to explore other scents so got 3 of the sale jars instead in “Rainforest,” “Apple Vanilla,” and “Day’s End.”

At the register, one of them rang up correctly at $4.99 but the other two rang up at $7.99.  Now, I was 100% sure that they should also be $4.99.  I am very careful when shopping and always check sale prices, valid dates, and any restrictions.  I like to be very efficient at the register and not waste anyone’s time.  I was confident speaking up and told the cashier, a girl in her late teens or early twenties, that the price on the other candles should have also been $4.99.  She said “No, they’re $7.99, see?” and showed me the receipt.  I said “Yes, I know they scanned at $7.99, I don’t know why, but they should be $4.99 like the other one.  I checked the sale signs.”  Her response was that the sale doesn’t start until tomorrow, and even though I knew that was wrong, I pointed out that one of them scanned at the sale price today.  She then changed her story and said only that one was on sale.  At this point, I was frustrated at her for not listening to me and said “well, you have a sale sign up right now saying those two are on sale for $4.99 and you’re telling me you won’t honor that?”  She simply said “No.”  I know many stores will even give you an item for free if it scans wrong!  I was getting upset, especially with the line of frustrated customers behind me who I’m sure were thinking that I was being a difficult customer.  However, it was becoming obviously that this girl was not going to help me.  I told her I only wanted the $4.99 candle and she voided the other two.

Instead of leaving, I went to another register in the cosmetics section.   I explained the situation to this new cashier and detailed what just happened up front.  She walked with me to the candle aisle where I showed her the clearly marked sale tags showing that those scents were on sale, right now, for $4.99.  She apologized for what happened earlier and said she would give me the sale price. I expected her to scan them and then manually change the price, but when she scanned them they rang up at $4.99 this time.  WTF?!  What was going on?  I showed her my voided receipt so she didn’t think I was crazy.  She told me that she didn’t know what was going on and neither did I as I finally left with my 3 candles.

But now I do.  At first, the $7.99 price didn’t make sense.  It wasn’t the sale price of $4.99 nor was it the regular price of $8.99.  So where did that price come from? Turns out there’s a flaw in their system and pricing rules.  Yes, those candles were on sale for $4.99 each. If they weren’t on sale, they would ring up at $8.99 each, or, if you were to buy 3, they would ring up at $7.99 each because of the regular 3/$24 deal.  Because I bought 3, my other two rang up at the $7.99 price because in their system the sale price wasn’t sent to trump the old rule.  When the other cashier rang up only 2 by themselves, the $7.99 price didn’t even come into play. I wish my brain was fast enough to figure this out when I was dealing with the first cashier.

Even though it wasn’t her fault that the computer got confused, she should have tried to help me instead of arguing with me.  If a customer told me there was something wrong with my product or service, I would at least investigate the validity of the claim first instead of just blindly telling the customer she was wrong and not offering any alternatives.

Anyway, the “Apple Vanilla” is burning now.  A separate post about what I think of Patriot Candles will be written later.

Share/Bookmark: