I'm Good at Math

Sometimes I am utterly amazed at the incompetence of some people- namely cashiers. Let me illustrate:

I went to Payless Shoes today to get Emma some shoes. I had a "One Time Use" card good for $25. These cards can only be used the one time (hence the name) meaning, I can't use part today, and come back next month and use the rest. Since Emma's shoes were only $14.99, I thought I'd get Nathan some, too. And as always, there was a BOGO (buy one, get one half- off) sale. The shoes I picked for Nathan were $17.99 (way more than I like to pay for his shoes, but hey- card and sale- how could I go wrong? Boy was I wrong.) Are you with me....$17.99 + $14.99/2 = ? Now, I have been helping my kids quite a bit with their homework the past several years and have come across many math problems similar to this. In fact, just tonight, Tyler had a whole bunch just like it. Tyler is in 2nd grade.

OK, back to Payless...So, the girl rings up the shoes and tells me the total amount...$36 something. I question her. "Well, there's tax." she says. I question her again. "There's tax" she says again. So, I break it down for her. If I am buying one pair at $18, and one at half of $15- that being $7.50, my total should be around $25.50 + tax. I am assuming because I didn't automatically calculate the exact amount for tax in my head; she then replied, "Let me get Bertha, she's good at math. That is why I am only in Algebra 2." (Remember, my 2nd grader could figure this one out!) I simply replied, "I'm good at math, too!" OK, so I'm not as good as say, my math teacher sister-in-law, my husband or my dad or my brother, or...OK,that's depressing. But I'm not dumb, either. And I can certainly figure out an addition problem.

So Bertha comes over and immediately reprimands the first girl for not typing in the tax-exempt code. Unbeknownst to me, "one-time use cards" are tax-exempt. That makes the math even easier! Bertha gets on the phone and calls who I am assuming to be the corporate offices. After listening to her half of the conversation for no less than 5 minutes, she gets back to me. "OK, what I am going to do since the card has already been used and can't be used again is have you pay me $21.43" (Where did that figure come from?!!!) And then I will give it right back to you." By this point I do not trust her with my money and I am not willing to part with it, if even for 2 seconds. So I say, "How about I leave my money in my wallet and you pretend like I gave it to you." This is the ultimate... she says, "Once I open my till, I can't open it again until the next transaction." DUH! Please don't open your till. I am not giving you money, so it doesn't matter.

I would have walked out long before this if it didn't mean I'd lose the $25. "Fine." she says. Then she looks the figures over and does some sort of calculation. "OK, so you owe $0.91" She continues to amaze me with her lack of math skills. The total should equal $25.49 and my card was for $25. That leaves $0.49 if I rmemeber how to subtract. I almost reached for a dollar, just to be done with it, but by now I had to prove my point (this happened once before over a dentist bill- I had to change dentists after that one!) I explained that my remaining balance should only be $0.49. She argued with me back and forth a little, muttered something about $3 sales tax( ?!!) and threw my receipt at me and told me to expect a phone call from corporate. I might just call them first.