This is in regards to the Wellcome Supermarket in Linkou nearest the Changgung Hospital (so, I think it’s on Fuxing 1 road…definately in-between Wenhua 2nd and Wenhua 3rd roads…so maybe actually in Gueishan Xiang).
So, yeah, I went there to buy some goods, found what I needed, and took them to the counter. As with everywhere, the girl looked at me and didn’t say anything, assuming I don’t speak chinese. So she silently rang everything up, and then looked at me for the money. I could see on the computer screen that the total was $140NT, so I gave her $500…then she looked at the money, typed in something, then put the $500 in the drawer and gave me back $140NT with my reciept. So, I stood there assesing the situation, and trying to make completely sure that something was amiss. I looked at the reciept (and this is why I think she was trying to cheat me, rather than making an honest mistake). At the bottom, it had the total printed, then the Change printed (which would be $360), then it had the total printed again beneath the change. It seems that the girl assumed that I would take the $140, look at the reciept, and, not being able to read chinese, see $140 as the last number and assume that that’s the change I should recieve…then perhaps she would proceed to pocket the difference. Regardless, I got the proper change from her, so, yeah.
I suppose it could be an honest mistake that she made, and perhaps I’m just being a paranoid foriegner…but it’s hard to believe that you could mistake the total for the change…I’ve worked as a cashier before, and I don’t recall anyone making that mistake . So, just thought I’d give people a “head’s up”. If this shit happens to you, don’t stand for it. If you can’t speak chinese, yell at the person in English until you get your money back.
Exactly. Even though it could be an honest mistake, the best course of action is to yell at someone in a foreign language. That always produces the desired results. Slapping someone smartly across the face also works, as does pulling a gun, pressing it against the clerk’s temple and saying “bang”.
Song Ren Rd branch in Xinyi couldn’t be more friendly. Even when I clumsily knocked over a bottle of wine and smashed it they didn’t ask me to pay. I look at the little screen as the run the goods through and have had no problems with change - then I always use a credit card. I think you struck aberrant event.
not saying it did in your case, i dunno … wasn’t there. the fruit sellers here can be bad - they have systems for knowing what kind of fruit you buy (different color bags/stickers etc., let’s say “label”). when i don’t feel like going for a shop in tesco etc., and need some vit. c, i tend to go to the closest place. they regularly use the price of the more expensive kind of fruit i’m buying (which has a different “label”, and as such should be easy to tell apart).
i guess they get lotsa people foreigners who don’t look/pay attention/ know the price (that’s not /kg), but i’ve had to ask for the correct price about five times since we moved around here (two + years). maybe they do this to everyone … i have no idea. get a shocked expression each time chinese comes out of my mouth mentioning that they used the wrong price again.
kinda sucks, b/c supermarkets are packed and take a long time, and the next closest stand ain’t all that close. not even close to all places are like this, but just watch the scales closely when the counting is happening.
most places are nice enuf to round the totals down to even $5/10 amounts though …
This has happened to me a lot in Jasons, Wellcome, 7-Eleven, everywhere really; a lot more often than at home. I’m sure it’s just carelessness rather than dishonesty. I’ll only kick up a stink if it’s a spectacular piece of stupidity. If you’ve had this happen again and again I can understand you getting annoyed.
Never had this kind of problem, not even at the Wellcome supermarket I frequent.
So perhaps this is not a problem with Wellcome (as it appeared from the thread title) but just with the cashier at the time …
I had the same thing happen at a McDonalds in Taichung a few years back. I think it was an honest mistake due to the appearance of the $100 and $500 notes being so similar.
Well, I vote for carelessness. Can’t count the number of times I’ve been given the wrong change, occasionally in my favor. One time I purchased $920 worth of goods, paid with a $1000 bill and was promptly given $920 in change. The clerk was pretty thankful when I pointed it out to her; figured I should since it was a neighbourhood supermarket that we shop at a lot.
If you’re really pissed-off try this one; go back and purchase the same goods, make a big deal of flashing a $500 bill so that the clerk sees it, then when she turns around to punch in the total, switch it for a $100 bill. Odds are she won’t even look at it and put it in the register thinking it’s a $500 note. Classic bait n’ switch that’s common in the States where all the money is green. Either that, or learn how to say “Excuse me, I gave you NT$500.” politely.
Honestly, if I had to run a cash register for 8-10 hours a day for something like NT$75/hour, I think I’d be prone to a couple mistakes as well!