Is It Really That Hard To Understand?

Okay, now I am going to begin with this: in this guy's defense maybe none of the three or four ways I explained this made sense, but come on it is simple addition and subtraction is it really that hard to understand?

I work at a retail store which recently did a "Buy One Get One Half Price" sale (thank God it is over). Well this sale is really only a good deal if you buy in even numbers so we tell those patrons who are buying odd numbers that if they come back while the sale is still going on and wish to make a purchase, that including their previous purchase, equals an even number then we can do a price adjustment so they can get the Buy One Get One deal; they just have to bring their original receipt in(ex: two weeks ago you bought one item, you come back a week later and buy another item, together you have two items so we will give you half price off one of them).

So we had a lady come in yesterday and want to do this. She bought three items last week, she wanted to buy three more. 3+3=6. Six is an even number, no problem. So I explain to her what we are going to do to get her the half price deal, and it goes like this: "On paper we are going to return the 3 items you bought last week, then we are going to re-sale them to you plus the 3 new items you want to buy. This way the computer does the math, we make sure you get the best deal, and all the items are one receipt." She is cool with it, we do it, and she goes on here way. Now do you understand what we did there? If you don't, don't feel bad, you aren't the only one who didn't get it. 15 minutes later this lady's husband comes in and asks us to explain the receipt because he doesn't understand what we did.


Now at this point this guy had some visual aids. He had receipts so you should have receipts too. The one on the left is the original receipt, the one on the right is the new receipt.

Explanation 1:
On paper we are going to return the 3 items you bought last week, then we are going to re-sale them to you plus the 3 new items you want to buy. This way the computer does the math, we make sure you get the best deal, and all the items are one receipt.

But this doesn't seem adequate because he asks another question. "So then you credited back my credit card for the original purchase?"

Explanation 2:
(this one comes in two parts 'cause I got kind of got interrupted, not to mention that it is the most confusing of the explanations)
Part A: No sir, we did nothing to your credit card in regards to your last purchase, the return was just on paper, so it was like a credit."
Husband: But you charged me full price for "this-(points to item one)" last week, but then you charged me for it half price today.
Part B: Yes, and the half price difference acted as a credit that went against your total today.

This still didn't suffice, because he had another question. "So where is the credit?"

Explanation 3:
(time for another visual aid-this is the top of the new receipt)

Okay think of it like this, we returned the purchase you made last week, but instead of putting that money back on your credit card we just gave you an in-store credit. But you want to keep those three items from earlier purchase and you want to pick up three more as well, so we are going to sell them all back to you. We are going to apply your in-store credit, plus some of the items you bought are going to be a different price because of the half price deal we have going on. So those half price differences are going to credit against the total balance as well giving you your total price today.

And still he has another question. "But you still charged me today for a shoe I already paid for, how does that work?" (ARGH!!!!)

Explanation 4:
Yes, we did sir, but we also gave you a credit for the item. Think of it like this. You bought the item last week, but this week the price is better, so you bring your receipt in so we can do a price adjustment for you. What we do is return the item then re-sale it to you. There is price difference. Under normal circumstances we would credit your card, or give you cash back, but you are making another purchase today on top of the price adjustment, so instead of giving you money back you are going to put that credit toward your purchase.

He replies with this: "I still don't understand how you charged me for it last week and this week without crediting it back to my card."

Oh My God!!! Please tell me by this point that you all out there got it. You understand what we did right? At this point my boss comes over, and she tries to explain it the same way I did. I just have to walk away. I can't deal with this guy anymore. I look up 5 minutes later and he is sitting there with calculator trying to figure it out. A couple minutes after that he leaves but as he is leaving he tells us that the way we do that is way too confusing and we should fix it so it isn't so confusing. I wanted to say, "Dude, you are the only one who doesn't it get it." But I didn't, I just watched him walk away. Now maybe it just makes sense to me 'cause I have been doing this for awhile now, but I didn't think it was that difficult to understand.