Your Grrrs compiled by FOX News intern Katherine Podkalicki. See Katherine in this week’s “The Real Deal” video.
Kasey from Bellvue, Maine: I just want to tell you about why I actually like it when the store gives me the receipt. Nowadays, just about every place we go in the United States takes VISA cards (I don’t really have a credit card — it’s a debit card with a VISA logo) and I don’t usually carry cash around, so instead of writing checks and taking a long time in the line, I just swipe the card, key in the PIN and I’m on my way — with my receipt. I keep the receipts because if I don’t, I won’t be able to balance my bank account when I come home at the end of the day. If I did pay with cash, the receipt would be annoying, and when I do pay with cash, I definitely Grrr! when the cashier puts the coins on top of the bills, so I do see your point! Thanks for your column, Mike. I enjoy reading it!
Chris P. in cyberspace: What’s with these three-page receipts we’re getting now. My item receipt, my credit card receipt and a survey, good for a free dessert on my next visit if I give up five minutes of my life on the phone. Sheesh!
Jon from Payson, Utah: The problem with receipts is, in fact, trust. Unfortunately, retailers and fast-food places lose thousands and thousands of dollars to sticky-handed cashiers. One way to limit the potential for cash theft is to require employees to give customers receipts. Cashiers can’t give a receipt unless they complete a valid transaction. Requiring a receipt makes it difficult, if not impossible, for an employee to simply pocket the cash from a customer. I know it’s annoying, but it grrrs me even more that business owners and managers can’t trust their employees to work for the wage they’re paid and not “supplement” their income.
Rachel from Colorado Springs, Colo.: To add to your very well-written grrr (I have been complaining about this one for years) there is the ever-so-fun receipt complete with full credit card number! We have quite a few restaurants around town that put the full number on the receipt! Always check before you throw it out!
David from Eugene, Ore.: Getting my change on top of my paper bills at the register has always been a pet peeve of mine. Thanks for bringing this to the public!
DL from Findlay, Ohio: There are clerks, especially at my local grocery who look at me just stunned when I say “just toss the receipt” or the eager-beavers which actually leave their register to start to chase me — “Sir you forgot your receipt!!!” No, breadbasket Betty, I didn’t FORGET — it was bread and milk for goodness sake. These clerks are outta control. Thanks for mentioning it.
Ryan from Los Angeles, Calif.: I can’t stand having to separate my change from the receipt while I’m being forced out of line by the people behind me (I don’t blame them). Let’s do away with the receipts, or have the checker ask us if we need one before they screw up our whole grocery store rapid exit strategy. Or at least hand me my change, then the stupid receipt. My hands are full as it is.
Craig from Salem, Ore.: Giving out a receipt is a policy to make sure everybody has proof of their purchase. In times gone by, well in current times to, unscrupulous individuals would take something without paying for it and then attempt to return it. In that regard, the retailers have gone full circle. No receipt required for a return, receipt mandatory for a return, no receipt required but get only store credit, etc. If a store has a policy to give, not offer, but to give every customer a receipt, they have protected themselves for legal matters. Say they refuse a return from a person who says the item was purchased broken a week ago and they want their money. The store believes the item is much older then a week and refuses the refund. The person sues the store and says they never got a receipt. So, along comes a mystery shopper who writes up the employees’ actions, good and bad. To prove the mystery shopper did her job, she has to get something. Most of the time that something is a receipt. You might be able to mess up a little in customer service, but fail to get a receipt out and you are in for that “further training.” Having been a mystery shopper for three years and having worked with several groups, I can say with a certainty the receipt is golden.
Amy from Florida: I love a good commercial as well as the next person. What I do object to is these TV stations that insist on putting commercials on while the program is running. I know what channel I’m watching — after all, I’m the one that used the remote to get there. I don’t need to be told what other programs I should watch when I am already watching one. Sometimes it takes up a quarter of the screen and interferes with what I am watching. Do they do this just to irritate people? Maybe I should just sit down with a good book.
John from cyberspace: Grrr! Where’s the highway patrol when you need them? The penalties and enforcement of laws against reckless driving need to be improved. I can’t tell you how many times I have been driving down a two-lane highway at the speed limit and have been passed in no-passing zones, including the crests of hills and blind curves. It’s a miracle that I haven’t witnessed a head-on crash in one of these situations. There have been times when it has been pretty close. I’m also sick of being tailgated, cut in front of (especially when they don’t use turn signals) and otherwise put at risk of an accident by careless drivers. Maybe our highway patrol should spend less time lurking along the roads in speed traps and more time actually patrolling the highways, stopping people for driving like idiots.
Karen from cyberspace: My grrr today is people who commute. We do this every day. We have to wait on long lines for the bus or train, unless there is an emergency at home there isn’t a reason that you can jump the line. And to the 40-something, healthy-looking woman who specifically asked for my seat yesterday, you really shouldn’t have been so surprised. I waited on line for 30 minutes for that seat (about 20 minutes longer then you). If you were pregnant, elderly or in some way disabled, I would have gladly offered my seat. You, my fine lady, were not,
and the comment that I should respect my elders put me over the edge. I might only be 24, and only commuting for six years. I still pay my $150 a month for that seat.
Yvonne from Durham, N.C.: Why can’t manufacturers make skirts with pockets? Is there some reason for this insanity? I don’t care to look like the Queen of England clutching her purse as I walk down a hallway to fetch the mail or go to a meeting, but I do need someplace to keep my keys (inside my bra is not an option).
Dan from Conway, Ark.: Grrr … can we not keep a Grrr link on the FOX home page like Tongue Tied, Junk Science and Gretawire? It’s Wednesday — I know the Grrr column came out on Tuesday. Where is it on FOXNews.com?
Dan, add www.foxnews.com/strakalogue to your favorites. That will always bring you to the latest published column.
Antoni H. in cyberspace: It used to be people would give it a 100 percent, then it was 101 percent and I have even heard 105 percent and 110 percent. Now during an interview of a Seattle Super Sonic player, he talked about giving it 125 percent, but later backed down to 120 percent during the same interview. When did percentages suffer the effects of inflation? Is it market driven by day traders? That would explain the loss of 5 percent in just a few seconds. Maybe we can have Grrr! Inflation, we just add more r’s for the more Grrrr’d we get.
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Mike Straka is the director of operations and special projects for FOXNews.com, writes the Grrr! Column and hosts the weekly “The Real Deal” webcast on FOXNews.com and FOXfan.com.
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