Imagine working as a cashier at a store when a customer insists that the price of an item is wrong.

Would you be annoyed and assume that they are wrong, or would you agree to double check the price?

In today’s story, an employee is confident that the price is correct and even shows the customer how to check the price, but the customer still insists that the price is wrong.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

“I insist you double check the price”

This is a story that happened many years ago when I worked at a bookstore.

For some backstory, in the US most items sold have a UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode. Books, however, generally use the international EAN (European Article Number) barcode.

Nowadays most books use the same 13 digit number for ISBN (used to assign a unique identifier to books even before computerized POS and barcodes were a thing) and EAN, but back when ISBNs were only 10 digits the main benefit of using a EAN instead of a UPC on books was that EAN standards allow an additional 5 digit number to encode the price.

You can flip over most books and see there will be two barcodes, with the one on the right being shorter.

The first digit is the currency and the next four is the price, assuming two decimal places, so for example, 50599 is USD$5.99, 11200 is GBP£12.00.

One customer thought the price was incorrect.

I don’t know if this is still the case but when this happened at the bookstore where I worked, when you scanned a book with an EAN-5 price code the encoded price overrode whatever the price in the system was.

This is useful because, assuming the barcode is done correctly the price printed on the book will always ring up even if the inventory system has an older price.

So on this day a gentleman comes to my register with 2 books, one large art book and one paperback novel. I scan both and tell him his total is $47.99.

Customer: Are you sure?

Me: (Double checking the two titles listed on my screen match what’s in front of me) Yes

They showed the customer how to check the price.

Customer: I don’t think that’s correct.

Me: (Turning screen to face him) Here, “A Visual Study of Farts” is $40 and “Stephen King Bad Ending #843” is $7.99.

Customer: Check the books.

I turn the books around and look at the barcode area. Most books have the price printed near there but some hardcovers only have it on the inside flap.

When encountering books like that I had become used to just looking at the string of numbers printed above the EAN-5 instead of opening the book.

The price was in fact wrong.

Sure enough the novel said $7.99 and while the art book didn’t have a price the numbers said 54000 which I knew to mean $40.00.

Me: They look correct to me.

Customer: I insist you double check the price inside A Visual Study of Farts.

I sigh, flip the book over the right way and open the cover. My eyes bulged out as I read the tiny print on the inside of the dust jacket:

United States $400.00 Canada $460.00

They corrected the error.

Of course I apologized profusely and thanked him for pointing that out.

I deleted the scanned item, covered the EAN-5 with my finger and scanned it again, with only the EAN-13 being scanned the POS rang it at the listed price of $400.00.

After we completed the transaction with various apologies and expressions of gratitude on my part I got my MOD who went up to the Art section to sticker over the barcode of the remaining copies and submit a misprint form to the publisher.

Wow! I’m surprised the customer didn’t just walk away enjoying the hugely discounted price. He was almost too honest.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person wouldn’t have been this honest.

Another person is impressed at how honest the customer was.

This person liked learning about the barcodes.

It could’ve been interpreted as costing more!

This person assumes the customer had a good reason to insist the price was wrong.

Not everyone would be this honest.

Sometimes you can bite your tongue.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.