By Bobby Bradford
Guest Columnist

We all know the saying, “The customer is always right.”

I don’t exactly agree, but I understand the meaning. No owner or manager of any business wants to lose customers.

I have been the customer of a downtown Batesville convenience store for almost 27 years. During a recent visit I purchased $10 worth of items by using a debit card. Once I buy something or pay a bill with this card I always check my balance by calling the customer service number on back of the card.

When I returned home from the recent convenience store purchase, I called customer service. I knew my balance before I went to the store was $785, and when the recorder voice said my balance was $745, I knew something wasn’t adding up because I had only spent $10 and that was the only purchase I had made that day. Something wasn’t right. There was a $30 difference.

I first tried to determine the problem by calling the card’s customer service number but gave up after two hours.

So what would anyone in this situation do? Go back to the store where I used my card, of course.
When I went back to the store one of the two lady cashiers who was at the store when I used my card was still there. I went to her in a nice and calm way. I was not yelling or rude in any way.

Once I told her that a mistake was made on my card, she started yelling and using profanity. She became rude.

I stayed calm, but I was confused. Why was she mad? I wasn’t accusing anyone of trying to cheat me. This was the last place I had used my card and the balance was wrong. Of course I had come back to the store, who wouldn’t have?

She kept yelling and cussing. I got embarrassed, went outside and called police. The police came and I explained what had happened. They told me to come back the next day and talk with the manager. They also thanked me for doing it the right way.

The type of card I have is a Rush card. I found out later that night that the company had switched over to a new computer system and it had made a mistake on a lot of its customers’ accounts, even shutting some customers’ accounts down completely.

The cashier had not made a mistake on my card, but I was not wrong on trying to find out what happened.

The only thing wrong was the cashier’s attitude. That happens in stores here and all over. Some people working in stores have bad attitudes, and they talk to you rudely.

If the owners knew the people they hired have this kind of attitude, they would not have hired them in the first place. The way that girl talked to me that day, I know I will not step foot back in that store as long as she works there.

These people need to realize that they can be replaced — the workers, that is. But customers can’t.