I'm a cashier. Our store has two "rewards" cards : one credit card, called Store Card, that people pay for (like a... credit card, lol), that also earns you points depending on how much you spend, and that has a "cash" part, that we call StoreEuros (instead of regular euros). The second card is just a "rewards" card, you only earn points depending on how much you spend, you get StoreEuros as well.
Now, on both cards, the StoreEuros thing works the same as a wallet, except that you hand the card to the cashier (or slide it if it's a StoreCard) , ask to see your StoreEuros balance, and the cashier can use all of it, some of it or none if you want to keep it for later.
Why the bad_service, you might ask ?
Well, this "StoreEuros" thing goes on between January 1st and December 21st. Which means, if you don't empty the StoreEuros thing before the 31st, you're SOL, even if you have earned hundreds of euros in StoreEuros, you lose them.
So of course, as a good cashier, what did I do today ?
- Hi, oh, I can see you have the card! Do you want to check your StoreEuros balance ?
- Oh, why ?
- Well, you have to use it by December 31st and we're telling this to all customers so that they don't lose money *smilesmilesmile*
- Oh my, thank you to remind me! Yes, please, check the balance and empty the StoreEuros, thanks.
One supervisor came something like thirty minutes later and told us this gem :
If the customer tells you about the StoreEuros, check the balance. If not, do NOT say anything.
I was a bit dumbfounded by this (I mean, the customers come, spend money, and get the StoreEuros according to the policies and promotions) .
The coworker behind me told me she basically knew why we had been told this : The store apparently hopes that as many people as possible will forget about their StoreEuros to avoid losing too much money.
The bolded parts are the bad_service . I mean, damn, you could have, like... NOT MADE SO MANY PROMOTIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE. They're basically asking us to screw people out of money... on purpose.
What do you think ?
Edit : I just wanted to thank you for all these answers. So yeah, I'm not THAT crazy to think that this thing was completely strange. Thing is, don't worry about me risking my job about it: I handed my resignation letter to my manager an hour before I got the message about the StoreEuros. Which is why I seem so not worried about it :)