2014 started off frigid
and full of hate. Temperatures which hovered around thirty degrees
below zero Fahrenheit proved absolutely remarkable for business, and
the Dominion saw a fine surge of custom despite the fact that the
bulk of releases were crap that only saw limited theatrical release
which nobody in the Saladolsa area had ever heard of. The year seemed
destined for brightness and mirth.
Then one of Fernando's
regular customers came in to rent one evening and all the good omens
were flipped topsy-turvy thanks to Fernando's wretched penmanship and
said customer's notions of entitlement.
This person had been
coming to the store for years and years, since well before Fernando
took over as the Dominion's steward. She was not a perfect customer
(few are), but she had never stolen anything nor broken anything and
any late fees which she racked up would, eventually, be paid off in
slow one- and two-dollar trickles. She came in on this occasion to
rent some movies and she also decided to purchase one of Fernando's
extra copies of World War Z. She selected, in addition to the
purchase, three new releases and two older titles.
Fernando writes up the
slip like he had for this woman countless times before, only this
time she opts to pay with a check. That's fine; Fernando has no
reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary with regard to her
bank account's credit. She fills out the check while Fernando mills
about the shelves retrieving her stack of movies. The total had come
to sixteen dollars: eight for the purchase, and eight for two of the
new releases. It was a rent-one-get-one-free day, so the other three
movies were rendered gratis beneath that aegis.
She writes the check out
for $15, doubtless because Fernando's penmanship is a blight to the
world about on par with endometriosis, and Fernando remarks on this
when he returns to the counter. "You're a dollar short, but it's
no big deal. Check's already written," he says.
"What do you mean, a
dollar short?" she asks.
"It's supposed to
have come to sixteen dollars. But, like I said, it's no big deal."
"Wait, why sixteen?"
Fernando blinks. "The
purchase is eight, and then the two new releases."
"Wait, I thought I
get one of those free."
"You did."
"Then why is it
sixteen? Shouldn't it be fourteen?"
It does not even dawn on
Fernando to ask why she would make the check out for fifteen dollars
in that case. Instead he is at a loss for words. "Er...no."
"Why?"
"Because you have
the purchase, and then two new releases. They come to sixteen."
She half-closes her eyes
for a moment. "I just did the math, and it comes out to
fourteen. You're charging me for the one new release when you
shouldn't."
Fernando is confused.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Shouldn't I get two
of the new releases free and then pay for one of the old ones?"
Fernando tries to put
things as politely as he can. "Er...no. The rentals have always
been done in tiers like this."
"Tiers?" she
asks. "I don't under...." She trails off in confusion while
scratching her cheek.
"It goes by the
number on the tag, descending, for which ones are free."
"Wait, so I'm paying
for the new ones before the old ones."
"Yes."
"That doesn't seem
fair at all."
Fernando wallows in a
mire of pure consternation while putting on a facade of geniality.
"It's been done this way every single other time you've come in
to rent."
She ruminates on things a
bit more. "And you do it like this to everybody?"
"Yes. Not just me,
but the owners before me, and the owner before that, and probably
even going back further all the way to when the store was first
founded. That's the policy."
"It sounds like
you're ripping people off."
Fernando cannot even find
the energy to get upset at her noxious accusation. He is quite
effectively trapped, for any justification he could give for why he
insists on being inflexible--primarily that Fernando is not going to
make an exception for her which would doubtless be abused, nor is he
going to permanently change things so that he runs the risk of
earning up to fifty percent less income on a rent-one-get-one day by
letting old titles go first--would be taken in the worst possible
light, for she has already convinced herself that Fernando is in the
wrong and she is in the right.
So he shrugs and
reiterates, "That's the policy and always has been the policy."
She then thinks for a
little longer, and says, "I probably won't come here anymore."
Fernando shrugs again. He
might perhaps have apologized that she feels this way, but he does
not particularly feel like lying to her. Instead he tells her, "Have
a good evening," and waits for her to perhaps ask that she be
refunded.
Instead she takes her
movies and leaves.
