made error in work!

lemonfrog

Can anyone advise on the following situation I have found myself in in work.
I work on the refund/exchanges desk in a busy retail clothing chain. I only work weekends. Last weekend I made an error with a refund and ended up giving the customer back twice as much money as they should have got for a refund.
Basiically the returned 200 euro worth of clothing which they originally purchased on laser card. I processed the refund as normal, took back the clothes and put the value back on to their card, however for some mad reason and without realising it i then opened the till and gave them back the same amount in cash. I wasnt thinking properly and because I had the refund in my hand i must have thought i needed to take out the money and give them that amount, they took the cash and went i dont know if the customer realised they had got refunded by both card and cash but now i feel stupid and dont know what was going through my mind at the time. My question is what action is the company likely to take as a result of this? Could I end up being sacked or suspended? I dont know the outcome as im not in work again until saturday, so what should i expect to happen? its a genuine mistake but just plain stupid. Its not a matter of training or knowledge as I have years of experience and am now at supervisor level. Could I be demoted? any advise or opinions would be great.

OrangeDaisy

heya lemonfrog, if this is the first time you've ever done something like this then you'll probably just get a warning but I doubt anything worse than that will happen. If you explain that it was a genuine mistake I'm sure they'll be understanding enough. The amount was quite large though so they will more than likely have to give you a warning

The_Conductor

First and foremost- own up to the error- so that no-one gets the blame for the discrepancy. If this is the biggest error you've ever made- you've had an easy time.....

What might happen:

Demotion? Highly unlikely- you don't get promoted, unless you have the skills to do the job. It would be incredibly petty to use this to demote you.

Sacked? Again- highly unlikely. It was an accident- there was nothing untowarth intended in your actions, and you did not personally benefit from the mistake in any manner.

Suspended? I really don't think so either. Good honest staff who are willing to stand up and admit mistakes when they happen, are hard to come by.

Other possibilities:

Asked to pay the missing money back from your pay (probably over several weeks). Its a lot more probable that any of the 3 options you're worried about.

Most probable-

A small chat about being a lot more careful in future, the debt written off by the company, some embarassment for you- and a whole lot more care taken with refunds in future.......

wmpdd3

Really get your point accross about how sorry you are and how you have been thinking about this all week.

Of course it could happen to anybody but it did happen to you and your till was out 200 euro. Expect a meeting to investigate what happened, this Saturday, this may move to a diciplainary meeting depending on the outcome. You would need 24 hrs notice of this so it could drag out over a few weeks if you only work weekends.

This will be another meeting and that may result in some form of action, ie warning, final written warning. JUst remember these can only stay on your record for a period of time and even if the worst happens, in a bout 6 months time your record will be clean again.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who gets the wrong change etc from a shop and thinks they are entitled to keep it. The shop wont suffer but somebody will.

eddiehobbs

Not sure about the legality of this but cant you not just recharge the amount back on their credit card manually????.

r3nu4l

eddiehobbs wrote: »

Not sure about the legality of this but cant you not just recharge the amount back on their credit card manually????.

Not sure you can do that without agreement from the customer and in any case, it was a Laser card, not a credit card.

Lemonfrog, just go into work tomorrow and see the manager straight away. Explain the situation as you have done here and then don't react too straight away to any comments. If you need to go away and think about the options presented to you then do so.

If your manager is a normal person and in any way good at their job they s/he will write it off.

kelle

I am pretty angry about the dishonesty of the customer! If that had happened to me I would have returned the money straightaway once I realised it. Ooh, there are a lot of nasty people around and it really gets my blood pressure rising thinking about it!

Anyway, I agree you need to tell your manager. And maybe affer to pay the money back at a cetain rate per week?

The_Conductor

kelle wrote: »

I am pretty angry about the dishonesty of the customer! If that had happened to me I would have returned the money straightaway once I realised it. Ooh, there are a lot of nasty people around and it really gets my blood pressure rising thinking about it!

Anyway, I agree you need to tell your manager. And maybe affer to pay the money back at a cetain rate per week?

In all fairness- the customer may very well be oblivious to what has happened. Certainly they'll have unexpected money in their bank account- but not everyone checks on a regular basis......

OP- any update? I hope its worked out ok for you.

kelle

smccarrick wrote: »

In all fairness- the customer may very well be oblivious to what has happened. Certainly they'll have unexpected money in their bank account- but not everyone checks on a regular basis......

OP- any update? I hope its worked out ok for you.

Yes, was a bit OTT and I agree customer may not realise. Maybe when he/she realises they'll come forward...

doolox

When I left school I stated out as a milk roundsman and had to deal with cash accounts each week.
It thought me a lot about human nature, some good mostly bad.
Unfortunately if presented with a gift like that most people will take the money and run.
Interestingly enough if you were a bank official they would simply take back the money if they made a traceable mistake in putting money into or taking money out of your account. The duty is on the customer to make sure his account is operated correctly and he can't spend what is not his in the first place.
If this results in an overdraft on unforeseen shortfalls then tough.
The same thing doesn't apply in shops it seems.