20. My Biggest Ever Goof

The undercharging camera story (from yesterday’s post) gets worse: When I was a student, I was working in a camera store and it was the last Saturday before Christmas, so the shop was packed with impatient shoppers. To look at their faces petrified me because I hate keeping people waiting, and I couldn’t cope with the stress.

A lady said she wanted a camera for her husband for Christmas for about £100. So I showed her three and she opted for one for £119.00, the Canon Sureshot Telemax, that had its own little box, carrying case, strap, two batteries, two films and two little photo albums all included in a large kit box.

Our computers always added the .00 on the end of the price because all the products were rounded up to a pound. So I keyed the price into the credit card machine the same as I’d keyed into the computer; 119, but it only registered £1.19.

I went off for two weeks for the holidays, completely oblivious. When I came back I was told that the shop had contacted the bank, the bank had rung the customer and left a message on the answerphone. The husband then heard it, so he now knew what he was getting for Christmas.

An angry wife came back to pay the difference. Then Christmas day arrived. The husband, (probably) opens his wife’s present first, because he knows what it is, and wants to photograph the kids opening their presents. He knows he has everything in the kit box to start taking photos immediately.

So he removes the wrapping, opens the kit box, takes out the two little photo albums, the two films, the two batteries, the strap, the carrying case and …an empty box. On Christmas eve, the staff had done a stock-take and found a lonely little Canon Sureshot Telemax sitting on a shelf with no home. The shop gave her the camera and a £10 gift voucher, but she’d been under no obligation to pay the full amount even if the camera had been in its box.

So let’s recap: I charge £1.19 for all those goodies? Even without the camera, it’s still a bargain if you ask me. Who says I’m not talented? When I goof things up, I do a proper job.