Have you ever been in front of the cashier and realized the item that you chose was over your budget, but felt too bad to say no, so you just pay for it?

I bet everyone face this once in a while. Most of us becomes a deer caught in the headlights whenever this happen. And from my personal experience, here is what you might be thinking at that time:

1. You didn't know you can say no.

2. You're afraid you'd trouble the cashier.

3. You're afraid the line will become longer if you say no.

4. You don't want to sound like you can't afford it.

Despite either one of the reasons or all of the reasons above, you don't have to feel bad for changing your mind and decided not to pay for something.

I have worked as a cashier before and people change their mind all the time. If it's not what you order, or you simply don't want to pay for it, you have all the right to say so. FYI, most of the cash system (or commonly known as POS - Point of Sale system) have a cancellation function. It even have a refund option for when you did pay but then realize it wasn't as you expected. Those are literally basic functions in a sale system.

I have heard my friend telling me that she didn't know cashiers can cancel or change customer's order after scanning or keying it in. She thought it was a permanent action and she have to pay for it once it is keyed in.

That is so not true. But one thing that might be true is not every staff have the access to cancel or change the item after keying in. Some system requires extra verification for doing that but it probably just take a couple of minutes to resolve it with their manager/supervisor and trust me, they've probably experienced similar situation because of their own mistakes before. So, don't feel bad and be firm on your request.

Recently, my brother wanted to use up the money in his e-wallet to pay for something that have a discount if he uses it. We chose our menu and when the cashier keyed in, it was a couple of sen more than what we expected. My brother felt bad and he told the cashier he could top-up some of the money first. Upon hearing that, I scolded him instead. He currently have RM7 and he needs to top-up a minimum of RM10 just to pay the extra sen - which was totally not worth it.

So I told the cashier that we'll change our options instead because we didn't have enough in our e-wallet. And this happen while there were at least 3 people queuing up behind us. It's not that we are being fussy, but it's our right to pay for only what we want.

In those situations, sometimes being frank could make them understand you better and gladly help you with your requests. After all, when it comes to money, we all could relate to a certain level.

One of the biggest cause for this is usually when the price tag and the price during checkout are different. If this is the case, don't feel bad to say, "It's okay, I'll just put it back" instead of regretting for paying more on something you think don't even worth that much.

The amount of times I felt bad for not being there to stop my friends from overpaying is surprising. And I don't think it's just the people around me, so I hope the next time you are facing a similar situation you can think to yourself, "I don't really have to pay" and politely put it away 😉

I hope you can make wiser money decision in the future, thanks for reading!

Dropping by,