> I'm sure to this lady her time is worth much more than $1.48 per hour
Sometimes, it's the principle. During my wife's last pregnancy, our insurance company would overcharge us by $20 for every single pre-natal checkup; we debated the merits of calling in (every time), sometimes spending up to an hour getting through the phone tree to the person who could correct the error, and we decided that even if we theoretically value our time at more than $20/hour, we'd rather not let our insurance company slowly squeeze money out of us that they weren't entitled to.
People make decisions based on principle, and the information they have at the time. The shopper probably didn't anticipate that it would take 15 minutes to correct her purchase. She probably didn't have a good feel for what the price difference would be. She knew she was paying more than she should, so she said something. I don't think I would act any differently.
"A lot of times people have trouble translating percentages into real numbers. She had also been wronged by being charged 5% more than she should have.
However if she had thought this decision out in the terms that we just have, I doubt she still gets that refund."
Hindsight is always 20 20. Still once you here someone say they have to get a manager involved you know it's going to take at least a few minutes.
Sure, but by that time she had already committed to getting her money back. People don't constantly re-evaluate their decisions as new information comes in. They're not machines.
Sometimes it's easy to forget that we (people in their most active years making 3 dollar-digits per hour) live in a bubble. We would happily trade a few dollars so we don't have to wait. We would happily trade many dollars so we don't have to talk to you. Basically, our time converts to money and back to time almost without any effort or friction.
Did you know that there are other people that are actually enjoying their life? The fact that they are standing on their feet, talking to other people, smelling the residue buffing detergent on the crummy supermarket floor. Spending 15 minutes in line chatting with other human beings and getting paid for it ($0.37) is just another beautiful morning for the people that have a life.
To all HN readers: I hope one day we all know what this feels like :-)
Edit: What I'm trying to say here is that it is very presumptions and shallow to assume that the monetary gain was the only asset in the "worth-it?" equation.
Coupon clipping is also a fairly common activity, particularly among stay-at-home moms, and it typically translates into an hourly wage of $6 ~ $8. (This is why coupons are so effective at price discrimination -- if $6 ~ $8 an hour is an insult to your intelligence, you will happily pay full price for your chocolate pudding snack.)
I agree with you, but $0.37 ins't going to be the difference between losing your house and not. And if it is there are lots of things you can do in 15 minutes that will earn you a lot more than that.
You could save $300 or more on car insurance. (I'm sorry I just had to)
It also cost the store money to process. If no one holds the store accountable, then there is no incentive for them to be diligent about correct pricing. Sometimes people sacrifice their own time for the greater good. If the pricing problems continue though shoppers will become annoyed and shop elsewhere. This is why for the store it is better to have a smoother process for small price adjustments, it should not be necessary to wait 15 minutes for the store manager's approval on a 37 cent refund, nor should he even have to deal with it at all, that is a waste of his time and salary to be attending to something so minor.
This topic relates to software. As soon as we receive a request for a refund on software we approve it. This means it costs the minimum amount to process and annoys the customer the least. There is no point to fighting or arguing or wasting the customer's time.
Painless refunds is in complete opposition to the policies of many large software companies who have a "no refunds once opened" policy, which doesn't even make sense since they tend to have revocable registration numbers and machine locked licensing, so the no-refunds policy is nothing more than a giant rip off for customers.
In related news, a man died unhappy and alone today. Before he died, and looking back, he remembered the time a girl had asked him to drive her home. After some extremely advanced math he had given her a cab fare and stayed at work
But fortunately he had fully optimized his earning potential.
I worked in a theme park and we had a discount coupon so the customer could buy 2 meals with a 50% discount for the second meal.
Only in August, after 2.5 busy months one customer complained and spent maybe half a day arguing with the cashier, then with his manager, then with food supervisor, and finally with guest relations people. He got his 1(!!!) cent back. It was an error in the POS system that manages all the cash registers. However, he also saved many pennies for future guests, also hopefully the park reviewed the POS logic for other items and thus could have fixed similar errors and saved even more money for the customers.
So sometimes someone's wasted day is a benefit for many other people.
Coupons are wonderful advertising as they can attract customers that may not otherwise even entertain purchasing a product or service, but have a processing cost on both the buyer and seller's end.
The point isn't the money, the point is keeping that customer in the future.
Coupons are a very effective way to maximize revenue on a product by segmenting your market.
"Rich" people would usually never consider coupon clipping, and so will pay full price.
By putting ever more complicated ways to save money ("save 5% by clipping this", "save 50% by clipping 10 weeks of these", "save 90% by clipping 10 of these, then sending off for the rebate") a seller can make sure that even the poorest can buy their product at the cost of inconvenience.
To me, this seems like something most selfishly rational people will not pursue--because it's mainly an externality that you're paying for with your time. However, most people are pursuing these due to principle, and perhaps to protect their and others' interests in the future.
I guess the opposite principle is the when people don't submit their rebates for big ticket items. On a per hour basis, they would be making a killing. By failing to do the rebate, that opportunity cost is painful.
I think the author makes the mistaken assumption that everyone is cash-rich and time-poor. Plenty of people are the opposite, have plenty of time, but a limited income.
He also makes the mistaken assumption that she would have done something income-earning had she not got her refund. She could have simply gone home and watched TV earned nothing and she would be down 37 cents.
Monetary value of time probably isn't even on the top ten list of "reasons why humans do things". This isn't news. Not everything - in fact, not anything - can be reduced to money.
Sometimes, it's the principle. During my wife's last pregnancy, our insurance company would overcharge us by $20 for every single pre-natal checkup; we debated the merits of calling in (every time), sometimes spending up to an hour getting through the phone tree to the person who could correct the error, and we decided that even if we theoretically value our time at more than $20/hour, we'd rather not let our insurance company slowly squeeze money out of us that they weren't entitled to.