I would like my $0.37 refund, please.

> 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.

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.

Don't underestimate the limitations of the fixed income, or the spare time of the elderly. The year I worked at Rite Aid was not the best of my life.

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.

There's actually a TV show on "Extreme Couponing" http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing...

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.

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.

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.

Am I the only one here thinking: Why did she buy 12 candy bars?

At least she didn't pay with a check!