thinking dangerous thoughts...

[dave something]

Since it's been established that an Exchange (a return and a sale on the same screen) isn't going to happen in this lifetime, could we get maybe a pop-up kind of dialog box on the return screen that asks the sales clerk to enter the transaction number from the original receipt? It would help with an audit trail and in making sure that returns/exchanges are actually tied to prior sales. I am in a business where a lot of what I sell is also available in LOTS of other places in the same town and staff who are eager to avoid conflict will sometimes exchange items sold by another store for products sold by me, leaving me stuck with something I can't sell as new and missing a perfectly good piece of inventory that has gone out the door free.

I know that the idea of a text field isn't actually going to prevent determined staff from doing what I described above, but, it will give me a doc trail for liars and cheats (two personality traits I disdain in staff). The idea is that if a customer has truly presented a receipt for the item they wish to exchange I can verify that myself at a later time. If the staff makes up a receipt number or lists one that does NOT contain the items being exchanged, then I can follow up with more venom.

Thoughts? Laughter?

[Guest]

Hello. I work for a major supermarket and its POS system works the same way as DHPOS with separate screens for sales and refunds. What we do is staple the receipts for the refund and following sale (if an exchange takes place) together, write a reason on it, and write the original transaction details on it. This particular company has hundreds of stores and is doing just fine. Initially, it is a bit annoying to do a refund followed by a sale, but it's not that bad and you get used to it quickly enough. You can still have your paper trail, just that it's on real paper.

[dave something]

The source of my concern is NOT that it takes two screens, while annoying, I can certainly live with that and have been for a couple years now. My concern is that paper gets lost, and I would like the reference data on the return screen in the absence of paper. If a customer doesn't exchange all the items from the original sale then we give the paper receipt back to the customer, which they usually insist on keeping anyway. As for the follow-up sale, they keep that receipt too, so the whole stapling thing is kind of lost on me.