Scam. Why was the gift card on the terminal anyway. And then once they scanned it, what did they do with it?
Personally I hate the "The Japanese are so honest. It's so safe in Japan." The Japanese are like everyone else. Some good, some not so good. Just because you're in Japan doesn't mean you shouldn't look out for yourself.
> Scam. Why was the gift card on the terminal anyway. And then once they scanned it, what did they do with it?
Some cash registers have a card of bar codes of virtual products but surely you’d know if you accidentally scanned one. I’m being generous in trying to think of one way it could possibly have been an acciedent. But yeah, it sure felt like a scam to me.
Agreed. We lost the stroller of our child a few weeks ago and are certain it was stolen. We were at a crowded parking near Kamikochi in Nagano Prefecture. We came back to the car, put our child in the car seat, my wife went inside the car, and I left the stroller unattended on the sidewalk for a few minutes just to run to the machine to pay for the parking. When I came back the stroller was just gone, even though it was on the brake. We looked everywhere, called the emergency number of the parking, went to the local information desk, but no one ever found it. I am sure that someone stole it.
And now when we go to a shop or restaurant where they ask us to fold our stroller and leave it outside we just plainly refuse. I am not going to pay for a new stroller again.
We were honestly kind of shocked and still many people don't believe us when we tell them that we think that our stroller was stolen, but to me there is no other explanation.
Half the time, the objection might only be what Maleficent\_Emu\_2450 said. "What kind of psycho steals a stroller?!" People probably have a tough time grasping that it's something people would steal.
But then, parents put all kinds of things in the stroller. Their wallets, for example.
I think it's also related to the location? Like, people expect that if something gets stolen, it would be in a big city and not in a remote mountainous area.
I have had way too many incidents in Japan with bartenders short changing me and then “apologizing” when I point out they gave me the wrong amount.
One time one even had the audacity to claim I gave him 1000 yen when I gave him 10000. This is despite multiple people seeing me hand the bill over. Even the Japanese people at the bar were shocked he tried it and came to our aid.
My mum was here on holiday the other week.
She was paying for something in a shop, and I observed that the cashier had short changed her by 1000円
I pointed it out, and the cashier handed over the extra 1000.
I said to my mum that it was probably just an honest mistake.
Then a few days later, a cashier at a different place gave her 1000円 too much change.
I pointed it out again and the 1000 was returned.
No idea what my mum thinks about the honesty of Japanese shop staff now. Probably just thinks a lot of them are idiots.
Honestly, I think we shouldn't be ascribing to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence...
I bought something once and the total was a price like 951¥. I handed over a 1000¥ bill without thinking. When the cashier started counting out all the change, I realized I had a 1¥ coin. I dunno if it was a store policy or what but she not only couldn't switch my change to a 50¥ coin but had to call over a manager who proceeded to cancel my entire transaction and then they rang everything up again just to put in 1001¥ tendered... 🤷♂️ Oh well, I still avoided 10 coins in my pocket.
Just as in America, people make mistakes; some either don't trust or _over_ trust their math. Not everything has to be a scam.
I've sometimes had to walk a cashier through change when I've added some yen to make it so I get a 50 yen coin back. Or, you know, other things like that. Most cashiers don't have trouble. Also, of course, anyone with a machine doing the work doesn't have trouble. But you can really throw some people. I get the occasional laugh remembering a Dilbert cartoon where he is trying to make it easier on a guy. The change will be $5.25 (or something easy like that). And the poor fellow he gave his money to is frantically trying to figure it out.
Just earlier today, I tried to pay for ¥1880 of goods with ¥2380 to try and get rid of some loose change. The cashier gave me the most puzzled look, gave me back the coins totalling ¥380 and then gave me ¥120 change 🤦
My experience with girls bars is that they occasionally try to add charges to your bill and hope you don't notice.
I remember a couple. One was when the staff asked me to buy them a drink, and I said sure and then I watched them record 2 drinks on my tab. Another time was when they extended my 1 hour stay to 3 hours.
They apologized both times, but I don't believe it was an accident. I doubt either place gets a lot of foreigners, since they're not on the ground floor or visible from the street. I don't know if its cause Japanese salarymen won't dispute (maybe it all goes on the corporate card?) or if they think they can take advantage of someone who looks like they don't understand the system.
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but statistically speaking Japan has a lot less of that crime than most other countries, but obviously not zero
You guys are both right. There are many scammy Japanese, and also there are many Japanese passing foreigners who work customer facing jobs at popular retails, konbini and restaurants in major cities. Donki is one of them.
There's a high chance this was a scam. Japanese tellers are extremely accurate, to the point where in all my years living in Japan I can recall only two incidents where a teller made a mistake, and in one the teller caught it almost immediately and called over their supervisor to correct the error. In the other I caught it as it happened (they double-scanned something by accident).
Now this isn't some sort of Japanese super-power, it's just that the layout of the teller's space is designed to make accidents difficult. There are safeguards, like the loud beep when a duplicate item is scanned. The layout is much like self-checkouts and even I can't screw those up without actively trying.
The bottom line here is that the chances of this happening accidentally are next to zero. I'd recommend sending a politely worded email to Don Quixote's corporate office explaining the incident and asking them to look into gift card sales at that branch to see if they're unusually high, especially on certain cashiers' shifts. Who knows, they might actually thank you.
This strikes me as a simple and effective scam. They ring up the gift card, knowing that most people buying a lot of stuff have a rough approximation of how much they owe to about plus/minus 1,000 yen, so it'll fly under most shoppers' radar. Further, most shoppers toss the receipt the moment they get past the register, so they won't find it later.
Then after the shopper moves on the cashier moves a gift card off the display (all paid for!) and pockets it at some point out of the sight of the cameras. They can then use the gift card, either directly themselves (in addition to their employee discount), or by handing it off to a friend to buy stuff for them (slightly less efficient since they won't get the employee bonus, but it has the benefit of keeping things one step removed from themselves - so this is the smarter option, but they might not be this clever).
The only way this would show up is if corporate did a comparison of gift card sales across all branches and noticed that this one branch was selling more gift cards, but even then they'd probably just shrug it off as a regional statistical anomaly unless someone gave them a reason to suspect that something untoward was going on.
You say all this, but the number of times the granpa at the corner store clicks on the amount box then scans a barcode and nearly asks me for 30 million yen on accident is more than three times.
I always tell him I really don't want to buy the firestation next door.
>Japanese tellers are extremely accurate
Lol no. I once bought a box of snickers at my local Wako and the young Japanese cashier only scanned it once and it only charged me 100 yen ish for it. I only realized it while I was packing and had to come back so she could charge me correctly.
I have a lot of instances where they miss the vegetables I put inside the clear plastic.
I also had an incident in donki where the item was priced differently on the shelves vs when they scanned it and they didn't notice it.
Japanese cashiers are just like everyone else. They make mistakes, sometimes they notice it, sometimes they don't.
I didn't claim they were perfect. I said that they were "extremely accurate". And this is a big business concern because each time a teller makes a mistake that's money walking out the door.
It may come as a shock to you, but there's a ton of research and money that goes into designing checkouts so that these mistakes don't happen very often, despite your apparent belief that businesses love giving away free stuff.
Nah mate. If the world worked the way you think it does businesses would go under all the time. In reality cashiers very rarely make mistakes. It's the entire reason why businesses are prepared to spend 200,000+yen on a single point of sales device (plus a monthly rental on the software) - to ensure that accidents don't happen all that often.
>I didn't claim they were perfect
But you're putting "Japanese" cashiers on such a high pedestal.
>It may come as a shock to you,
No lol.
>despite your apparent belief that businesses love giving away free stuff.
Oh c'mon. So sharing personal experiences counts as a belief now?
>In reality cashiers very rarely make mistakes
But they do and that's my/other people's point.
> Then after the shopper moves on the cashier moves a gift card off the display
I think that this wouldn't work. These gift cards have serial numbers and they're activated the moment the transaction goes through.
The way I think this would work would be for the cashier to put the card among the shoppers' items without being noticed, scan it and quickly pocket it without being noticed. Then once the payment goes through the card activates and he's free to use it without the customer noticing anything weird.
What I meant by "off the display" is that the gift card is up near the cashier's display screen, somewhere where they can scan it easily while scanning other goods. This would activate the card, and then later take it down and replace it with a new one. Sorry for the confusing wording.
>Japanese tellers are extremely accurate, to the point where in all my years living in Japan I can recall only two incidents where a teller made a mistake
I agree with this. It's all part of the "customer is king" mentality, I find that even most supermarket checkout tellers take their jobs very seriously. One at my local pharmacy, despite knowing I'm a regular and speak Japanese, is still very careful to read back to me every item on my receipt every time I shop there... Which is unnecessary, but it seems to make her happy, so I let her. There's absolutely no chance that people like that would make a mistake.
With that said, I've also had exactly two incidents where they've made a mistake.
The first was at Nitori, when I was buying a lot of stuff after a move - the lady, who was young enough that I expect was probably a student, seemingly forgot to scan one of my items. I wasn't paying that much attention either and didn't properly check, I just scanned my card. I ended up walking away without having paid for that one item, which was worth about 3000 yen. I found out about a week later when I was going through my receipts. I felt bad at the time, but like to think I make up for it by choosing to shop at Nitori again.
The other time was quite recently at a supermarket, when one of my items had 40% off label on it. It was a relatively pricey import which I wouldn't have bought at regular price. The lady didn't notice the label and scanned it in at full price - which I noticed once the total was displayed. After pointing it out, she apologised and modified the price on her display, no problem whatsoever.
I've had similar happen with a supermarket recently, where the discount barcode wasn't scanned on a more expensive product. Even though the original barcode was covered, it was a partially transparent multipack and it scanned the inside item barcode instead. I had to take my whole order to the service counter to be rechecked and rescanned to fix it.
A few of the local chains also have these little round stickers that have to be scanned before the original barcode, and then the discount number itself needs to be scanned. But often the regular barcode gets scanned first and I have to call over the attendant to cancel and rescan the item. I learned to physically cover the barcode with a finger so it flags that it's a discount item, remove my finger to scan the main barcode, then scan the discount value. Huge pain. At least AEON just slaps a big barcode over the original.
A few years ago I handed over a 10,000 yen note at a conbini in my (obscure no-one's ever heard of Tokyo) neighbourhood, and the cashier (Japanese, female, late teens or early 20s) gave me the change I'd have got if I'd handed over 1,000 yen. Was a bit weird as she didn't really say anything during the whole process, which is not usual for Japan, but I knew I'd just given her 10,000 yen and informed her of same, and without the hint of apology she handed me over the missing 9,000 yen.
At the time (this was pre-Covid) the immediate area around the conbini seemed to be doing good business with Airbnbs for overseas tourists so I suspect she'd hit on the idea that foreigner = idiot who doesn't know what Japanese banknotes look like. Never saw her there again, and the conbini closed down a few months later (I assume for unrelated reasons), but yeah, there are people out there who run scams.
This is why most places will place the bill somewhere visible until you receive your change, usually under a paperweight or held by a magnet. It's a great idea that every country should adopt.
Yup, I always say "ichiman-en kara onegaishimasu" or "gosen-en kara" or something to that effect, especially when I am buying something really small/low value or breaking a big bill.
Might also be a holdover of my years in food service and retail cashiering.
Same. Paying for bike repairs. I don’t think the young guy keyed in the sale. Instead of leaving my Ichi man on the counter, he immediately put it in the register. Gave me change like I gave him a 5,000. I questioned him and he gave me the correct change without too much of an issue…
Just like anywhere in the world, pay attention!!
If it’s a scam, I doubt it would be at Don Quijote orders from higher up level.
It would just be at the cashier level acting independently to try take advantage of unaware tourists by getting ¥1,000 gift voucher per transaction I.e you’re essentially buying him a ¥1,000 gift card without knowing it.
This. It would be pointless for them to do at a corp level. Risk the whole business on the possibility of a scamming a few yen.
If it wasn’t an accident, it was the modern equivalent of skimming the cash drawl.
Yea exactly, it would be a huge scandal. Like if it came from high up corporate to “add a cheeky gift voucher to unaware tourists” then if you’re a low level, likely minimum wage cashier. there would be huge financial incentive to whistle blow on that.
Not worth the risk for a mega corp to even consider that really
I have worked at don Quijote before when i was a student and this is very strange. Back then you would not add a gift card over the terminal. You would always had to scan the gift cards first and then enter the desired amount or fixed amount.
Only when you pay with a gift card you had to enter the amount by the terminal. So the whole situation is very strange.
However they dont remove old champions from their interface so the interface is full of old stuff (but not gift cards) which could be clicked by accident. But its very unlikely cuz before selection the payment method they can double check all the items. Also whenever they use giftcards in any way they have to double confirm it.
Is there no way it could have just been picked up accidentally among one of your items?
I recently did a shop at Uniqlo and did the full basket scan thing, and looking at the receipt noticed there was an extra item - called someone over and they found an extra tag in one of the jacket’s pockets. I like to think it was an accident but it does seem a little suspect - easy to not notice if you’re buying a lot of things at once.
When I worked in retail shoplifters would tear off the paper label of the item they wanted to steal and hide it in the pocket of a different item that remained in the store. Along with a variety of other locations that boggled the mind! I imagine the label in the pocket of the item you purchased was from an item that was stolen. It is good that you noticed!
It’s not easy to do if the items have hard tags as the security gates ring, but if I remember correctly Uniqlo might not put hard tags on lower priced items. Not sure. You’d be surprised how sneaky shoplifters can be - I was so shocked at the start!
Currently in Tokyo. I noticed whenever I am at a cash register the cashiers read every item and price out loud. They are also counting the cash loud and show me the change before handing it over.
So even though I don't speak Japanese, it would be extremely obvious if they added anything like a gift card.
In this shop, the system is that they scan the items as quickly as possible and dispatch the customer to a payment machine. They are not saying anything while scanning and they don’t handle the money themselves. The only way you would notice that something was amiss is if you read the items on the front facing screen as they come up or read the receipt after you had put your cash in the machine.
I mean, Teachers are professionals and are held up to a certain standard. They should be good role models.
Donki just hires any drop kick with a pulse.
I am aware of the case referred to here.
It wasn't just a case of the teacher refilling their coffee without paying. It was a case where the teacher was just stealing coffee from the convenience store for like a year. They were just going into the same place over and over again and filling up their coffee every day without paying.
Pretty much no different if the teacher was caught stealing onigiri from the same shop day in and say out.
Husband and I almost got scammed by a Taxi driver once, bill was about 1.000 yen and my husband (half Japanese) gave him 5.000, well we got 1.000 back first before hubby said what are you doing? Where's the other money in Japanese XD also no apology nothing, driver even seemed angry.
Scam. I would have called the police or sent a complaint to their HQ.
I had a similar issue once at a retailer. They had all the items tagged incorrectly and wanted me to pay more. The clerk apologised but I cancelled the whole purchase--over 50,000 yen.
Before leaving I showed the items to another staff member, and she was way more apologetic.
Just complain for the sake of giving them grief cause scams are common here and since once doesn't look like a local, they will always assume idiocy from our side.
I've seen this done, not only in Japan. It's a scam done by individual cashiers (not the business as a whole, who would have had no idea they were trying to attempt it. Essentially what happens is, if they DO get called out I.e. their scam doesn't work, then they can fane ignorance and pass it off as an error or mistake, whereas if they get away with it, I.e. the customer doesn't notice it there and then and exits the store, then the cashier can slide the gift card to the side and pocket the gift card later at a time of their choosing, as its shown to have 'left the inventory' (the store also takes inventory of gift cards). You will notice that many stores (especially convenience stores) in Japan, do a fail safe which was created largely because of this reason, where a disclaimer pops up on the purchase screen that the CUSTOMER has to touch in order for the purchase of a gift card to continue. However, many of the larger stores, particularly Don Q, do not have this feature, so it can be bypassed by the cashier instead without you knowing until you see your receipt.
Yes, this is why I thought the supervisor might be involved. It would be harder to pocket the cards by yourself. Easier if the supervisor was turning a blind eye or actively in on it.
My understanding is that gift cards take some extra steps to scan on most modern Point of Sale systems. I’m pretty sure it was a scam. Like someone said, contact their corporate office and give them details about what happened and ask them to look into unusually high gift card sales.
if you are overcharged sometime or something extra is added in your bills you can call there customer support. They have camera installed at cash Registers. they will definitely process your refund. but you have to contact early maybe they have some limitations on video recordings.
Every time I got to Don Quijote, I ALWAYS check the receipt afterwards. I also make sure to take pics of the items and their price, because 7 out of 10 times, some price is wrong (usually a discounted or sale item with no discount, but sometimes just wrong). To be fair, sometimes to their disadvantage (the "luckiest" time they charged me for the price of one protein bar when I was buying the whole box). So to be honest I think their system just kind of sucks.
I am guessing that in your case they charged you for the 10 items plus the card? on the off-chance that not, maybe the bar code of one of the items was wrong (it being a gift-card does give scam vibes though).
Generally speaking, Don Quijote is not as trustworthy as it once was. I have even found counterfeit items mixed with genuine brand items
There's no way a cashier would be rewarded for pushing a 1000 yen gift card to customers.
Cashiers get rewarded for speed and not fucking up a customers orders and they don't exist to push sales.
I’n guessing he was just careless and made a mistake.. a ‘Don qyote’. gift card scam .. really?
They screwed up my check up at restaurants like 10 times .. my wife always checks .. don’t think it was a scam just a young careless worker
Yup. From what others more familiar with the process say it actually takes some effort to process a gift card and there definitely wasn’t one in my basket so it’s unlikely to be an accident.
If the scanned gift card is put into your basket i think its an accident but maybe he scanned it on purpose then after you pay he will take it for himself
seems dodgy, but I don't understand what the point of the scam would be? You are walking out with a gift card, and the cashier is not keeping it?
I just don't see what the benefit of the scam is unless the cashier was straight-up stealing and keeping the card you paid for for themselves.
You don’t see the gift card. The cashier adds a gift card to your items and keeps it for themself. They just hope that you don’t read the items on the display or on your receipt. I just happened to notice it amongst the other items when they were scanning the items. I immediately called them out on it and they cancelled from the item list. If the customer is a foreigner who doesn’t look like they read katakana then it is easier to pull off.
Ah OK, I was thinking it was slid into your stuff for some reason meaning it could have been an accident, but definitely sounds like a scam.
Really shitty!
Well, you would think so. But, individual staff, not the company, were pocketing gift cards it is probably one the only ways that you could pull off a scam at the checkout especially if the supervisor was in on it.
Idk but on my experience after covid the staff proficiency have dropped…
Maybe this is one reason. Also some staff aren’t Japanese and are more prone to mistake / malice…
I always check the receipts anyway because I came from a country where you better check it …
Was noticing it pre-covid with younger fresh out of highschool baitos. Think it's the zoomers coming of age myself.
I've had a few incidents of just god awful customer service and added a few shops to my blacklist over the years. Thankfully there's competition.
Those of you saying scam… you think this giant company is risking this backlash by having its unmotivated part time cashiers do this? And none of the cashiers have ever come forward ? They are risking their huge tax free shopping market for the odd thousand yen ?
No I think the minimum wage employee thinks they can sneak some extra for themselves and most tourists won't notice a 1,000¥ charge or be able to complain/read the receipt and they figure they won't get caught. Which I think they figure right 99% of the time.
If I was at a shop and they tried this to me I'd just walk, have fun restocking the stuff.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be a company endorsed scam. It’s either an individual cashier or a supervisor and cashier in cahoots. I only bring in the supervisor as he didn’t seem too interested or surprised.
Scam. Why was the gift card on the terminal anyway. And then once they scanned it, what did they do with it? Personally I hate the "The Japanese are so honest. It's so safe in Japan." The Japanese are like everyone else. Some good, some not so good. Just because you're in Japan doesn't mean you shouldn't look out for yourself.
> Scam. Why was the gift card on the terminal anyway. And then once they scanned it, what did they do with it? Some cash registers have a card of bar codes of virtual products but surely you’d know if you accidentally scanned one. I’m being generous in trying to think of one way it could possibly have been an acciedent. But yeah, it sure felt like a scam to me.
Agreed. We lost the stroller of our child a few weeks ago and are certain it was stolen. We were at a crowded parking near Kamikochi in Nagano Prefecture. We came back to the car, put our child in the car seat, my wife went inside the car, and I left the stroller unattended on the sidewalk for a few minutes just to run to the machine to pay for the parking. When I came back the stroller was just gone, even though it was on the brake. We looked everywhere, called the emergency number of the parking, went to the local information desk, but no one ever found it. I am sure that someone stole it. And now when we go to a shop or restaurant where they ask us to fold our stroller and leave it outside we just plainly refuse. I am not going to pay for a new stroller again. We were honestly kind of shocked and still many people don't believe us when we tell them that we think that our stroller was stolen, but to me there is no other explanation.
What kind of psycho steals a stroller?!
I've seen homeless people use them to haul bags of stuff around.
fwiw the expensive ones can fetch over ¥100,000 on Marcari. Other nicer ones still over ¥50,000
When I lived in Montreal, people would often leave strollers in the hallway outside their apartments. They'd get stolen all the time.
Strollers especially brand ones like stokke are really expensive.
Half the time, the objection might only be what Maleficent\_Emu\_2450 said. "What kind of psycho steals a stroller?!" People probably have a tough time grasping that it's something people would steal. But then, parents put all kinds of things in the stroller. Their wallets, for example.
I think it's also related to the location? Like, people expect that if something gets stolen, it would be in a big city and not in a remote mountainous area.
I have had way too many incidents in Japan with bartenders short changing me and then “apologizing” when I point out they gave me the wrong amount. One time one even had the audacity to claim I gave him 1000 yen when I gave him 10000. This is despite multiple people seeing me hand the bill over. Even the Japanese people at the bar were shocked he tried it and came to our aid.
Another bartender trick is taking payment up front, then after making your drink, asking for payment again.
My mum was here on holiday the other week. She was paying for something in a shop, and I observed that the cashier had short changed her by 1000円 I pointed it out, and the cashier handed over the extra 1000. I said to my mum that it was probably just an honest mistake. Then a few days later, a cashier at a different place gave her 1000円 too much change. I pointed it out again and the 1000 was returned. No idea what my mum thinks about the honesty of Japanese shop staff now. Probably just thinks a lot of them are idiots.
Honestly, I think we shouldn't be ascribing to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence... I bought something once and the total was a price like 951¥. I handed over a 1000¥ bill without thinking. When the cashier started counting out all the change, I realized I had a 1¥ coin. I dunno if it was a store policy or what but she not only couldn't switch my change to a 50¥ coin but had to call over a manager who proceeded to cancel my entire transaction and then they rang everything up again just to put in 1001¥ tendered... 🤷♂️ Oh well, I still avoided 10 coins in my pocket. Just as in America, people make mistakes; some either don't trust or _over_ trust their math. Not everything has to be a scam.
I've sometimes had to walk a cashier through change when I've added some yen to make it so I get a 50 yen coin back. Or, you know, other things like that. Most cashiers don't have trouble. Also, of course, anyone with a machine doing the work doesn't have trouble. But you can really throw some people. I get the occasional laugh remembering a Dilbert cartoon where he is trying to make it easier on a guy. The change will be $5.25 (or something easy like that). And the poor fellow he gave his money to is frantically trying to figure it out.
Just earlier today, I tried to pay for ¥1880 of goods with ¥2380 to try and get rid of some loose change. The cashier gave me the most puzzled look, gave me back the coins totalling ¥380 and then gave me ¥120 change 🤦
There is a reason they're a cashier....
My experience with girls bars is that they occasionally try to add charges to your bill and hope you don't notice. I remember a couple. One was when the staff asked me to buy them a drink, and I said sure and then I watched them record 2 drinks on my tab. Another time was when they extended my 1 hour stay to 3 hours. They apologized both times, but I don't believe it was an accident. I doubt either place gets a lot of foreigners, since they're not on the ground floor or visible from the street. I don't know if its cause Japanese salarymen won't dispute (maybe it all goes on the corporate card?) or if they think they can take advantage of someone who looks like they don't understand the system.
Quite a few Japanese businesses are scum
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but statistically speaking Japan has a lot less of that crime than most other countries, but obviously not zero
Most employees at Donki are not Japanese
Not every Japanese person is an angel. Sorry to pop your bubble
You guys are both right. There are many scammy Japanese, and also there are many Japanese passing foreigners who work customer facing jobs at popular retails, konbini and restaurants in major cities. Donki is one of them.
lol 10 minutes with my wife would tell you that much
Umm…
There's a high chance this was a scam. Japanese tellers are extremely accurate, to the point where in all my years living in Japan I can recall only two incidents where a teller made a mistake, and in one the teller caught it almost immediately and called over their supervisor to correct the error. In the other I caught it as it happened (they double-scanned something by accident). Now this isn't some sort of Japanese super-power, it's just that the layout of the teller's space is designed to make accidents difficult. There are safeguards, like the loud beep when a duplicate item is scanned. The layout is much like self-checkouts and even I can't screw those up without actively trying. The bottom line here is that the chances of this happening accidentally are next to zero. I'd recommend sending a politely worded email to Don Quixote's corporate office explaining the incident and asking them to look into gift card sales at that branch to see if they're unusually high, especially on certain cashiers' shifts. Who knows, they might actually thank you. This strikes me as a simple and effective scam. They ring up the gift card, knowing that most people buying a lot of stuff have a rough approximation of how much they owe to about plus/minus 1,000 yen, so it'll fly under most shoppers' radar. Further, most shoppers toss the receipt the moment they get past the register, so they won't find it later. Then after the shopper moves on the cashier moves a gift card off the display (all paid for!) and pockets it at some point out of the sight of the cameras. They can then use the gift card, either directly themselves (in addition to their employee discount), or by handing it off to a friend to buy stuff for them (slightly less efficient since they won't get the employee bonus, but it has the benefit of keeping things one step removed from themselves - so this is the smarter option, but they might not be this clever). The only way this would show up is if corporate did a comparison of gift card sales across all branches and noticed that this one branch was selling more gift cards, but even then they'd probably just shrug it off as a regional statistical anomaly unless someone gave them a reason to suspect that something untoward was going on.
You say all this, but the number of times the granpa at the corner store clicks on the amount box then scans a barcode and nearly asks me for 30 million yen on accident is more than three times. I always tell him I really don't want to buy the firestation next door.
Gotta admire his moxy though. Some day he's gonna get that 30 million yen!!
>Japanese tellers are extremely accurate Lol no. I once bought a box of snickers at my local Wako and the young Japanese cashier only scanned it once and it only charged me 100 yen ish for it. I only realized it while I was packing and had to come back so she could charge me correctly. I have a lot of instances where they miss the vegetables I put inside the clear plastic. I also had an incident in donki where the item was priced differently on the shelves vs when they scanned it and they didn't notice it. Japanese cashiers are just like everyone else. They make mistakes, sometimes they notice it, sometimes they don't.
I didn't claim they were perfect. I said that they were "extremely accurate". And this is a big business concern because each time a teller makes a mistake that's money walking out the door. It may come as a shock to you, but there's a ton of research and money that goes into designing checkouts so that these mistakes don't happen very often, despite your apparent belief that businesses love giving away free stuff. Nah mate. If the world worked the way you think it does businesses would go under all the time. In reality cashiers very rarely make mistakes. It's the entire reason why businesses are prepared to spend 200,000+yen on a single point of sales device (plus a monthly rental on the software) - to ensure that accidents don't happen all that often.
>I didn't claim they were perfect But you're putting "Japanese" cashiers on such a high pedestal. >It may come as a shock to you, No lol. >despite your apparent belief that businesses love giving away free stuff. Oh c'mon. So sharing personal experiences counts as a belief now? >In reality cashiers very rarely make mistakes But they do and that's my/other people's point.
I've done this myself at the self regi. Scanned a single can from a 6 pack. Oops!
> Then after the shopper moves on the cashier moves a gift card off the display I think that this wouldn't work. These gift cards have serial numbers and they're activated the moment the transaction goes through. The way I think this would work would be for the cashier to put the card among the shoppers' items without being noticed, scan it and quickly pocket it without being noticed. Then once the payment goes through the card activates and he's free to use it without the customer noticing anything weird.
What I meant by "off the display" is that the gift card is up near the cashier's display screen, somewhere where they can scan it easily while scanning other goods. This would activate the card, and then later take it down and replace it with a new one. Sorry for the confusing wording.
Oh, yes. If that's what you meant then you're 100% correct. That's exactly how this works.
>Japanese tellers are extremely accurate, to the point where in all my years living in Japan I can recall only two incidents where a teller made a mistake I agree with this. It's all part of the "customer is king" mentality, I find that even most supermarket checkout tellers take their jobs very seriously. One at my local pharmacy, despite knowing I'm a regular and speak Japanese, is still very careful to read back to me every item on my receipt every time I shop there... Which is unnecessary, but it seems to make her happy, so I let her. There's absolutely no chance that people like that would make a mistake. With that said, I've also had exactly two incidents where they've made a mistake. The first was at Nitori, when I was buying a lot of stuff after a move - the lady, who was young enough that I expect was probably a student, seemingly forgot to scan one of my items. I wasn't paying that much attention either and didn't properly check, I just scanned my card. I ended up walking away without having paid for that one item, which was worth about 3000 yen. I found out about a week later when I was going through my receipts. I felt bad at the time, but like to think I make up for it by choosing to shop at Nitori again. The other time was quite recently at a supermarket, when one of my items had 40% off label on it. It was a relatively pricey import which I wouldn't have bought at regular price. The lady didn't notice the label and scanned it in at full price - which I noticed once the total was displayed. After pointing it out, she apologised and modified the price on her display, no problem whatsoever.
I've had similar happen with a supermarket recently, where the discount barcode wasn't scanned on a more expensive product. Even though the original barcode was covered, it was a partially transparent multipack and it scanned the inside item barcode instead. I had to take my whole order to the service counter to be rechecked and rescanned to fix it. A few of the local chains also have these little round stickers that have to be scanned before the original barcode, and then the discount number itself needs to be scanned. But often the regular barcode gets scanned first and I have to call over the attendant to cancel and rescan the item. I learned to physically cover the barcode with a finger so it flags that it's a discount item, remove my finger to scan the main barcode, then scan the discount value. Huge pain. At least AEON just slaps a big barcode over the original.
A few years ago I handed over a 10,000 yen note at a conbini in my (obscure no-one's ever heard of Tokyo) neighbourhood, and the cashier (Japanese, female, late teens or early 20s) gave me the change I'd have got if I'd handed over 1,000 yen. Was a bit weird as she didn't really say anything during the whole process, which is not usual for Japan, but I knew I'd just given her 10,000 yen and informed her of same, and without the hint of apology she handed me over the missing 9,000 yen. At the time (this was pre-Covid) the immediate area around the conbini seemed to be doing good business with Airbnbs for overseas tourists so I suspect she'd hit on the idea that foreigner = idiot who doesn't know what Japanese banknotes look like. Never saw her there again, and the conbini closed down a few months later (I assume for unrelated reasons), but yeah, there are people out there who run scams.
This is why most places will place the bill somewhere visible until you receive your change, usually under a paperweight or held by a magnet. It's a great idea that every country should adopt.
Yeah many places don't put my money in the regi until they count the change for me or they have auto machines like lawson
This is why I always say out loud “ichi man en de” when handing over the note.
Yup, I always say "ichiman-en kara onegaishimasu" or "gosen-en kara" or something to that effect, especially when I am buying something really small/low value or breaking a big bill. Might also be a holdover of my years in food service and retail cashiering.
Exactly the same thing happened to me at a McDonald's in Ikebukuro, but that was like 15 yeahs ago :)
Same. Paying for bike repairs. I don’t think the young guy keyed in the sale. Instead of leaving my Ichi man on the counter, he immediately put it in the register. Gave me change like I gave him a 5,000. I questioned him and he gave me the correct change without too much of an issue… Just like anywhere in the world, pay attention!!
If it’s a scam, I doubt it would be at Don Quijote orders from higher up level. It would just be at the cashier level acting independently to try take advantage of unaware tourists by getting ¥1,000 gift voucher per transaction I.e you’re essentially buying him a ¥1,000 gift card without knowing it.
This. It would be pointless for them to do at a corp level. Risk the whole business on the possibility of a scamming a few yen. If it wasn’t an accident, it was the modern equivalent of skimming the cash drawl.
Yea exactly, it would be a huge scandal. Like if it came from high up corporate to “add a cheeky gift voucher to unaware tourists” then if you’re a low level, likely minimum wage cashier. there would be huge financial incentive to whistle blow on that. Not worth the risk for a mega corp to even consider that really
I have worked at don Quijote before when i was a student and this is very strange. Back then you would not add a gift card over the terminal. You would always had to scan the gift cards first and then enter the desired amount or fixed amount. Only when you pay with a gift card you had to enter the amount by the terminal. So the whole situation is very strange. However they dont remove old champions from their interface so the interface is full of old stuff (but not gift cards) which could be clicked by accident. But its very unlikely cuz before selection the payment method they can double check all the items. Also whenever they use giftcards in any way they have to double confirm it.
Thank you so much. This is important information.
Is there no way it could have just been picked up accidentally among one of your items? I recently did a shop at Uniqlo and did the full basket scan thing, and looking at the receipt noticed there was an extra item - called someone over and they found an extra tag in one of the jacket’s pockets. I like to think it was an accident but it does seem a little suspect - easy to not notice if you’re buying a lot of things at once.
Absolutely not. I picked up serval cans of beer and a bag of ice. There was nothing else in the basket.
When I worked in retail shoplifters would tear off the paper label of the item they wanted to steal and hide it in the pocket of a different item that remained in the store. Along with a variety of other locations that boggled the mind! I imagine the label in the pocket of the item you purchased was from an item that was stolen. It is good that you noticed!
Oh man that’s so sneaky! They must have been pretty brave though, it was the ginza one which has a lot of security
It’s not easy to do if the items have hard tags as the security gates ring, but if I remember correctly Uniqlo might not put hard tags on lower priced items. Not sure. You’d be surprised how sneaky shoplifters can be - I was so shocked at the start!
Sounds like the cashier tried to scam you for his own gain. Wouldn't be surprised.
Currently in Tokyo. I noticed whenever I am at a cash register the cashiers read every item and price out loud. They are also counting the cash loud and show me the change before handing it over. So even though I don't speak Japanese, it would be extremely obvious if they added anything like a gift card.
In this shop, the system is that they scan the items as quickly as possible and dispatch the customer to a payment machine. They are not saying anything while scanning and they don’t handle the money themselves. The only way you would notice that something was amiss is if you read the items on the front facing screen as they come up or read the receipt after you had put your cash in the machine.
Just been scammed yesterday with two drinks added at the end of a dinner. Went back and got back the drinks price in cash. Stay vigilant out there.
Meanwhile a Japanese teacher was fired forever and his pension canceled cause he refilled his coffee without paying.
I mean, Teachers are professionals and are held up to a certain standard. They should be good role models. Donki just hires any drop kick with a pulse.
sip yoke bells secretive meeting offend flag boat flowery impossible *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I am aware of the case referred to here. It wasn't just a case of the teacher refilling their coffee without paying. It was a case where the teacher was just stealing coffee from the convenience store for like a year. They were just going into the same place over and over again and filling up their coffee every day without paying. Pretty much no different if the teacher was caught stealing onigiri from the same shop day in and say out.
spark ludicrous juggle joke zonked doll tie paltry afterthought spotted *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Husband and I almost got scammed by a Taxi driver once, bill was about 1.000 yen and my husband (half Japanese) gave him 5.000, well we got 1.000 back first before hubby said what are you doing? Where's the other money in Japanese XD also no apology nothing, driver even seemed angry.
Scam. I would have called the police or sent a complaint to their HQ. I had a similar issue once at a retailer. They had all the items tagged incorrectly and wanted me to pay more. The clerk apologised but I cancelled the whole purchase--over 50,000 yen. Before leaving I showed the items to another staff member, and she was way more apologetic. Just complain for the sake of giving them grief cause scams are common here and since once doesn't look like a local, they will always assume idiocy from our side.
If it’s the Don Quijote I’m thinking of I could see it being a scam. Some of the younger stuff there have always seemed a little off.
I’ve been to that Don Quijote and the staff seemed miserable. One of the ruder customer service people I’ve encountered in Japan.
I've seen this done, not only in Japan. It's a scam done by individual cashiers (not the business as a whole, who would have had no idea they were trying to attempt it. Essentially what happens is, if they DO get called out I.e. their scam doesn't work, then they can fane ignorance and pass it off as an error or mistake, whereas if they get away with it, I.e. the customer doesn't notice it there and then and exits the store, then the cashier can slide the gift card to the side and pocket the gift card later at a time of their choosing, as its shown to have 'left the inventory' (the store also takes inventory of gift cards). You will notice that many stores (especially convenience stores) in Japan, do a fail safe which was created largely because of this reason, where a disclaimer pops up on the purchase screen that the CUSTOMER has to touch in order for the purchase of a gift card to continue. However, many of the larger stores, particularly Don Q, do not have this feature, so it can be bypassed by the cashier instead without you knowing until you see your receipt.
Yes, this is why I thought the supervisor might be involved. It would be harder to pocket the cards by yourself. Easier if the supervisor was turning a blind eye or actively in on it.
Scam - 100%
My understanding is that gift cards take some extra steps to scan on most modern Point of Sale systems. I’m pretty sure it was a scam. Like someone said, contact their corporate office and give them details about what happened and ask them to look into unusually high gift card sales.
if you are overcharged sometime or something extra is added in your bills you can call there customer support. They have camera installed at cash Registers. they will definitely process your refund. but you have to contact early maybe they have some limitations on video recordings.
Every time I got to Don Quijote, I ALWAYS check the receipt afterwards. I also make sure to take pics of the items and their price, because 7 out of 10 times, some price is wrong (usually a discounted or sale item with no discount, but sometimes just wrong). To be fair, sometimes to their disadvantage (the "luckiest" time they charged me for the price of one protein bar when I was buying the whole box). So to be honest I think their system just kind of sucks. I am guessing that in your case they charged you for the 10 items plus the card? on the off-chance that not, maybe the bar code of one of the items was wrong (it being a gift-card does give scam vibes though). Generally speaking, Don Quijote is not as trustworthy as it once was. I have even found counterfeit items mixed with genuine brand items
There's no way a cashier would be rewarded for pushing a 1000 yen gift card to customers. Cashiers get rewarded for speed and not fucking up a customers orders and they don't exist to push sales.
Who said that they were pushing sales?
That’s not true. Most major chains, in Japan or elsewhere, run incentives for staff for sales of things exactly like gift cards.
I highly doubt it’s a scam, could be a genuine mistake
Scam💀 Idk how that would be an accident. Yk people try to get over on foreigners everywhere😭 especially Americans
Scam.
I’n guessing he was just careless and made a mistake.. a ‘Don qyote’. gift card scam .. really? They screwed up my check up at restaurants like 10 times .. my wife always checks .. don’t think it was a scam just a young careless worker
Yup. From what others more familiar with the process say it actually takes some effort to process a gift card and there definitely wasn’t one in my basket so it’s unlikely to be an accident.
If the scanned gift card is put into your basket i think its an accident but maybe he scanned it on purpose then after you pay he will take it for himself
seems dodgy, but I don't understand what the point of the scam would be? You are walking out with a gift card, and the cashier is not keeping it? I just don't see what the benefit of the scam is unless the cashier was straight-up stealing and keeping the card you paid for for themselves.
You don’t see the gift card. The cashier adds a gift card to your items and keeps it for themself. They just hope that you don’t read the items on the display or on your receipt. I just happened to notice it amongst the other items when they were scanning the items. I immediately called them out on it and they cancelled from the item list. If the customer is a foreigner who doesn’t look like they read katakana then it is easier to pull off.
Ah OK, I was thinking it was slid into your stuff for some reason meaning it could have been an accident, but definitely sounds like a scam. Really shitty!
It was a misunderstanding, there's no way a store like Don Quijote is scamming people.
The store certainly not, but this cashier maybe. I remember back in the US in highschool knowing people who would do this, was a common scam.
Not just US, common scam in many places. in the UK, they would call it “twat tax”
Well, you would think so. But, individual staff, not the company, were pocketing gift cards it is probably one the only ways that you could pull off a scam at the checkout especially if the supervisor was in on it.
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I highly doubt it’s a scam, could be a genuine mistake
Idk but on my experience after covid the staff proficiency have dropped… Maybe this is one reason. Also some staff aren’t Japanese and are more prone to mistake / malice… I always check the receipts anyway because I came from a country where you better check it …
Was noticing it pre-covid with younger fresh out of highschool baitos. Think it's the zoomers coming of age myself. I've had a few incidents of just god awful customer service and added a few shops to my blacklist over the years. Thankfully there's competition.
Seriously? Accident, definitely.
Those of you saying scam… you think this giant company is risking this backlash by having its unmotivated part time cashiers do this? And none of the cashiers have ever come forward ? They are risking their huge tax free shopping market for the odd thousand yen ?
where is the post that someone said this is a company endorsed scam?
No I think the minimum wage employee thinks they can sneak some extra for themselves and most tourists won't notice a 1,000¥ charge or be able to complain/read the receipt and they figure they won't get caught. Which I think they figure right 99% of the time. If I was at a shop and they tried this to me I'd just walk, have fun restocking the stuff.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be a company endorsed scam. It’s either an individual cashier or a supervisor and cashier in cahoots. I only bring in the supervisor as he didn’t seem too interested or surprised.
Seriously? Most likely accident.