June 13, 2008
Q: Recently I made purchases at the Main Navy Exchange (NEX) Food Court and also inside the NEX itself. In both instances, the NEX employees rounded up, charging $8.60 at the Food Court for a sales purchase of $8.57, and charging $3.60 for a sales purchase of $3.57 inside the NEX. I could not see written signs posted at the cash registers regarding the NEX policy of rounding up or rounding down and I tried asking the NEX employee. The NEX employee told me that she didn’t know the policy. I took a number at the NEX Customer Service counter, waited, and then asked to see the on duty retail manager. The two NEX supervisors who met with me both admitted not really knowing the NEX policy. I suggested that the NEX should include this in their training of new employees and that the store’s policy should be written and available. I understand that the NEX stopped using pennies a couple of years ago in order to save money. However, the lack of attention to detail in how to round up or round down may be costing its customers pennies and be doing a disservice to our Yokosuka community; both military and civilians and their family members.

A: Dear Valued Customer, thank you for taking the time to allow us to brush up on our training. Pennies are not ordered from the bank for the Navy Exchange, due to the high cost of shipping pennies overseas. However, our management staff has been trained to round up and down properly. If your purchase ends in .06 or .07 it will be rounded down to .05. If your purchase ends in .08 and .09, it will be rounded up to .10. For your information, we do accept pennies for purchases and will also honor a check that reflects a penny amount. Please contact the NEX Store Manager Lisa Ballejo at 243-4455 if you desire additional information.