Wal Mart, giving back too much change.

[Ornamental]

Hi, I have a question for the Wal Mart employees here.

If you give too much change back to a customer, so that at the end of your shift, your register will be several dollars short. Will you then have to make up for the difference out of your own pocket?


This might seem like a stupid question to you, but please bear with me, I'm not American, and have not been very much in the US. Your ways are dark and mysterious to me. But I would guess that you would have to make up for it, either by drawing from your paycheck or giving you extra work.


The reason I ask, is that I was travelling with a colleague in Texas about a week ago, and we went to a Wal Mart. The esteemed co-worker of mine were ahead of me in the line, and when the cashier was done with me, the esteemed fuckwit who I call a colleague to his face were done with going through his receipt and change, presumably to make sure he got the correct change.
Which is fair enough, cashiers are just people too, and sometimes people make mistakes. I should check my change and receipt more often, but I digress.

The asshat was giggling because not only did he get too much back, he was given about twice as much as he paid with. So there he was, with around twice his cash back, and a receipt for his goods, and no intention of going back to the cashier.
Now, if he had gotten too little back, I'm reasonably sure he would stomp off to the cashier and cut into whatever transaction taking place and demand his money back immediately in his usual charming way of not wasting time with empty polite words.

I tried to hint that he should give the money back. Well, that killed the mood, he went from grinning like a mentally challenged person eating his own feces to making a very good impersonation of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il being displeased. I have the idea that the cashier will have to cover the difference, and I told him she might have to. Mr. Self Righteous then pompously declared that he too have to make up for his mistakes, and so should she. Like fuck he has ever done a extra hour of work to make up for a mistake of his at our common work place. I have to work with this little shit in a very limited environment over longer periods of time, so I didn't want to push it any further, lest it terminally sour a working relationship that needs to be functional.

So I dropped it. Ever since, I've been nagged by my conscience that the cashier most likely have lost her pay for about four hours worth of work, and I didn't stop that from happening. I pretend to have forgotten about this, since there's nothing to be gained from nagging on it. At least I know now what I initially suspected, going anywhere with this moral and intellectual vacuum is to be avoided if possible.

[draggar]

I don't think legally they can take it out of your check or make you work more (but I'm not a lawyer nor have I worked at a WalMart before).

Depending on the amount and how often it happens, they might be put on some corrective action (write ups etc.) or if it happens a lot they could have been fired (and if it went to that point then chances are it's happened many other times before).

[Ornamental]

Thank you for the reply draggar. I won't be the least bothered by Wal Mart loosing a few dollars, or the cashier getting way with a warning.

It still pisses me off that someone with an about USD80K income won't even consider to cut some slack to someone making around $11.75 an hour.

[Aislin]

I worked in the cash office. Anything over 5 dollars gets you a slip - 3 slips gets you a write up, and further slips get further write ups and that leads to termination.

[Plaidman]

Pretty much illegal in the states to make an employee pay for his mistakes.

Doesn't stop some people from doing it.


More then once have I paid for my shortage. Better then being written up and fired.

[Sunsetsky]

When I worked at Walmart they never took it out of our paychecks. If we were too far over/under with our drawers though they did warn us or write us up.

[Kogarashi]

I worked in the cash office. Anything over 5 dollars gets you a slip - 3 slips gets you a write up, and further slips get further write ups and that leads to termination.

I've worked as a Walmart cashier before, and Aislin has it on the nose. The "slips" mentioned, in our stores at least, were verbal warnings that were noted down. Too many of those led to write-ups, and too many of those led to a termination. But no, they never take it out of the cashier's paycheck.

Your coworker is still a jerk, but you can rest assured now that she's not paying for it out of pocket.

If you still have the receipt or remember her name, you can write to her store to explain things from your end. That might get her a reprieve, though I'd bet she'd still get at least the warning for not being careful with change. If you have the receipt, look for a number with OP next to it, usually at the top right above the list of what you bought. That'd be her cashier number, and they can use that to identify her.

[draggar]

I worked in the cash office. Anything over 5 dollars gets you a slip - 3 slips gets you a write up, and further slips get further write ups and that leads to termination.

Nice to know.

Pretty much illegal in the states to make an employee pay for his mistakes.

Doesn't stop some people from doing it.


More then once have I paid for my shortage. Better then being written up and fired.

It's illegal for them to take it out of your paycheck.

It's not illegal for them to ask you to cover the difference (if you know what I mean)

In the retail stores I've worked in where I would sometimes use a cash register it's not uncommon (but not often) for someone's drawer to come up short or over. If it was an honest manager, any overages were put in the safe (unless auditors were around) and used to cover any shortages. But - the largest was a Staples so we're only talking at most 5-9 (unshared) or 3-4 (shared) drawers a day, not like a Walmart that might go though a couple dozen.

If the manager was dishonest, well, you can easily guess where the overages went.

[Evil Queen]

Strange. Anytime my drawer was under I'd pay for the difference out of my pocket. Because, duh, it was MY mistake. Obviously because it was my mistake, I have to pay back the difference.

[Plaidman]

Strange. Anytime my drawer was under I'd pay for the difference out of my pocket. Because, duh, it was MY mistake. Obviously because it was my mistake, I have to pay back the difference.

By choice though, right?

People can and have payed shortages by choice. I know I have.


But bosses and managers cannot order you too, or take it from your paycheck.

[Bright_Star]

They can't take it out of your check & they can't force you to work more hours to make up the difference. What they CAN do is write you up or fire you if it happens too often.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Where I worked, over/under was noted on the register recap at the end of the shift; if someone was off by more than whatever amount (I forget how much) enough times, they would get written up. But writeups wouldn't happen until the next day, after the previous day's deposit and the safe were counted. If the money was still missing then they would do the writeup if necessary. Often the money is found in a cash pickup, or in the change drawer or safe (if a drawer was off by more than $10 or so the first thing I'd do would be to count the safe and change drawer).

That said, your colleague is an ass.

[Ornamental]

To put this thread to a conclusion, I was given some good advice from Kogarashi, and did almost as advised (Hey, I'm a customer after all, don't expect me to follow advice as it's been told. ), and called the store, just off the phone now.

Eventually, I got to speak with someone I can only guess was a manager of some sort.
I explained the situation, and was told that in situations like this, the cashier would be warned, but would not have to pay for it out of her own pocket. It would be considered as a loss of store assets.


I'm just very disappointed with that guy I'm working with, wouldn't have thought him to be such a moral midget. At least I got some steam out by writing about it here.

[Kogarashi]

I'm glad to hear things were taken care of.

And you can give your coworker a smack upside the head from me.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Good for you. At least you know you tried to do the right thing.