For want of a Penny

[Rahmota]

Hello all, as you noticed no doubt I don't have much to say not wanting to bother with the usual minor annoyances of the modern retail world (That and not working retail) but when i do its usually something quite odd and annoying. This is definately one of those things.

I was doing some oddjobs today and needed to get some gas in the truck on the way home.As the bank had already closed all I had was a 10$ bill on me. Enough gas to get home and back to town to cash the check the person pad with so no problem.

Stopped at the gas station in town and tried to put exactly 10 bucks in, but gas prices beign what they are (outraegeously high price gougingly robbery) I went over by a nickel. 5 cents. So rumbling I looked in the ashtray and floor of the truck but only came up with 2 cents. Figuring the ake a penny leave a penny thing mght be able to help out with the other thre i walked on in.

On the way in there was a nice shiny new penny on the ground so all I needed was 2 more, cool so far. Getting in there the penny thing only had 1 in there so as thats all she wrote so I shrugged adn figured a penny wouldnt be worth them busting myarse for. Apparently I was quite wrong.

Clerk: Thats $10.05
Me: Heres all I got. setting the 10 and the pennies down and getting ready to leave.
Clerk: Hey you're short! (Said in a tone ike I tried to just give them a or somethign)
ME: Yeah I know I didnt have any change and your penny jar was empty.
Clerk: Well you need to pay the total or I'll have to call the cops and report you as a drive off.
Guy in line behind me: What over a penny!
Clerk: Its company policy everyone has to pay in full or they are a drive off! (Acting like we personally insulted their entire family, church and killed their puppy too!)
GILBM: Fine heres the penny for him and you tell your manager their an idiot. (actually he didnt say idiot but i decided to PG it)
Me: Thanks. (as I depart before anythign else goes nuts)

That was a very strange event as I have never had someone go so anal nazi over a penny before in my life. I mean its not like I tried to short the person by a whole dollar or something.

That is rather funny in a sad sick way that an oil company/gas station would get so uptight over a penny short when they are ripping people's pockets in billions of dollars of profits which that clerk is not seeing a single penny of. If it was the anager's policy that the cops are called for being a penny short I hope the cops get tired of his BS and tell him to get stuffed and qui bothering them for petty suff. If it was the clerk then I hope she gets a clue and maybe a nicenes implant. If it was the corp then i hope they get stuffed and mounted.

[IT Grunt]

You've GOT to be kidding me.. 1 measly cent? Kudos to the guy behind you for calling the manager a . I agree, they raise prices, claim its for repairs on the refineries, then post record breaking profits? Uh huh... tell me another one.

[BlaqueKatt]

claim its for repairs on the refineries

to play devil's advocate here-the environmental lobby here in the united states has not allowed any new refineries to be built in the last 31 years*-so they have to retrofit and keep repairing 40 year old equipment with new technology rather than building newer refineries-with better equipment. As an aside the reason gas prices are higher in the summer has to do with the environmental lobby as well-during the winter all 50 states use two different blends of gasoline, during the summer it changes to 48 completely different blends depending on the state and the emissions standards-so the gasoline in Wisconsin is a totally different blend of additives and ethanol than the gasoline sold in say California-

* The last new refinery built in the U.S. was Marathon Oil's Garyville, Louisiana, plant, which opened in 1976. Expanding a U.S. refinery may cost as much as $10,000 per barrel of capacity. The United States is now grappling with an acute shortage of plants that can refine the more than 20 million of barrels of crude oil that the country consumes every day.

Sources-
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#3

sorry I like playing devil's advocate

[mariamousie1]

I think one penny is nothing to go nuts about. If I was the clerk I'd probably just throw in the penny from my own pocket. Not 2 pennies though, you have to draw the line somewhere or before you know it people will be taking off nickels and dimes as they please.
This reminds me of my library. They have a rule that you can't take out any books if your fine is over $5. One day I went to take out a book and my fines were
$5.10. No problem. I have a dime in my pocket, so I give it to the woman. She still wouldn't let me take it out because it had to be under 5 dollars, not on 5 dollars. I had to dig around in my stuff until I found a penny, and then she let me take it out.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Yes, I agree with bannedanna, cops do not like to be called over stupid crap. They woulda reamed that cashier a new one (and probably given them a citation for a false police call or something), and would have been perfectly justified in doing so.

On the other hand, the cashier might have a psycho manager, who would write them up if their drawer was short a penny. Who knows?

[mariamousie1]

I told my dad about this story and he said EXACTLY what bannedanna said. Kind of weird!

[scruff]

Round here no shop has a penny jar, and I would expect the customer to pay the full price.
Especially as some bosses don't let the people on tills carry any personal money (I believe it's a theft deterrent).
I guess it's different in your neck of the woods.

[iradney]

Here in SA, we have pump attendants. We don't pump our own. So we pull up, tell the petrol jockey how much gas we want, and they pump it. If they go over by 1 or 2 c, they don't include it in the charge. Eg: I ask for R100 gas, they pump R100.01. They dont kick up a fuss over the 1 c. If it goes to 5c, I'll throw a coin in, but it rarely happens, and those pumps are hard to stop accurately.

[Boozy]

A friend of mine worked at a gas station for a while, and his drawer only had to balance within two dollars at the end of the night. Because there was some recognition that it can be difficult for customer's pumping their own gas to get it right on the penny. Stuff like that would happen all the time, and it was no big deal. This clerk, and possibly her manager, really need to chill out.

(Does blas still work at a gas station? I wonder what her take on this would be...)

[IT Grunt]

sorry I like playing devil's advocate

Yes, I know about the restrictions on building new refineries, and I know they have to keep up the ones they have, but to raise prices, and still have broken refineries, then post huge profit margins? I'm sorry, something's rotten in Denmark. I can see where you're coming from, but the fact that they are posting the highest profits in years just doesn't sit well with me when there's things they need to fix with that money. Profit is supposed to be that extra cash they have after they pay their expenses, some of which is supposed to cover things like maintenance, regulatory fees (ala EPA), etc. To post it as profit, irks me.

[tollbaby]

heh. I went to a gas station that still had the old-style pumps (the ones where you actually have to manually turn the pump ON before you can choose your octane and pump the gas - I say old-style because there aren't many stations in my town that have those). I tried to pump as close to $20 as I could... Ended up with $20.03. Dammit. But I knew I had a mitt full of change, so I wasn't worried about it

[Banrion]

A couple years back, a radio station in the area had a "contest" going at a gas station. If you could pump EXACTLY $1.69 in gas on one pull, they would pay for your fill up. They didn't pay for much gas that day.

[Bella_Vixen]

As a cashier at a gas station, I object when people expect ME to cover when they pump 1-5 cents over. If they attempt to dig out the change, I'll more then likey cover it, but if they just throw $20 on the counter, they get the eyebrow. Especially when they then decide to buy a soda or something and pull out a pocketful of change.



And don't even get me started about our lovely WI gas prices. Technically I can get fired for discussing them in any way, shape, or form, so when customers complain, I tell them that my boss has to be able to afford to give me a raise somehow.

[strawbabies]

Don't they have the option for a customer to pre-pay for gas where you live? I just go in, tell the cashier how much gas I want, and pay for it. The gas pump stops when it hits the amount I've paid for.

[Bella_Vixen]

Of course we have the pre-pay option, but that's too easy for the SCs.