Now THIS is a scammer

[Pixelated]

A post I just put up (about a customer who was 65 cents short for her drink) reminded me of this, and I'm wondering about future dealings with this scammer.

We have a regular, who comes in and orders a drink. She is in a wheelchair. She always makes it a point to scrabble frantically through her wallet, and then look up in a woebegone fashion and say, "I don't have quite enough ..."

She most often comes in when it's crowded and then of course somebody in the crowd will likely go, "Oh, here, I'll cover it" because, you know, this poor lady in the wheelchair and this is likely her only treat and blah blah blah.

Repeat: she ALWAYS does this. Unlike the customer in my other story, she is in here often enough that she KNOWS the prices.

So obviously I want to cut her off at the knees if she does this to me. The problem is, how do you prevent other customers from subsidizing her begging? Any suggestions?

The only thing I can think of is to try to get another staffer to catch the Good Samaritan before they leave the store and quietly explain the reality of the situation to them. Obviously it'll be too late for them in this particular transaction, but hopefully they won't see fit to "help" her again.

[wolfie]

We have a regular, who comes in and orders a drink. She is in a wheelchair. She always makes it a point to scrabble frantically through her wallet, and then look up in a woebegone fashion and say, "I don't have quite enough ..."

Can't you answer that with "Every time you come in, you don't have enough"?

So obviously I want to cut her off at the knees if she does this to me.

Wouldn't do any good - she's already in a wheelchair.

[bainsidhe]

re: the other customers, I would honestly let it go. If another customer subsidizes, then that customer is going to feel they've done a good deed for the day and I wouldn't want to lessen it by chasing after them to tattle about what a scammer the woman is. Trust me, if they saw her do it a second time, they'd catch on. In the meantime, they're still doing a kind thing and we need a little more of that in the world.

As Wolfie suggested, my response to scammer lady might be "You say that every time you come in, I'm afraid I can't pay for you this time." Chances are, you'll still have another customer pay the difference, just so they aren't stuck in line an extra five minutes while scammer lady keeps saying woe-is-me about being short funds.

[Pixelated]

Wouldn't do any good - she's already in a wheelchair.

That is evil, wolfie.

You are my new hero.

Good point about calling her on it. I should probably check with management first, though ... or maybe not.

It also seems to me that if nearby customers hear that, they might be less likely to subsidize her. But yeah, also a good point about not running after people to "tattle." It's not like people are being scammed out of huge sums, so ... let it go.

[dalesys]

That is evil, wolfie...

Wolfie's good at evil...

[csquared]

It would surprise me if she is not handicapped. Simply using it to beg.

Start with asking management how they want it handled. They may not see it as a problem as they are not losing any money on it.

Otherwise, you will need a friend to help you out. You can't call her out, but another customer can.

[wolfie]

It would surprise me if she is not handicapped. Simply using it to beg.

Something occurred to me (plot point in a number of "quick solve mysteries") - next time she's in, try to get a good look at her shoes. Normally, shoes will acquire creases in the uppers due to the wearer's feet flexing when they walk, and the soles will wear, in many cases unevenly. If someone is in a wheelchair because they can't walk, their shoes won't acquire these creases/wear patterns, since they're caused by walking.

[taxguykarl]

It would surprise me if she is not handicapped. Simply using it to beg.

There was just such an individual who did that back in the '90's. At the end of the day, he would get up, fold the chair and drive off--you're reading this right: he had a car.

[csquared]

I have heard variations on that story. Not sure if it is an urban legend or not. One version I saw had him driving a Benz.

[Pixelated]

It would surprise me if she is not handicapped. Simply using it to beg.

Start with asking management how they want it handled. They may not see it as a problem as they are not losing any money on it.

Otherwise, you will need a friend to help you out. You can't call her out, but another customer can.

Hmmm, the idea of another customer calling her out is a good one. Assuming we can get someone to play the part.

I'm betting management will stick their heads in the sand, but hey, if that's how they want to play it ...

I'll talk to somebody next time I have a shift ... and somebody in authority is in.

[gremcint]

are you in a position to just refuse service? or can you request payment in advance?

[Meg1079]

Something occurred to me (plot point in a number of "quick solve mysteries") - next time she's in, try to get a good look at her shoes. Normally, shoes will acquire creases in the uppers due to the wearer's feet flexing when they walk, and the soles will wear, in many cases unevenly. If someone is in a wheelchair because they can't walk, their shoes won't acquire these creases/wear patterns, since they're caused by walking.

Just coming out of lurkdom to say that people in wheelchairs can totally have shoes that are in rough shape! My boyfriend is in a wheelchair, and just had to buy some new shoes because his old ones are full of holes (and creases). He also drives a van. Sorry, it just drives me nuts when people make assumptions about the disabled.

[Pixelated]

are you in a position to just refuse service? or can you request payment in advance?

I don't know about refusing to serve her at all. We can certainly refuse to hand over the drink if she doesn't have the full amount. Also, when we ring somebody out depends largely on how busy the place is; there's been times when I've rung up customers before their drinks were even started, and other times when they've been standing there, drink in hand, waiting to pay. So yes, we could certainly ring her out ahead of time.

So certainly both of those are options. But she tends to pick times when the store is really busy, partly because she knows her "Poor me, I'm in a wheelchair, somebody help me!" scam is more likely to work and partly because we don't have as much time then to drag out a transaction. And I can't think of any legitimate way to refuse to allow somebody else to pay for her drink. We might be able to tell a wanna-be donor, "Look, she's in here all the time and she does this all the time" but that could get ugly and I'm not sure management would want to go down that road.

If we are allowed to say to her, "Look, you're in here all the time; you know the prices but you do this all the time" that might, first, prevent others from coming to her "rescue" (at least much of time) and second, might convince her to take her act elsewhere.

Just coming out of lurkdom to say that people in wheelchairs can totally have shoes that are in rough shape! My boyfriend is in a wheelchair, and just had to buy some new shoes because his old ones are full of holes (and creases). He also drives a van. Sorry, it just drives me nuts when people make assumptions about the disabled.

Meg, it was an interesting idea and undoubtedly is true in some cases, but I am fairly sure management would tear me a new one if I tried to use that as a basis for anything other than out-of-hearing-of-other-customers speculation about this particular customer. "Oh, so you're an expert on wear patterns on shoes now, are you?" would likely be the first question ... and it would get progressively nastier from there.

[WishfulSpirit]

Something occurred to me (plot point in a number of "quick solve mysteries") - next time she's in, try to get a good look at her shoes. Normally, shoes will acquire creases in the uppers due to the wearer's feet flexing when they walk, and the soles will wear, in many cases unevenly. If someone is in a wheelchair because they can't walk, their shoes won't acquire these creases/wear patterns, since they're caused by walking.

A good idea but doesn't always lead to accurate conclusions. Humans don't have toggle switches. Hubby can walk around the apartment, and his shoes have creases in the places you mentioned, but he has severe nerve pain and needs a chair if we're at the zoo or a museum or something like that. I don't think I'd react well to someone implying he's faking his fibro.

[notalwaysright]

I also doubt there's much you can do. The most might be when she gets up to the register to order say "oh hi again! Remember, that drink is going to come to $X.XX."