My ten dollar bill is really a twenty

[JustShootMe]

Years back, I was on the flip side of this. I'd given the cashier a 20 and he said it was a 10. Finally had to call over a manager and count the till. I got my extra 10 bucks and I hope the cashier got an earful.

I was informed later by a friend that this is *why* there's a shelf above the drawer on most cash registers. You are supposed to place the bill(s) there and not put them in the till until the customer accepts the change. This avoids those arguments.

We have no shelf & are instructed to lay the bill across the bill compartments while we get the change. This man waited 'til I closed the drawer to make his bogus claim.

Additionally, I was told that most modern registers have no shelf because someone can try to reach over & take back the original bill.

[MadMike]

We used to have a problem with people at my job going to the cafeteria, and claiming the bills they were giving were bigger bills than they actually were. And in this case, it was easy to pull off because the owner was blind. When he's on register, you have to tell him what you're buying, and how much money you're giving him, since he can't see any of it. He has a "talking" register that tells him how much change to give, and he goes by which bills and coins go in which trays in the register.

I hate to say this, but when I heard about the cafeteria being taken over by a blind person, I knew people were going to try to pull shit like that. I even said, "They're going to rip the poor guy off!" Sure enough, a few weeks later, the company sent out a nastygram reporting that some people had been lying about the items they were purchasing, or about the money they were handing the guy. Of course, it would all show up later when someone who could actually see counted up the drawer and found lower-value bills where the higher ones were supposed to be, or inventory was taken, but by then the culprit was long gone. In the email, they threatened to fire or even arrest anyone who was caught doing that.

I know some people are pretty damn low, but stealing from a blind guy?

[Grendus]

I know some people are pretty damn low, but stealing from a blind guy?

Meh, I always knew SC's had no souls.

[JustaCashier]

I'm pretty sure I've shared this incident before.

Several years back at the (non-big box) Hardware Store, a customer pays me for his less than $20.00 total purchases, and I count back his change for the $100.00 bill he gave me.

Only he didn't.

He says; "Aw, I can't do this to ya, man. I only gave you a twenty", and he handed the 80 some odd dollars I gave him back to me.

I thought he was just being funny, kind of a reverse of the "I gave you a [larger bill]" scam.

I actually chuckled, and I think I even at least started to make a joke, when I realized he was dead serious.

I looked under the till drawer, and sure enough, no $100's.

I was stunned, and of course thanked him profusely.

It really bugged me for at least the rest of the day, at how close I came to being $80.00 short in my till that day, if it hadn't been for the customer's honesty.

I kept visualizing the bill he paid me with, as being a Hundred, each time I played that part of the transaction over in my mind.

Mike

[Jester]

Sadly, I had somewhat the opposite happen to me once, Mike.

Waiting tables in a restaurant, dude hands me a $100 traveler's check to pay for the bill. I give him change. He leaves.

As was policy, I gave the traveler's check to the bartender, and they gave me cash for it. They gave me $50. I asked why they only gave me $50, and they said that was what the traveler's check was. No, I told them, it was a $100 traveler's check. They then showed it to me, and it was the only traveler's check in the drawer.

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Yep, I had basically paid the guy $50 to eat in my section, and he had merely pocketed the change I gave him and walked out.

Now, there are two possibilities.
1. He saw what I gave him and took advantage of the opportunity and just left.
2. He didn't count his change, just pocketed it without looking and left.

I want to believe it was the second, but honestly, it could have been either one.

[catcul]

Someone tried something like this to me when I was a cashier. He had paid for $8 worth of groceries with a $10 bill. After I closed my drawer, he yelled, "Hey, I gave you a $20." Since we were busy, my manager told me to give him a $10 bill.

My next shift, I got a lovely letter from the cash office. My last drawer was $10 short.

[BrenDAnn]

I am VERY careful about counting change back, and saying something along the lines of "$X.XX out of $10/$20/whatever" when I am on the register. My big problem is , for whatever reason, I catch myself quite often trying not to give the customers their full change. They give me a $20 and I give them all but the $10, for example. It's nothing I'm doing intentionally, and I have no idea WHY I actually do it. Spacing off, I guess, but I know it looks bad on me. I'm not a thief, guys, I swear!

[Halo_miles]

I've had a few people try and do that with me. Unfortunately enough for them, our cameras are right over top of our cashiers, and they can zoom in VERY closely, to the point where you could literally count eyelashes. I can't even count how many time I've threatened to bring the videos down to the customers who were trying to rip me off. I wasn't born yesterday, assholes.

[EricKei]

Any time someone makes a claim that you gave them the wrong change (99% of the time, they'll say you shorted them...90% of THOSE times, they're lying), shut the cash drawer *immediately*, put on your best plastic smile, call a manager over, and let the customer know that the till will have to be counted. This will run off all but the bravest of the scammers, and honest custy's will generally wait.

[Halo_miles]

This will run off all but the bravest of the scammers, and honest custy's will generally wait.

I only wish. I've seen some of our people do that, and these clowns have made up every excuse in the book. "I'm just trying to get gas! Ugh!" Or "My dog's in the car! I can't wait! Give me my nonexistent change!" Or the whining. Always the whining.

[wolfie]

Ah - but those are clearly scammers. Their urgency to get the change isn't because of a (nonexistent) dog in the car - it's to get the money before the till can be counted, since counting the till would show they had been given the correct change in the first place.

[mhkohne]

Any time someone makes a claim that you gave them the wrong change (99% of the time, they'll say you shorted them...90% of THOSE times, they're lying), shut the cash drawer *immediately*, put on your best plastic smile, call a manager over, and let the customer know that the till will have to be counted. This will run off all but the bravest of the scammers, and honest custy's will generally wait.

Yep, works great - I was the honest idiot once, and a quick drawer count proved that I had in fact not given the guy a $20. I'm sure it was annoying for him, but it worked fine, and got an apology from me!

[downforit2008]

Is the customer always right? No, but many of them think that their WIVES are, even right down to the amount of money their wives give them..

"It's a TWENTY because my wife wouldn't lie to me and give me just a 10-dollar bill!"

Or maybe because she just decreased your "allowance," jerk.