You've pocketed the money!

[cinema guy]

I had a lady buy some sweets and a bottle of water. She hands me a note and I give her change. She insists that she gave me a £20 note, saying she didn't have any tenners in her purse. I am sure she gave me £10, so I call a supervisor.

Supervisor B comes. I explain the situation, B says we do a check on my till. She isn't happy and asks how long it will take. B tells her five minutes.

We take the till into the treasury and it quickly, along with manager J. The till is 5 pence short. So I was correct, she gave me £10.

I go out and tell her very politely that the till is correct, so she must have given me a tenner. She insists that she did not have £10 in her purse. B summons manager J.

J tells her the till was correct, he has the paperwork to show her. She says it was 'very convenient' that we took the cash drawer into the back to count it. She says, 'you probably just pocketed it between yourselves.'

J maintains his calm, and tells her that we cannot count the till out in public. That the till was correct. 'That is the way it is. I am telling the truth.' He says firmly.

She isn't happy but she goes into watch her movie.

Firstly, I am glad J didn't cave in. He is a young guy and quite an inexperienced manager. So I'm glad both he and B backed me up. Secondly, we pocketed the money? I'm not rich, but £3.33 each? It wouldn't even buy the KFC I had on my break.

[Nyx]

I had this EXACT same thing happen to me once. Lady claimed that she organizes her money "just so", so it was impossible that she gave me a ten. Manager counts my drawer and it is one penny over (so I guess I short changed someone by a penny, oops). She claims that it was wrong of him to have removed the drawer from her sight so he counts it out in front of her (heck I counted it in front of her waiting for the manager) and asks her how else he can help her. lol

[mattm04]

Exactly the reason why I don't make change unless it is the result of a sale. We have has too many SC's try this on us.

[XCashier]

That's the reason when someone hands me currency for payment, I hold it up and say, "From a $10?" Then I lay the note on top of the register so they can see it and can't say, "Hey! I gave you a $20!" There are a lot of short-change artists around, and the reason they keep doing that scam is because it often works.

[JLRodgers]

One of the few times I was ever on a register, I had a person claim to of given me a 20 . I loved explaining to them that it was quite impossible. Just before they had put me on the register they had to fill it with money because it was literally empty (end of night, unexpected rush, all but a few lanes had the drawers emptied)! I only had a few ones, fives and tens + their 10 that I had sitting at the top over the other money (it was procedure, their cash wasn't put in the slots until they had their change).

[Finduilas]

I did this once... at the movie theaters, with a huge line behind me! The cashier looked at me, and then proceeded to count out her whole drawer right in front of me. The manager came in the middle and watched her until she announced that her drawer was even.
The only reasoning I can give you is that I didn't realise it'd take a long time to count. When they counted and it turned out that I didn't give a 20 after all, I apologised and high-tailed it into the theater.

...I was also agog at the speed at which she counted that money. It was incredible! Of course, I desperately hope I never have to acquire that talent, since libraries rarely deal in large quantities of money.

[Nyx]

I just recalled a girl (who thankfully no longer works with us) who while nice wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. Apparently a customer had given her a bill for a small purchase (a 20 or some such) and then claimed that he had given her a $100 bill, and rather than check with management she gave him 90 + dollars. Of course when the drawer was pulled at the end of the night they learned of it...

[marasbaras]

Firstly, I am glad J didn't cave in. He is a young guy and quite an inexperienced manager. So I'm glad both he and B backed me up. Secondly, we pocketed the money? I'm not rich, but £3.33 each? It wouldn't even buy the KFC I had on my break.

Good for him! The world needs managers with spines!

[lizstar]

LOL, like you could actually count out a till in the middle of the store. Yeah, that's real safe. What a moron.

Last year, on the Saturday before Christmas, a similar thing happened to me. I work at an upscale grocery store, and as you can imagine, we were PACKED. Every register was open and there were still crazy long lines. I was on one of the two express registers (10 items or fewer). A lady came up to my register and only wanted a $25 gift card. I rang it up and she handed me a $20 bill and a $5 bill. So, of course, I put them in my drawer and immediately shut it, since there was no change. She then claims she gave me two $20 bills. I pop open my till just to double-check that I didn't have a $20 in the spot where the fives go (since I clearly remembered taking the two bills and slipping them into two different slots). I didn't, so I told her I'd have to call a supervisor to count my till. She grumbles, "this is ridiculous!". Long story short, my till balanced out to the penny. I never did get to find out how the lady reacted, since she had gone to another area of the store to sit down and wait.

[MaverickGypsy]

When our store first opened, I was on till and a man counted 20, 40, 60 into my hand. I didn't recount it because I watched him do it. ( I have since changed the way I do that.)

I hand him his change and the second I closed the till, he said "Whoa, hold on, I think I accidentally gave you 80. I got 100 from the ATM and now I only have 20."

I argued with him over and over saying that I had watched him count it into my hand. (something else I no longer do.) He insisted he was right so I called a mgr over and a csm and it was like watching the keystone cops in action. We had only been open a couple of days and it seemed no one knew exactly what to do. We hadn't had that happen yet.

Finally they close down my till, count the till, repeat 6 times because everyone kept coming up with a different total. Finally they get it straight, and I am $20 over. He was right. The guy is seriously mad, because it took about a half hour to for all these newbies to figure it out. I apologized repeatedly to him especially for the wait. He was fuming and saying "this is bullshit, I can't believe this, you guys need to get your shit together." pacing back and forth, very loud sighing etc etc. They finally get his money and he grabs it and storms out.

When I got home from work that very day, a guy was moving into the house next door to me. Guess who it was? Thankfully he has never acted like he recognizes me. That's the problem with a small town. You can never escape them.

[Anakah]

I paid this guy like two hundred in twenties and a few tens. He hid a twenty behind the ten and interrupted me with my next customer, claiming I ripped him off. I slid the ten and wah lah! There was the 20.

Did he really think I would just hand him another? Another reason why I love the 24/7 cameras. No Bull there.

[iviles]

claimed that he had given her a $100 bill, and rather than check with management she gave him 90 + dollars. Of course when the drawer was pulled at the end of the night they learned of it...

Uggg!!!!!!!!!!!! Had it happen and the people you have to notify and procedures!!!!!!! I was shift supervisor had store phone at one ear with LP cell phone at the other with the manager. Cashier flippen out that she did nothing wrong behind me and she wasnt signing the write up or talking to LP becuase I didnt let her count her till (she told me nothing about the incedent till after we found that she was short) . And of course write up paper infront of me, computer on writing to HQ on what happened and cc and bccing to all other supervisors in the store, manager, general manager, and LP. Ended up still there two hours after my shift had ended trying to fix everything and dealing with LP. Did they fire her....hell no!

Im just glad you guys didnt backdown. I did once because I wanted to customer gone! So I reimbursed the cashier and made my own till short just so I didnt have to hear him yap! Best 10 I ever spent! I just got a warning and he got banned from the store for cursing at my cashier and I.

[Victoria J]

I did this once... at the movie theaters, with a huge line behind me! The cashier looked at me, and then proceeded to count out her whole drawer right in front of me. The manager came in the middle and watched her until she announced that her drawer was even.

I did this once in a coffee shop. I was paying for two coffees and handed over the note, as the guy gave me my change he was also double checking about one of the drinks. I put the money away. I'm happy. He's happy. Then I started to think it was wrong - he gave me change from a £10, and I thought I'd had a £20. I'm not bad at maths but I am an eternal optimist with money and I do often think I had more, until I sit down and figure out exactly what I spent it on.

I ask him if he's sure - and he thinks about it and he has no idea either. I'm around 80% convinced that I gave the £20 but not certain enough to insist. He now can't recall at all. He eventually decided I was right - and gave me the extra £10. He couldn't open the till without a transaction so he ended up stamping a discount card 10 times and opening the till to put that in He never counted the till though.

At the end of the day when I looked at my receipts etc. I'm pretty sure it was a £20.

My local shops will always trust me if I think it was the wrong change - because I have actually complained about too much change on more occasions than too little. (It's interesting that the do tend to undercharge more often - something I suspect Sucky Customers don't notice). Last time it was 2 items at 75 pence which ended up being charged for 2p.

My mother did one better and was making a purchase in a shop when they managed to quick change scam themselves. It was a small shop. She paid with a £20, they were pushed for change and first gave her some change while they went to the back to ask another person if they had any more change. When they didn't they started asking her if she had various combinations of change. At some point they gave the £20 back. My mother is terrible at maths (I once heard had add 2 + 1 + 1 and get 5 - Seriously) but she still realised before they did, just as she stepped out of the door, that something was wrong. She left with the purchase plus just over £20 - as she discovered when she went back and they started counting from the beginning again.

It was a nice shop but it didn't last long. We weren't surprised.

Victoria J

[Geek King]

(so I guess I short changed someone by a penny, oops).

Not really. You'd be shocked by how many coin rolls are off, one way or the other. Not a big percentage, but larger than you'd expect, even bank-rolled rolls. I had to run the machine we used in the moneyroom a few times, and between the bags of loose coin being off, and the roller itself miscounting, we would always had some loose at the end of a run. No one is going to waste the time to find a few cents out of a couple thousand you spent the morning rolling.

[Miffed]

If I had not read similair stories like these when I just started my job, I might have fallen for this scam pretty easily since I was a new on the register and lacked confidence in my skills. A group of annoying pre-teens came and one of them bought a pack of candy with a 5. He claimed he gave me a 10, I said that he gave me a 5, then all of his friends chimed in and kept telling me that he did give me a 10. That was what really made me suspicious and pretty certain they were pulling a scam.

manager was called, till was counted, kid got his change from a 5 and was pissed.