scam artists

[SurlyBarman]

Ever get the scam artists who come in and try to swindle you into giving them more change than you owe them? I hate this.
A while back, I was working in a coffee shop when some fella comes in during a really busy shift and gets a cup of coffee or something. Pays with a ten. I get his coffee for him and give him his change but right when I'm about the close the till, he looks at me and insists that he paid with a twenty. Alright, honest mistake. I've got quite a long line of customers to serve and I ain't thinking straight, so I reach in the till for another ten. At the end of my shift, the till is exactly ten dollars short and I have to take that out of my own pocket.
Since then, I've been extra careful about shady characters like that. Couple weeks later, another fella comes in and pulls the same thing. But I tell him as politely as possible that I'm certain he paid with a ten and not a twenty. He asks me several times if I'm sure and I say yes, I'm certain he paid with a ten. He gives it up and leaves.
Then this happens with yet another person, but this guy is extra shady about it. When I hand him his change, he looks at it and asks me "Hey, what's this?"
Me: "That's your change."
Shady guy: (flipping through his wallet) "Are you sure? I paid you with a twenty."
Me: "No, you paid with a..."
Shady guy: "Wait, what is this dollar bill for?" Slaps a dollar bill on the counter. I know for a fact I handed him more than a dollar bill and I'm totally on to him. He put the proper change in his wallet and took a smaller amount out to make it look like I gave him less change than I owed.
At this point it's clear that he's asking a bunch of questions to confuse me. I call the manager over so he can count the money in my till and make sure that the right amount is in there. The guy suddenly gets really nervous and says "No, no, it's all a misunderstanding. He doesn't owe me any more change." Leaves. Good riddance.

[blas]

I've posted this little tip before, and I'm sure a lot of other CSers on here do this as well:

Here is an example:

You announce the total, "That'll be $5.45" and the customer hands you a ten dollar bill. You say, "Out of ten?" and open your register. Here is the kicker though: Leave the ten lay on top of your other bills, don't stick it in quite yet. Dig out the $4.55 change for your customer and count it back to them. If they were to dispute, and say that they gave you a twenty instead, you could show them that 10 dollar bill sitting on top of all of your other money.

Foolproof, no. People will try anything, even with that approach. But does it help? Yes.

[Broomjockey]

I've posted this little tip before, and I'm sure a lot of other CSers on here do this as well:

Here is an example:

You announce the total, "That'll be $5.45" and the customer hands you a ten dollar bill. You say, "Out of ten?" and open your register. Here is the kicker though: Leave the ten lay on top of your other bills, don't stick it in quite yet. Dig out the $4.55 change for your customer and count it back to them. If they were to dispute, and say that they gave you a twenty instead, you could show them that 10 dollar bill sitting on top of all of your other money.

Foolproof, no. People will try anything, even with that approach. But does it help? Yes.

I love this technique. As far as I'm concerned, this is the most valuable thing that they ever taught during training at work. Also, management has the policy of if anyone is accussed of short-changing a customer, the till is immediately pulled, cashed out, and the cashier goes on with a different till, and the customer just has to wait if they want their change.

[El Barto]

I've posted this little tip before, and I'm sure a lot of other CSers on here do this as well:

Here is an example:

You announce the total, "That'll be $5.45" and the customer hands you a ten dollar bill. You say, "Out of ten?" and open your register. Here is the kicker though: Leave the ten lay on top of your other bills, don't stick it in quite yet. Dig out the $4.55 change for your customer and count it back to them. If they were to dispute, and say that they gave you a twenty instead, you could show them that 10 dollar bill sitting on top of all of your other money.

Foolproof, no. People will try anything, even with that approach. But does it help? Yes.

I do the same thing, but I leave the bill(s) sitting on the counter so they're easier to see. Doing it that way is foolproof (in my experience anyway) because the money hasnt even touched the till yet, if I have to show them the 10 they gave me it wont look like I pulled one out of the till.

[Kiwi]

yep ALWAYS leave the money out of the till until change is given

if you look alot of tills often have a often missed slot for notes (i didnt notice at the craft store until it was pointed out)

make sure you say "out of ten" or "ok so thats ten dollars" etc include the amount they have given you in your counting back change

and DONT let them start chucking bills at you, thats another old scam, they give you 4 twenties and ask for a 100 bill back etc, constantly changing the notes

thats another thing, count back your change, always. Its tricky to start with but you get pretty quick. It also stops your brain from going numb, I did it at the craft store when I was stuck serving customers, I would add up the total in my head as I scanned to....ahh the joys of a short attention span

[fma_fanatic]

Reminds me of last week when I went to SOs store to have him sign some paperwork. Some woman at the courtesy desk kept insisting that she didn't get her change, that the store was scamming her, etc.

What was ironic was that she was accusing the cashier manager who is rather anal about making sure the tills are balanced of not counting it out correctly. He's a great guy, just very anal about that particular part of his job. And with the recent rash of tills being shortchanged, I don't blame him one bit.

I watched him as I was waiting for SO to go on break as he counted, very slowly, for the woman the till of the cashier in question. It balanced out 3 times. She still screamed that she was being cheated. So the store manager comes over and counts out the till 2 times. So 5 times and the till has balanced.

Finally, SC says, "oh it wasn't this drawer, it was this other cashier..." Store mananger says he cannot put all the lanes on hold to see if they are over or not. Especially since it's coupon day and everyone is going to go ballistic if they have to wait for this to be done.

The SC suddenly finds her change and scurries off without a word.

[HYHYBT]

In my experience, anyway, leaving the money out until they have the change only slows things down. They always wait until the drawer is closed to say they were shorted.

Plus it gives them a chance to grab it back as you're handing them their change...

[batmoody]

I had a guy one time swear up and down that he paid me with a $50 dollar bill. He gave me a $20. I even showed him my pan. Not a single damn $50 to be found. Nice try jerk.

[jnd4rusty]

I train all my cashiers to say " okay out of twenty" or "out of ten"..say this out loud. The main reason to do this will almost always thwart the would be scammer because he/she is hoping to use the confusion ruse to get more money from you. If you say the amount they give you out loud, not only are you likely to remember it, but the scammer is least likely to pull a stunt because they KNOW that you know what bill you took. Hope that makes sense.

[Customer Beating Robot]

Odd amounts of change

The one I love is the person who pays their $5.66 bill with $10.32. Now, I know how to count change, I can do it mentally. However, at the end of a long shift, especially if some things have happend and your mind is elsewhere, I might need a moment to figure out the change.

The thing that gets me though is that they will hand you a $10, let you ring it up as being paid with a $10 so that it flashses the change on the screen for the customer to see it and verify, then they will had you 32 cents because they want quarters or some such odd reason. I just tell them that I already rang it up. I hand the change that is displayed on the screen. Now if after getting their change back they want me to cashed it in for quarters, then I will. But they are two seperate transactions.

Running a cash register for over a year, I only ever had one complaint that I didn't give the correct change back. The customer took the change walked all the way to the front of the store and then realized I gave him the incorrect change. So a manager comes back there and says "You gave him the wrong change." I say that I didn't. The manager says that I did. Finally, I say fine, you give him the change. The manager reaches into the till and gives the customer the "correct" change. I wasn't going to touch the money. There are cameras on the till. If money comes up missing, I would have the manager on camera. Guess what happened? I came up a few cents short. I dropped a note in my money bag that night explaining what had happened. No one ever said anything to me.

Why would the manager assume that a guy that had several minutes to pocket money and get out an incorrect amount, wouldn't do so? Most scammers start out small to test the system. At first it is just a few cents, that way if they get caught they can write it off as a misunderstanding. If they succeed they use the same formula over and over on the same people, in ever increasing amounts.

[Banrion]

It's also a good idea to get in the habit of counting back change starting with the total and ending with the amount given. IE the total is $5.72. so you start "$5.72 (hand coin to customer) $6.00,(hand a single) seven, (hand a single) eight,(hand a single) nine, (hand a single) ten, (hand a ten) and ten is twenty."

I don't see many cashiers who can do this, but it really does make disputing the change a moot point in conjunction with leaving original payment visible/separate. Also, everywhere I have ever worked has had a "check your change" policy. If you left the till you accepted the change was correct, and I never had a manager cave on that policy.

[CrazedClerk]

I always speak the amount when it's handed to me, I haven't been burned once but I've had a couple of SCs attempt it on me.

[Special Patrol Group]

I always speak the amount when it's handed to me, I haven't been burned once but I've had a couple of SCs attempt it on me.

I always do that too but sometimes you'll get idiots who are confused by this.

Me: "That is $83.50"
Idiot hands me $100
Me: Counts notes, "Okay, $100"
Idiot: What? You said $83.50 before, why is it now $100?
Me: Umm, I'm just stating the amount you gave me.
Idiot: What! You're just trying to scam me!

[One-Fang]

Try "Okay, out of $100" instead of "Okay, $100". I can see the potential for confused customers otherwise. Stupid customers, nonetheless, but then again, we are not short of those.

[chainedbarista]

i leave the bill in question out on the side of the register, where both i and the customer can see it; that way, they know that i'm aware of just how much was given, and that they can't protest the amount because it's right there in front of them. once i've counted back their change, the transaction is complete, then i secure the bill, not one second before, that way, they can't tell me 'i gave you x, and i didn't get back the right change.'

we have far too many lowlives in our area for us to take any kind of chances...