Ma'am, in this economy do you really think my job is worth $15???

[scroob]

This just irked me when it happened. A woman comes up to my register and buys an item for $4.23, and hands me a $5. So I hand her back the $.77 in change. She says "I gave you a $20." I respond "Ma'am I am sure you gave me a 5. Id you want I can call a manager for you." She says "Do that." So I turn to my Sup and say "Please open my drawer" as I explain the situation. She does and I say "See, I have no 20's in here (which I already knew.)" She turns to the cust and explains this. Now the customer says "I know it's not in the drawer but I bet I know where it is..." (insinuating that I had pocketed the money.) At this point I just walk away to let my sup deal with her. When I see she has walked away (but not before getting corporate's # and both my sup and my names,) I walk back to the register. I empty my pockets in front of my sup to show I have no 20s. So I have proven my case. But my question is in this economy, no matter how crappy the job, why would I risk my job over 15 bucks? I had 2 sup's and 3 cameras facing me. And it goes so far as to say I would NEVER steal money from a customer.
So I hope she went home and realized how much of an asshole she was trying to get me in trouble in front of my sup and AM. But she never called back to apologize for treating me like shit. Go figure. And I hope ur reading this Ms. SC cause you owe me a beer for embarassing me at work

[jjllbb]

That is total CRAP. That lady is a bitch. Especially since SHE was the one fishing for an extra $15. I hope she gets what she deserves.

[TonyF]

Typical asshole.

Point fingers when the scam is botched.

They think we are so stupid that we can't tell the difference between a $5 and a $20.

Yet, they are the ones who are hopelessly lost when I count back their change.

"What do you mean 77 cents makes five?"

I mean 77 cents makes five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty.

Blank stare from customer.

Kinda sad, actually.

[Mr Hero]

Do you have any survailance cameras pointing at your register? Aside from catching bad guys, they make for a nice CYA.

[scroob]

At any time theres a minimum of 2, sometimes more. And the store manager said she watched the tapes of that incident which officially acquitted me

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Read a story on another site a long time ago. Hell it might have been CS in one of it's previous incarnations for all I remember.

The person in question told their supervisor to call the police if the customer really wanted to press the issue, since the poster stated that they would not submit to a search unless it was by a police officer with sufficient cause for a search, or via a search warrant. Customer really was into the scam and said to go for it.

Police show up, poster was searched, five, twenty dollar bills were found in his tri-fold wallet. The tri-fold wallet in his back pants pocket. The back pants pocket secured via a pair of buttons (think Military Style BDU pants in a solid color).

Poster then informed the police that if they wanted to check the security camera pointed at the registers to see if and when the poster took the money from the customer, removed his wallet, and replaced it with the money inserted.

Video was watched by the police, police saw money (too blurry to see details of the bill in question) go from customer to poster to cash register and the drawer was closed.

Also found was a reason for there to be one hundred dollars in twenty dollar bills. A bank receipt for that same amount dated earlier that day.

I do not recall what happened to the customer who tried to scam the store and get the poster in trouble. I do recall that the police did at least have a lengthy chat with the customer.

Police

[Gidgetdigit]

What a cow. People try to get away with the stupidest pettiest nonsense nowadays.

[Gypsy Queen]

Wow. I've dealt with customers like that. They are total assholes.

[Kristev]

Yes, they're worse than someone one needs to scrape off their shoes.

[ShadowTiger]

Whenever I handle money, I like to display the money on the counter and say their names out loud while pointing at them to guide the cashier's eye to the denomination of the bill. I don't want to get into that situation myself...

Is that a bad idea?

[Magpie]

Yet, they are the ones who are hopelessly lost when I count back their change.

I was having to make change recently, and counting it as best I knew. It's not common anymore though. (And having to count in two directions at once really threw me for a loop). I was wondering as I was doing it, if anyone would be really horribly confused as to what I was doing. (But without a cash register I want to count it out so people can see the numbers for themselves).

[Rugsrat]

Whenever I get handed bills, I make it a point to count it out before hand, and then say "Out of (total in bills handed to me)." If they don't confirm that's what they handed me, I don't open my drawer. Something my mom taught me.

But that lady is a wicked... not quite sure what word is appropriate here. Here's hoping Karma gets her.

[BrenDAnn]

I second what Rugsrat said. After having people try scamming me, I learned fast that you take their money, say "Out of $x.xx?" wait for them to confirm, then move on with the transaction. In your case, when you took the five, you'd say, "Out of $5.00?" then make sure when you hand the change back to say "and that makes $5." Just a safeguard between you and a scammer!

Edited to correct my spelling & to add that this method is also a great way to be sure your drawer will balance out at the end of your shift!

[AnaKhouri]

I found a way around that shit. I place the money the customer gave me on top of the drawer, not putting it in the slots until I have counted out the change. That way if someone tries to say they gave me a 20 instead of a 10, I say, "Oh, good thing I didn't put it away yet! See, it's a 10."

If they persist, I say, "I can call a manager to count down the drawer to be sure, it will take about 20 minutes or so." <--exaggerate the time to make them think it will take a while

Usually at that point they give up.

[chainedbarista]

yep, i always left it on the register, so if they tried crap like that, i could hold out what they gave me and end the conversation. any further attempts at a scam meant i would call for a till audit.