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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think they should have let the 6p go

88 replies

catwalker · 19/07/2011 04:23

Not a burning issue, but I can't sleep so thought I would post this. In M&S food department on Sunday afternoon - long queues as only a couple of checkouts open. Two well dressed women (ie not short of a bob or two) in front of me (looked like mother and daughter) paid for their goods and then queried their receipt and change with the very young and very flustered checkout assistant. They were pointing out the fact that they were 6p short in their change. Great I thought, you're just making a point and then you'll move on. But no, they insisted the supervisor was called, which took ages, while the young lad on the till got redder and redder. I toyed with the idea of giving them the 6p to get the queue moving again but thought maybe I'd misheard. The supervisor, when she came, spoke quite loudly and confirmed that actually it was just 6p and she opened the till and gave it to them.

I just stood and looked at them with my mouth open! Were they totally unreasonable?

OP posts:

uninspired · 19/07/2011 04:25

Indeed they were BU.

allhailtheaubergine · 19/07/2011 05:37

No, they were not unreasonable.

6p is 6p, and it was their 6p not M&S's 6p. Where do you draw the line? 8p? 10p? 20p? 50p?

Fine if you would have let it go. I might have done too. But they were perfectly within their rights to want their full change.

Do you think M&S would have let them off the 6p if it was the other way round? I doubt it.

vickibee · 19/07/2011 06:15

i held the Q up in tesco cos i didn;t get the 1/2 price offer advertised on the shelf. It took over 5 mins to sort out but I was right and saved £4.50. In these times any saving is a saving

HipHopOpotomus · 19/07/2011 06:17

For 6p I'd call them dickheads!

bellavita · 19/07/2011 06:26

They were not unreasonable. It was their change.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 19/07/2011 06:56

They were not unreasonable in the slightest. And for the M&S supervisor to react the way they did when discovering a checkout operator was short-changing customers was very poor. She should have apologised for the error 'loudly'... not try to embarrass the customers further.

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 19/07/2011 07:02

It's not the amount, it's the principle.

twilight3 · 19/07/2011 07:03

hang on though.... was the supervisor called because the issue couldn't be sorted, or they insisted that they spoke with the supervisor?

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 19/07/2011 07:05

I assumed that the supervisor was called because the person on the till wouldn't correct the mistake.

Morloth · 19/07/2011 07:08

You don't get the pounds to add up if you don't watch the pennies.

Goblinchild · 19/07/2011 07:09

Not wouldn't, couldn't.
If it involved giving a refund, then that usually needs a supervisor..

marriedinwhite · 19/07/2011 07:13

Just a thought - if every till operator short changed every customer by a few p every day, how much would that add up to and who would benefit?

They did make a fuss over very little but if their change was short they were right to point it out. Did the till assistant not look at the change in their hands, count and correct the mistake?

As an aside, I always count my change and am getting increasingly frustrated at the number of tuts I receive from the person on the till. Interestingly it tends to be short in small family run shops that open for very long hours .

Original poster

catwalker · 19/07/2011 08:23

The young man on the till must have said that he couldn't just open the till to retrieve the 6p because one of the women said, "you'll have to call a supervisor then". He rang his bell straight away but, because the shop was busy and there were few staff around we had to wait for ages. The supervisor wasn't in any way trying to embarrass the women she just had a clear voice and repeated what the lad on the till said to be clear she had understood - he was bright red and mumbling.

I just think in the circumstances it was pathetic to labour the point. It was late Sunday afternoon, everyone was tired; the woman behind me had 2 grizzly toddlers (I ended up letting her go in front of me as she looked so fed up).

OP posts:

GryffindorNotSlytherinPlease · 19/07/2011 08:28

regardless of whether they were "not short of a bob or two" , YABU, it's their money and they are well within their rights to want it!

bellavita · 19/07/2011 08:32

So, what he should have said then, I am sorry I have cocked up your change, but if you would like to wait a few moments while I serve the next customer - this will allow me to open up my till, then I will be able to reimburse you your correct change.

upahill · 19/07/2011 08:37

A while ago we were charged an extra round of drinks on our bill in a restaraunt. Since then I've paid note on how much I'm being charged for things . It is quite surprising how often you get overcharged without potentialy realising it.

Therefore YABU! The women did the right thing.

WriterofDreams · 19/07/2011 08:37

6p is actually quite a lot. Like marriedinwhite said, if every till short changed a few customers every day by 6p the company would make an absolute fortune. I would have no problem whatsoever with a person querying their change - it doesn't matter how well dressed they are, they're still entitled to pay the correct amount for what they buy. If everyone was bullied and embarrassed into just accepting the change given to them without question then companies could make an absolute killing on screwing people over. It's people like those two ballsy ladies that stop companies from chancing their arm as it maintains the sense that every penny counts.

WriterofDreams · 19/07/2011 08:39

BTW it is the fault of M and S if the place is understaffed and busy, not the women who complained.

microfight · 19/07/2011 08:39

Why was the checkout guy so red faced? I don't understand that.

Bandwithering · 19/07/2011 08:42

I think that they did the right thing on behalf of all m&s customers. I take my hat off to them. That doesn't mean I would have liked ot have been next in the queue after them but still, fair play to them.

CurrySpice · 19/07/2011 08:47

I would have let it go and I suspect most MNers would too in RL - just they want to disagree with the OP and prove how thrifty they are.

porcamiseria · 19/07/2011 08:48

so just they are well dressed they should allow stores to short change change them? and have the store make out they are BVU when they want theirt money

YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU

JeelyPiece · 19/07/2011 08:54

YABU, it is the principle. Anyway however well-heeled they were, I imagine M&S has more money than they do.

Original poster

catwalker · 19/07/2011 09:18

I made the point about them being well-dressed etc to show that they weren't people who looked like they needed to count their pennies - but maybe they'd spent so much on clothes, make up, hair products and nice food they were worried about having the bus fare home...

I'm amazed that so many of you think enforcing a principle over a measly 6p is more important than giving a young and obviously new employee a break or showing some consideration for the people in the queue behind them.

OP posts:

BeerTricksPotter · 19/07/2011 09:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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