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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:

ImeldaM · 19/07/2011 09:31

YABU, I often get short changed and find it really annoying the reaction when you query it, the shop staff always act as if its such a faff, has been about £5 before (Tesco, offers not applied) & didn't even get an apolpogy.

Probably wouldn't have done about 6p but M&S charge you for bags, extra for jam for your scone when you are in the cafe etc, so they are pretty penny grabbing too.

BeerTricksPotter · 19/07/2011 09:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheBigJessie · 19/07/2011 09:47

Well, when they totalled the tills later that day, it would have been discovered that young man's till total was different to the expected total.

In the long run, he would be better off being more careful with change from then on, than getting pulled up (on a potentially much larger discrepancy) at the end of the day. The supervisor also won't suspect him of dishonesty for six pence, and will be willing to believe it's a mistake.

ShoutyHamster · 19/07/2011 09:55

They were right, I'd have queried it, but when the opening the till problem came into it I'd have said, that's ok, don't worry.

I'd have not wanted to make a big fuss but a small part of me would want to make sure that the sneaky short-changer KNEW I WAS ONTO HIM

For all you know, he does it to everyone and ends up making an extra £50 a day after balancing the till (joking!)

6p?? That was a packet of chips thirty years ago, you know!!!

ShoutyHamster · 19/07/2011 09:56

Jam??!!

Good that they charge for bags but they really should be giving everyone FREE JAM at the tills to make up for it

usualsuspect · 19/07/2011 10:01

I would have let it go ,especially if there was a long queue behind me

I work on a till ,sometimes we make mistakes,we are only human

kaid100 · 19/07/2011 10:42

If the next customer is paying cash, most shops don't mind if the cashier pulls out the money during the next transaction, so long as they are sure the mistake was made.

canihavemypocketmoney · 19/07/2011 10:53

Catwalker if they'd been 6p short when paying, do you think M&s would or should have "let it go" ?
.....

diddl · 19/07/2011 10:58

"ie not short of a bob or two"-probably because they always insist on getting all of their change

TBH, why should M&S have it?

And it´s not their fault that the chap on the till couldn´t sort it out & it took a while.

As said, M&S aren´t ever likely let anyone off paying the full amount.

Original poster

catwalker · 19/07/2011 10:58

The staff on the shop floor don't have the authority to make that decision; the women in front of me did. I think if the roles had been reversed and the store manager had been called then, yes, I think they would have let the 6p go.

But my gripe is not about whether we should let M&S get away with it, but whether in the context of that particular situation it was really worth standing on principle.

OP posts:

usualsuspect · 19/07/2011 10:59

He should have served the next customers and given them their 6p the next time he opened his till

Original poster

catwalker · 19/07/2011 11:01

Usualsuspect - I think that's what he was going to do but they insisted on the supervisor being called so they didn't have to wait.

OP posts:

usualsuspect · 19/07/2011 11:04

Some people just like a drama don't they [voice of experience]

InfestationofLannisters · 19/07/2011 11:05

That would have made more sense.

I was 5p shy of a cab fare once and got a load of abuse despite being a regular good tipper to this driver.

Turned up at the office the next day and returned it with interest saying I didn't want to see her go short over Christmas.

MsPlaced · 19/07/2011 11:05

its not your call to make, its theirs. YABU.

mayorquimby · 19/07/2011 11:09

I'm with them on this one. I might not have bothered myself but that's because I hate being in super-markets more than I like having my 6p but I think they were completely right in what they did.

Pelagia · 19/07/2011 11:09

If I really needed 6p (eg the right change for the parking meter) then I would query it. If there was not a long queue I might query it. If the checkout person was rude I would query it. But in your example I would have let it go.

A very nice man gave me 20p for a locker the other day at the gym. Little things like that make the world go round don't they.

CupcakesandTwunting · 19/07/2011 11:15

They are entitled to THEIR change in full so YABU on that point.

YANBU to tut, foot-tap or huff/puff whilst they are kicking up a fuss, though.

superjobee · 19/07/2011 11:21

i think their right to their change is more important than getting you or anybody else served or saving the checkout boy embarrassment which he caused himself by shortchanging them..

yabu.

canihavemypocketmoney · 19/07/2011 11:25

But it's not about principle, it's about accuracy and reconciling the tills at the close of trading. If the youth couldn't deal with it properly without calling the supervisor, that will be because of staff protocols not allowing him to do so. Those are in place to protect m&s, the till staff and the customer - ie. if a till has to be reopened after a transaction, ideally this should be witnessed. Yes it's simpler to open up and rectify a deficit while serving the next customer, but perhaps he wasn't allowed to do that under the shop rules. Ultimately it's in everyone's best interests for each till to be correctly totalled up at the end of each day. You can bet if that lad's till were to be wrong - over or under what's recorded on daily receipts - more than once, he'd be in a tricky position. That's nothing to do with customers being well to do or in fact anything at all to do with customers at all.

Underlying all this detail though, is the basic fact that customers have entered a contract with m&s to buy goods at an agreed price. Whether it's 6p off or £6 is irrelevant.

2shoes · 19/07/2011 11:25

yabu. doesn't matter if it was 6p or £6
it was there money

coccyx · 19/07/2011 11:27

I would have let it go as I would have felt awful for the cashier. They could have been more diplomatic

thesurgeonsmate · 19/07/2011 11:30

No, they weren't "totally unreasonable." Yes, you might have liked them to consider the bigger picture with the long queue, or thought they were nice people if they considered the bigger picture with the long queue, but it's perfectly reasonable to want to be served properly, with change, in a shop. As can be seen form the "1p" thread there's a perfectly sizeable and indeed reasonable body of people who think that your change is your change and you wait for it rather than abandoning it.

I've got more on the "M&S, looks nice, but service shoddy" theme, but I think that's probably off topic.

usualsuspect · 19/07/2011 11:35

The cashier made a mistake ,hardly the crime of the century

WhereYouLeftIt · 19/07/2011 11:36

Any annoyance to the rest of the queue was down to there not being enough tills open, not these ladies. It was their money, not M&S's.

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