to think they should have let the 6p go

[catwalker]

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?

I do wonder whether Britain's debt problem is in any way linked to supposed "tight-fistedness" being the absolute worst taboo for quite a lot of people.

That's a very good point TheSmallClanger.

I've posted about this before now but one of the worst things for me, when it came to the financial difficulties we got into a couple of years ago, was the sheer humiliation of it all.

Going to work and refusing to put money into (yet another random colleagues) birthday pot because an email went around saying that £10 was due.

Getting caught in the stationary cupboard with glue and a shoe that was so worn the gaps were letting in water as I walked to work (and having to pretend to our admin woman that they'd broke that morning).

Having to decline meals out with friends and relatives because I couldn't afford it if they were going to do the bill splitting, and only being able to choose soup and a glass of water if they didn't.

Having to take a calculator (the free one your DS got from the bank talk at school) around the supermarket to tally up the shopping, but misjudging some weeks and having to put basics back (like luxuries such as tampons - god that was a bad week, which is why it sticks in my mind even now).

There's a lot to be said when it comes to people's attitudes towards other people's finances - just look at the OP's scorn for someone who might think 6p is worth waiting around for when you've been charged wrongly.

Perhaps if we all tried to judge each others less from our own, often much more comfortable in some ways places this debt issue wouldn't be biting so many people just now.

I'm far from well off ,and I think the ops point was they could have waited for the cashier to serve the next person and get their change ,but they preferred to make a fuss

fgaaagh - but tight-wads are annoying. And I'm not talking about people who are genuinely short of money. I'm talking about the ones who say they are skint when, well, they aren't. BTW, on the bill-splitting at restaurant front, it absolutely does my box in when people start calculating their share. Just split it equally ffs or dont bother...

Well, quite, mauricetinkler, I usually choose to "not bother". But it hardly makes for a good social life when you're having to back out of birthday dinners and catchups because some of the group prefer to drink bottles of wine and split the bill - and frankly it's easier not to embarass us all (you, by gettnig annoyed - and me, through shame) and just not go.

As a result, I've had to cool contact with several friends. It really shows who your friends are when you have to admit you can't make their birthday dinner but will pop around with a homemade cake and you don't get a sneer. I can guess which side of the group you'd be on.

Well, yes, that would be annoying fgaaagh. I was on about when people have pretty much had the same.
BTW im sorry but your stationary cupboard, glue and shoe story has had me virtually crying with laughter for the past ten mins....I dont know why...

M&S aren't a charity and don't need donations. Good on these ladies for standing their ground despite it being made difficult for them.

For all we know this has happened to to them several times and they snapped and said "dash it, I won't let it go this time."

But Maurice, we don't really know what our friends' finances are like. It is awful to have to decline invitations because you know someone that will be there will start tutting and sighing and making comments when you can't afford to split the bill.
We were in a sudden tight financial situation a few years back, but I never discussed it with anyone other than family, and a few very close friends. To work colleagues, I was that bird with the flash car, who must be loaded but won't dip in for starters at dinner. It was awful, and I didn't want to drag everyone down by explaining that my DH-then-DP was not working for health reasons, and it was easier to keep the car and just use it less than try and sell it.

Well, I wouldn't have commented but that's because I'd too embarrassed and guilty about holding up the people behind me in the queue.

If they wanted to query it they did have every right to. But I can see why it was annoying.

FGS - I've made it perfectly clear that the women concerned clearly weren't on the bread line. They looked like they'd spent a bomb on clothes and make up, had loads of shopping with them and had a pile of luxury foods on the conveyor belt. I'm not for one second belittling someone who needs the 6p but they clearly didn't. They clearly had no sympathy for the obviously new and inexperienced member of staff, no regard for holding the queue up (neither of them offered so much as an apologetic glance at the rest of us, including the woman behind me wrestling with two grizzling toddlers). They came across as arrogant and unpleasant. There was no way they needed that 6p but they were determined to make the rest of us suffer for their point of principle.

But why should they have to look at you apologetically? It was the cashiers fault not theirs.

As I commented earlier, I've had the misfortune of being regularly short-changed, don't know why, maybe its because I often check my receipt. I also often buy things on offer so perhaps thats why.

Sometimes it seems like every other week I have to query my change in a shop, its usually more than 6p though.

Some shops are apologetic, some huff about it, it can be very annoying.

Just a thought, maybe these ladies are always short changed when in M&S?

Oh yes I'm sure M&S have a short change policy

6p! That's a whole M & S carrier bag's worth of change! Definitely worth making a fuss about IMO. I would have done the same. Every penny counts.