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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think local garage could have let me off 20p!

140 replies

cherrycrumblecustard · 05/01/2017 16:00

I called in at the garage with children as we needed milk and I realised I was short 20p. Garage is down the road from my house, they all know me, I know them. I said I was sorry and could I drop it in later. 'No.' Sad

OP posts:
Trifleorbust · 05/01/2017 16:24

So really you were expecting the garage to extend you credit because you didn't have the 20p? It's not like you were just going to run home and get it. I don't mean to make you feel bad but you may need to work on your budgeting so that you don't put yourself in a position where you can't afford a pint of milk in the future Confused

Tohaveandtohold · 05/01/2017 16:25

Really don't know why you expected them to do this. They are employees and they need to balance the tills. What if you didn't come back that day.
I'd just take a smaller bottle if any or go without milk till your DH gets home in your case if that was me

MummyToThree479 · 05/01/2017 16:25

If I forgot my purse/debit card I wouldn't expect a business to let me off with anything as that's my problem isn't it?

Yes they might know you but they are a business and the price of the item is what it is

intheknickersoftime · 05/01/2017 16:28

I wrote here before about what happened to me a few years ago. I was buying some school shoes for my DS and was trying to do a complicated transaction involving club card vouchers, cash and I was going to put the final pound on my card. It was rejected, I didn't even have a pound left. The staff clubbed together and gave me a pound so I could buy the shoes. I was so so grateful. If it's any consolation I would have given you the 20p OP Smile

Original poster
cherrycrumblecustard · 05/01/2017 16:30

Just to be clear here - I wasn't expecting anything, but I wouldn't have asked to be "let off", just to run in with 20p when my husband got in.

Aww knickers Flowers

OP posts:
Yamadori · 05/01/2017 16:31

I got in massive trouble once when I worked in a shop and a customer wanted to buy something for £4.50. He had no cash on him, and our minimum card payment amount was £5 so I charged his card a fiver and gave him 50p out of the till. All hell broke loose over that one.

melj1213 · 05/01/2017 16:35

given I live so close and they do know me, some goodwill would have been nice is all.

Given that you live so close, and they know you they probably thought "Oh, she only lives down the road, she can nip home for the missing 20p and come back when she has it ... she has to make the trip back anyway to pay us, so she can get the milk when it's paid for." I'd be one thing if you were a couple of pennies short but 20p is a lot - we sell milk from 40p, so 20p could be half the cost of the item. I will occasionally let people off a few pence (especially if their total is something like £1.27 and they have £1.25 in change or a £20 note and I know my till is short of change) but I can still get in trouble for it.

I work in a supermarket customer sevice desk and had a customer yesterday ask if they could take a couple of storage boxes out to their car to see if they'd fit the space before they bought them. This customer comes in regularly enouh that I recognize them as a repeat customer but not regulaly enough to be a "regular" (if that makes sense?) and I still said no ... because even if they did just go out and come straight back, all it would take was for someone to stop by my desk as they were bringing them back or a box to get dropped/damaged/broken outside and then I'd be in deep trouble for authorising it.

harderandharder2breathe · 05/01/2017 16:36

Yabu

If everyone did that shops would lose substabtial amounts.

The person on the till on minimum wage is the one who would get in trouble.

Take responsibility for your own mistake instead of blaming someone else for not fixing it for you

zukiecat · 05/01/2017 16:38

Trifle

Even with the best budgeting plan people still have absolutely nothing left, here if something runs out then that's it til next payday

Wolfiefan · 05/01/2017 16:39

You know you would have paid the outstanding amount.
They don't know that.
And if they let you off then that sets a precedent.

Original poster
cherrycrumblecustard · 05/01/2017 16:39

Gosh, I'm not blaming anybody. I smiled and said "okay, no problem."

OP posts:
MouldyPeach · 05/01/2017 16:47

So many grinches - it's 20p! Of course they should have let you pay it later, my lovely local shop lets people off the odd pence all the time and I'm certain that adds to the amount of people paying ridic prices for stuff rather than wait til they get to the supermarket. It's called community, everyone grumbles that local businesses are being pushed out and the reasons they prefer them to faceless mega supermarkets. This is one of them, surely.

ConfusedDotty · 05/01/2017 16:48

So OP, if you are counting the pennies on a Thursday and knew you didn't have even 20p in the house, did you intentionally set off to the shop knowing you were 20p short?

user1478860582 · 05/01/2017 16:52

Bloody hell. The OP asked someone to trust her over 20p, not request the Pope renounce Catholicism and become treasurer of the local BDSM club.

Personally I would of thought building goodwill with regular customers was more valuable than 20p.

GahBuggerit · 05/01/2017 16:56

yanbu, my local bp garage know me, im in there every week and i once forgot my card after filling up my car, none of this "leave your keys/id/kids with us while you get it", i was called a dickhead and told to go and get my card and go back.

i love those guys at my garage Grin

UnbornMortificado · 05/01/2017 17:00

My local shop do ticky.

I can understand a chain like the spar not being able to though.

GilMartin · 05/01/2017 17:02

A pint of milk is what? 45-50p a pint and you were 20p short? How much did you go out with?

zukiecat · 05/01/2017 17:02

MouldyPeaches

It's not case of being grinches, but I personally am not willing to accept a disciplinary for knowingly undercharging customers!

A penny or two here and there is fine as long as my boss doesn't find out, but if my till us under by more than £2 then I have to answer and pay it even if it's £2.01, I have to pay the full amount

Original poster
cherrycrumblecustard · 05/01/2017 17:03

No dotty, I had some change in my purse and thought it was enough and it wasn't.

OP posts:
GilMartin · 05/01/2017 17:06

Personally I would of thought building goodwill with regular customers was more valuable than 20p

Personally if I were a zero-hours minimum wage employee of the petrol station, I'd be more worried about losing my job by offering unauthorised credit to customers rather than mildly irking Dopey Dora who came to buy some milk without the right amount of money.

Trifleorbust · 05/01/2017 17:06

Gosh, I'm not blaming anybody. I smiled and said "okay, no problem."

Then you started a thread moaning that they didn't let you bring it later Hmm

dollydaydream114 · 05/01/2017 17:07

They're not an independent local store; they're part of a chain and they will have rules about what they can and can't do.

About 20 years ago in the year before I went to university, I worked in a 'local shop' that was part of a national chain of newsagents. Yes, we had regular customers, and yes, we knew them and they would come in day after day - but we couldn't offer them credit. We had to cash up and submit figures at the end of the day and if the till was more than a couple of quid down, it was added up and docked from the staff pay packets at the end of the week.

Also, every time a till was down (even by only a few pence) it put a flag on the system and after a certain number of times the store manager got a bollocking or even a warning from head office.

You will not be the only person who expects to get 20p off. If they let everyone they know off 20p here and there, they'd be quite a bit down. They will already lose money every week in drive-aways from the petrol station, shoplifting, damage, fake coins/notes and all manner of other things; it's really not as simple as 'oh, it's only 20p, they won't notice'.

A pint of milk is only about 50 or 60p in the first place, so 20p is quite significant proportion of the price, too. You're not talking about a penny or two.

It's obviously nice when shops can do stuff like that for their customers, but YABU to expect it and even more so to be annoyed that they said no.

Original poster
cherrycrumblecustard · 05/01/2017 17:07

Only a little moan, Trifle Wink

OP posts:
SuburbanRhonda · 05/01/2017 17:10

I would have given you the 20p OP

Easy for you to say - you wouldn't be at risk of losing your job.

amazingtracy · 05/01/2017 17:18

A small local shop should know it's customers- the smart thing would have been to 'extend credit' Hmm and allow a well known customer 20p for a couple of hours!
Once ofter I fill my car with diesel and picked up a treat for my toddler I realised to my utter mortification that I left my bag at home. The shop told me not to worry and drop it round when I had a chance. It was my first time in the shop! Blush. I was very grateful and am still a loyal customer.
Local shops or should I say good and well run local shops would be able to make the right call.