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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Shops deliberately short changing

151 replies

ThisLittleKitty · 06/02/2018 09:28

Anyone else feel like shops try to do this on purpose sometimes? It's happened way too frequently for my liking. Just now I was in the shop I bought 3 drinks and a packet of crisps. I handed the woman £10 and she gave me back a couple of pound coins. I told her I gave her £10 she said are you sure, this went on for a few minutes, eventually I tell her to check the cameras which she does and there it is £10. Aibu in thinking sometimes they do it on purpose hoping you don't notice?!

OP posts:

myusernamewastaken · 06/02/2018 10:41

I work with money and i've served some dodgy customers in my time....palming scams are quite common...customer asks for euros...pays with sterling and then changes his mind....he gives the euros back...cashier returns his sterling and when she balances her till realises she is 300 euros short....this happens regularly by organised individuals....I also had a woman phone me and say that she'd bought euros earlier and id given her a mix of eur and usd....I knew i hadnt as my till was balanced so i asked her to come in and we would view the cctv footage....she hung up and never contacted us again.

falsepriest · 06/02/2018 10:42

I often do the closing shift at work and as the last person on site, cash-up. There’s two halves to the business, which also has a levy card system for members that also get frequent credits applied to it. Not sure I’ve ever seen both tills bang on. Sent me crazy for the first week as I was searching for the odd few quid here or recounting (the new tenners are a real pain). Given up now , those “oh I’ll let you off 15p” or “I’ll credit you tomorrow” soon add up over 10 hours. sigh

Melamin · 06/02/2018 10:42

I had this about 15 years ago when shopping with my 3 young children. I have worked in retail before, when 10s and 20s looked a bit similar for a while, and the drill was to say what it was, put it in the clip on the front of the till, get the change, then put it in the till and state the change. She did not do this. I knew damned well it was a 20 because that is all the cash machine gave.

Anyway, I had a bit of a battle with this woman. She seemed to be running some sort of little shop within littlewoods - strange opaque set up. I got my money back eventually, but I did point out to her it had cost me in parking to get back into town.

After this, I realised that this was probably why I often seemed to spend more than I expected in town and switched to credit card only and rarely use cash. The plastic notes that do not stay folded and won't go flat take too much juggling.

SpacePenguin · 06/02/2018 10:44

Small convenience supermarket near me has been refurbished recently and they have automatic tills, but they are behind a counter so you are still served by a cashier as usual (not self service). The cashier puts notes and coins into slots and the correct change is dispensed.

I did wonder what the point was, but reading this thread has made me realise how much time and effort it must save in dealing with these sorts of situations, and the massive reduction in cheeky fuckers (staff or customers) who get away with pulling a fast one.

PinkHeart5914 · 06/02/2018 10:45

£2 change from £10 for 3 drinks and a packet of crisps sounds about right round here confused Where do you live? I don’t live in a cheap area but even I could buy 2 cartons of juice with straws, 500ml bottle of drink and a pack of monster munch for less that £8!

OP I think mistakes can happen and if the sales assistant isn’t in the ball they can mistake £10 for £5 or whatever but of course not everyone is trustworthy so some people especially in smaller independent shops could be up to no good and doing it on purpose

RunningOutOfCharge · 06/02/2018 10:45

There's always self service....

Original poster

ThisLittleKitty · 06/02/2018 10:46

It's not just the fact she did it it's the fact she was clearly calling me a liar. There was other parents from my kids school (just finished the school run) amongst other people I have to stand there telling the woman I did give her £10 whilst she's saying I didn't.

OP posts:

tillytrotter1 · 06/02/2018 10:46

When I had a Saturday job years ago we were told to say the denomination of the note being tendered to avoid such problems and to leave it out of the till until the customer walked away.

doze931 · 06/02/2018 10:49

The law changed last week so they can no longer charge you to use your card. My work used to do this but had to change.

Fluffyunicorns · 06/02/2018 10:50

My friend used to make a point of looking at the last 5 digits of the serial number before handing over notes. That way he had something he could get them to look for if he was short changed. i.e please check the top £20 note in the draw - does the number end 12345?

SundaysFunday · 06/02/2018 10:52

Our local family run village shop is incredibly overpriced. But I've noticed the prices on the shelf aren't always the same as what's rung up on the till.

I would mentally add up items as I go, but get to the till and it seems the total is always more than I calculated. First few times I presumed I'd calculated incorrectly.

Now I check my slip and prices (holding up the queue to everyone's annoyance) the till operators are always flustered and apologetic, when they realise the mistake and refunds are issued.

I think it's the owners, altering the prices by a few pennies on each item, not entering the specials etc.

I don't shop there anymore.

Ellendegeneres · 06/02/2018 10:52

I have the opposite in my chippy, order for example two battered sausage and large chips with curry sauce and they charge you £2.80- I’m in London, I know that’s not right! It’s happened a few times and I always query- it’s a family run business and they’re lovely, I don’t want them out of pocket.
Whenever we walk past they rush out with lollipops for my kids, and always add extra to our order that we haven’t asked for because they know us and ‘you’re the honest family!’ 😂
Local corner shop used to be like op describes though, so like others I’m in a habit of saying ‘sorry, only got a tenner!’ Etc... I notice others have caught on and started doing the same.

Original poster

ThisLittleKitty · 06/02/2018 10:53

I didn't know the law had changed on it. I just stopped using card in there because of the extra charge. Atleast I can go back to using it then.

OP posts:

RowenasDiadem · 06/02/2018 10:55

I've worked retail for years and have had some right scheming shits come in to rip the shop off. They're actually quite inventive sometimes. But just because there's scummy customers out there, that doesn't mean there isn't a Mr Arkwright from Open All Hours corner shop trying to underhandedly get as much money out of his customers as he can.

EmGee · 06/02/2018 10:55

Well it seems to me there are honest customers and honest shopkeepers and dishonest customers and dishonest shopkeepers!

I was once scammed on the Paris Metro....BY the actual staff. I needed a metro ticket that cost about 2€40. I only had a twenty euro note that I handed over while looking in my wallet for the 40cents. Meanwhile the two ladies on the desk gave me back the change for 5€. I queried it and they both pointed to the 5€ note that they had helpfully placed by the window 'as proof' that I had handed it over. I was gutted as I knew I only had a twenty in my wallet! They had me over a barrel and they knew it. I bet they saw me coming (had a baby in the buggy and was a bit flustered with bags, wallet etc) and thought this will be easy. They were not apologetic in the slightest as they had each other's backs and kept saying there's the 5€ note you have us.

Jenna43 · 06/02/2018 10:56

Straws and sugary crap..., maybe we should judge you op?

Oh give over, get a life.

SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad · 06/02/2018 10:56

My DM taught me to always at least glance at my till receipt in a supermarket - and my kids do it now, as it's surprising how often an item is put through twice, or a reduced item registers as the full price, or a 3-4-2 or BOGOFF offer doesn't register. Most of these are not the fault of the person on the till, but the shop's computer system - but they can really add up...
It's why I like using the self-service tills, where I can see every transaction at a glance as I scan the item

k2p2k2tog · 06/02/2018 10:59

Shops aren't allowed to charge you extra for using a card any more - but are still allowed to refuse cards altogether under a certain amount.

Original poster

ThisLittleKitty · 06/02/2018 11:03

So they are not allowed to charge you extra but can refuse instead!! Gosh I would rather just pay the extra charge.

OP posts:

SistersOfPercy · 06/02/2018 11:05

I had a Saturday job in a frozen food store, my colleague, a girl who i'll call 'T' was far from the sharpest tool in the shed. When her till was cashed up of an evening she could be millions over because of her inability to type 10.00 into the till. 10.00 became 100.000 and by the end of the day our supervisor would be tearing her hair out.
There were arguments most days that T had short changed, but I also suspect she gave away a lot as she had no maths skills at all and relied on the till to tell her how much change to give.

Amazingly, she became full time and worked there for years. Presumably head office thought we had the best performing store in the area 😂

mumpoints · 06/02/2018 11:09

SistersOfPercy Ha!

RowenasDiadem · 06/02/2018 11:14

@SistersOfPercy

UnimaginativeUsername · 06/02/2018 11:19

I was in costa this morning and the woman serving me accidentally inputted the wrong thing on the til. I only noticed because I knew how much it should be, and I was only buying one thing. But it was genuinely an accident.

When I was a teenager I worked in McDonald’s and we’d regularly get total chancers claiming they’d paid with a £20 when they knew fine well they’d paid with a tenner. Always in the drive through because they assumed that the manager wouldn’t want to hold things up by taking the till off and checking it. The managers always took the till off and checked. I don’t think the til ever came back £10 up, because the chancers were simply chancers.

QuitMoaning · 06/02/2018 11:19

My OH checks the tills very carefully. If a till is under, he looks for patterns to see if staff are stealing (and some of the methods are ingenious), and if a till is over, it means someone has been given the wrong change and he also hates that as the customer might think it was deliberate and it really isn’t.

Staff are told to put the note on top of the till until the customer has checked their change and then put the note away as it helps with clarity at the point it happens. He does have cctv but is really awkward to check it except when shop is closed.

nancy75 · 06/02/2018 11:21

The amount you type in as cash given doesn't matter as long as you give the right amount of change.

If I buy an item for £1 & pay with a £10 note I get £9 change

If you type in £100 instead of £10 as long as you only give me £9 change the till will be right (because it thinks you have given me £99 change)

The till will only be wrong If I give £10 and you give £99 change - then it would obviously be short

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