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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
bobstersmum · 06/02/2018 11:23

I pay mostly card and I have noticed our local spar shop over charges virtually every time, it's usually by a pound on one or more items, I've no idea if this is pricing error or something more untoward.

lurkingnotlurking · 06/02/2018 11:24

It happened on purpose to me once. I gave a waitress in a small cafe a larger note and waited for my change. When I asked her for my change (I was planning on leaving a tip on the table once I got it) she lied and said that actually I hadn't given her enough to even cover my food and she'd decided not to ask me for any more. Brazen way to take a tip.

Apollo440 · 06/02/2018 11:26

If you get the old trick where they insist you gave them £10 when you gave them £20, it isn't your word against theirs. Insist they count the till right now. Get the manager if they won't and be a pain about it, I don't care how busy they are. Funnily enough, they suddenly remember it was £20 you gave them.
If it is a business I regularly use and believe it was a genuine mistake, I trust them to check at the end of the day. Always got my money back.

nancy75 · 06/02/2018 11:30

Recounting the till doesn't mean anything - if the till has been in use for 10 hours with somebody mixing up £10 & £20 notes the till could have been wrong before your note went in, your note could be the one that makes the till right!

UnimaginativeUsername · 06/02/2018 11:30

We ate in a restaurant once and paid by card. It went through but nothing printed. They insisted that it hadn’t gone through and that we had to pay again. It was very annoying, and they did charge us twice and we’re completely unwilling to rectify it. We’ve never been back to that restaurant.

BakedBeans47 · 06/02/2018 11:34

Hope the queue wasn't too long

Why should the OP give a shit whether the queue was too long? If I’d been short changed I wouldn’t have gone anywhere either.

In response to the OP no it isn’t something I have noticed although on the very rare occasion it’s happened it’s just been a mistake and I’ve had my money back no issue. Mistakes happen.

UnimaginativeUsername · 06/02/2018 11:34

Perhaps nancy75, but in my fast food experience, it wasn’t that the cashier was mixing up the notes willy nilly. It was just bloody chancers. And always in the drive through (never the in store tills) because they thought that was their best chance of getting away with it.

Elocutioner · 06/02/2018 11:38

Sometimes they say "I'm short on small coins do you mind not having the penny/ two penny change?"

I say I'm happy with 5p thanks if that's all you've got....

Why should I take the loss and not them?

morningconstitutional2017 · 06/02/2018 11:46

I'm sure that most shop workers wouldn't do this but there's always the odd bad apple. When I worked in a shop we were taught to put notes on top of the drawer-till until we'd given change so that the proof was there in case a customer pretended they'd given us a tenner instead of a fiver as this cheat works both ways.

There was a particular newsagent where they tried to get away with this a lot and they'd 'tut' if you called them out - giving the impression that it was on purpose. They also gave you foreign coins hoping you didn't notice. I took my custom elsewhere as I had the choice.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 06/02/2018 11:54

Years ago I used to go to the supermarket with my babies for the weekly shop and get some cashback too. There was one cashier who was very, very chatty and friendly and somehow always managed to forget to give you your cash, had to be prompted every single time.

kaytee87 · 06/02/2018 12:03

Dh got a ten euro note in change the other week instead of a tenner. Good job we're going on holiday soon.

I think some people will do it deliberately and some by mistake.

Sales assistants and shop keeps used to be in the habit of counting out your change into your hand, doesn't seem to happen anymore.

kaytee87 · 06/02/2018 12:05

Shopkeepers*

mumpoints · 06/02/2018 12:08

Elocutioner yes I’ve had before also! I managed to find the change but they were adamant a penny didn’t matter to me!

Zaphodsotherhead · 06/02/2018 12:10

kaytee I always hand the change back in one lump (no time for the whole 'ten twenty thirty five forty' change counting) but I tell them what I've given them. So if I say 'eight fifty change', then they can say 'but I gave you a twenty' and i can just look on top in the till and say 'sorry, but it's a tenner on top, are you sure?'

InspMorse · 06/02/2018 12:11

Well this thread has just jinxed me...
Just been to the garage, bought mints & gum (£2.57) gave a £20 note and was given a £10 note, a £5 note and 43p. It was dumped in my hand and the cashier quickly moved up the queue.
I showed her the change for a millisecond (she barely looked at it) and she immediately said - oh I owe you £2.

CF ... Angry

Saucery · 06/02/2018 12:20

My Dad taught me to do that, Fluffy Unicorns Grin Has come in very handy over the years, particularly in pubs and clubs. No matter how drunk I got those numbers stuck in my head.

doze931 · 06/02/2018 12:24

Yea pretty much. My work used to charge 25p if under a tenner. Now we take any card paymet regardless of how much tho a shop can refuse sale if under certain amount

TheHungryDonkey · 06/02/2018 12:43

This used to be a problem years ago in some shops so I memorised the serial number before I hand it over every time. Still do it now.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 06/02/2018 12:48

*@nancy75
*
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

If I type in £100 instead of £10 then at the end of the day when I reconcile the till it will look like there should be £90 more than there is - the question becomes is it a mistake or has someone swiped the £90?

Under ringing is just as much a problem as under ringing.

Huntinginthedark · 06/02/2018 12:48

My corner shop does this. Only buy pence though so it’s really odd.
But I guess if you do it to 100 per day for 50p then it’s not a bad racket.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 06/02/2018 12:48

Sorry, should have bolded that.

georgeoutside · 06/02/2018 12:54

This used to be a problem years ago in some shops so I memorised the serial number before I hand it over every time. Still do it now.

Seriously? Who has time to be memorising serial numbers on notes Confused

What on earth do you do when handing over more than one note?

nancy75 · 06/02/2018 12:57

Ladyofthecanyon
*
If I type in £100 instead of £10 then at the end of the day when I reconcile the till it will look like there should be £90 more than there is - the question becomes is it a mistake or has someone swiped the £90?*

No, if you type in that I gave you £100 note instead of a £10 note the till will presume you have given me the £99 change - as long as you give the correct change for the note that was given the till will be correct. The till is counting the cost of the item that was bought - not the notes used to pay for it or the change given.

I was a retail manager for 20 odd years and could cash up a till in my sleep - as long as the change given is correct for the note used to pay then the till will be right

SharonBottsPoundOfGrapes · 06/02/2018 13:23

There's also a scam where a customer will ask for change then mess you about swapping this and that so that the cashier ends up bamboozled and the store out of pocket.
I fell for this when I was 16. I got such a bollocking. The management watched on CCTV as it happened and told me afterwards. It made me more aware and now 20 plus years later people have tried but failed. My favourite attempt was amusing. We'd only just opened. A woman came to the till and said I'd short changed her. She'd given me a £20 but id given her change from £10. I opened the till and asked her to describe her money. She looks at me like I'm stupid but goes on to describe it. "Purple, Queens head, watermark, £20 written in the corner..." I pull out the only £20 note in the till and it's a Scottish one. Grin
The next thing her boyfriend marches up to the till and says it's the wrong till and they meant the one across the bar. One that is very rarely in service unless it's a derby day or Christmas day etc. I just walked off laughing. A few years later that woman was jailed for fraud and robbery. She'd been caught feeding dyed banknotes from a robbery into change machines at casinos and bingo halls.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 06/02/2018 14:10

Nancy75

I use a manual rather than pre programmed till and in our shop. If Someone typed in £100 cash when the sale had been £10 cash there would be a £90 cash
discrepancy. It doesn't matter if it is an error, when I come to balance the float the reading on the till wont match cash taken.

If I couldn't trace it back to a particular sale ( if the cashier had't noticed at the time and alerted me) then it would look like we were £90 down. I've worked in small businesses with these kinds of tills for 30 odd years and it's a massive ball ache