She shortchanged me but denied it.

[dottypotter]

Recently bought something from local shop/newsagents

When I got home I realised she had shortchanged me so I went straight back and showed her the change she had given me.
It was only a matter of five mins or so.

Instead of going to the till and apologising to my horror she denied it. She said she had given me the right change. It was then awkward.
Why would I go back with the money in my hand to show her what shed given me if it hadnt happened?
I just left it, as I need to go in there alot it didn't seem worth arguing. Could not believe the attitude though. Something I won't forget.
Why didn't she just apologise and go to the till and give me the missing coin?
AIBU.
No one else around at that mo just her and I.

If it was so important you would’ve immediately checked the money before you left.

Contact her again and ask her to let you know if the till balances or not at the end of the day. Say if you were mistaken, you're very sorry but if it's out she will know when she does the till so could she let you know if that's the case.

Yeah, should have checked before you left the shop but it's easily done. I had a Saturday job in the 80s at our local grocers and we were expected to count change back if we were given notes.

I'd definitely be checking my change in front of this assistant in future, queue or no queue.

Ours has a minimum payment of £3 on cards. I only ever go for the odd emergency milk or chocolate (or ironically to get cash out for eBay stuff!) so I would use cash. I think it’s the only place I know that does it now. I only ever even have cash if I’ve sold something on eBay now school has finally gone cashless as we are at secondary and don’t have PTA fundraisers.

This is another scam, I used to work in a supermarket in my teens, but was pretty savvy and clued up.
Guy came in to buy baby wipes, gives me a £50 note, says he doesn’t have anything smaller, I give him the £48 change, suddenly says he has the change in his pocket, asks for the £50 note back. I say, yes, but you need to give me the £48 change back. He does and I give him his £50 note back and he gives me the correct change.
I reported this to management and they watched him in cctv, they were impressed I didn’t fall for the scam.

Either take time to stand there and check your change each and every time.

Or accept that cash has its flaws and over time the short changing is balanced out by the "long changing" (when you get too much change). Also you can lose money in the street or down the sofa but equally you can find it. There's no audit trail. So don't sweat the odd quid.

Or use cards/contactless and know that everything is recorded to the penny (not that there aren't other flaws of course).

I haven’t worked a till in over 30 years. We counted out change back then. I rarely use cash anymore, maybe once or twice a year. I didn’t even really notice that people had stopped counting back.

counting the money properly is an essential part of a cash transaction. I don’t think you should have any qualms about doing a quick check while standing there. Unless the amount of money is large, It only takes a few seconds. If it is large, I would preemptively ask the cashier to count it back which they should want to do for their own protection.

Similar happened to me at my local corner shop years ago, I was 18, DD was a newborn, I hardly had anything. I'd topped up my electric by £20 & when I got home he'd only put £5 on the card.
I thought it was a mistake so went back and explained, he denied it & said I'd only given him a £5 note & refused to do anything about it.
I was shocked because I'd gone in there almost daily since being a small child as it was on my grans street, he was always friendly and had a little chat etc.

I just never went back, DD is 13 now and even on the rare occasion I'm back in the area I still don't go in.
Used to walk an extra 20 mins to one further away.

People used to count change out

We had lots of rules when I worked in retail back on the dark ages, including counting change out twice. Once as we took it from the till and again I to the customers hand.

It takes me seconds to work out what my change should be and to count it all before I leave the till.

How much did she short change you by?

calculate the amount you're missing, put the change she gave you in an envelope with a note on it and say that when she cashes up at the end of the day, if there's a surplus then it's possibly yours, so can they contact you about it.

Can you also let the shop manager know the situation?

To ppl saying check your change in shop I understand that but dosent it look like you don't trust them by checking the change?

It used to be advised that you do this so any mistakes can be rectified at the time.

'Why didn't she just apologise and go to the till and give me the missing coin?'

As in £2 or under?

I would totally assume as an employee or another customer that you where either a scammer or ignorantly wrong.

You could have easily dropped it, fell out of pocket, lost in your bag or anything.

Did you really walk home with a handful of change, count it at home then return to complain a coin was missing? it sounds unhinged.

So you would be embarrassed to 'look like you don't trust her', but were fine with going back in to tell her she'd short-changed you?

In answer to your questions - yes, I check my change. How long does it take? About 5 seconds to make sure you've got the right number of pound coins/fivers/tenners.

All this talk of cash seems terribly old fashioned.

I don’t even take out debit cards anymore, I just use my phone or watch to pay. So much easier.

I'm sure you know this now but for something like topping up electric card, you should always get a receipt. Even if someone isn't short changing you, there can be technical errors etc.

This.

The onus is on you to check. Why didn't you?

Why I always use my debit card.

You keep saying why didn't she count your change well why didn't you?!

The fact you said about a missing coin I'd assume it's no more than £2.

You've made a mistake, admit it, learn from it and move on.

so much easier just to use your card or your phone

If you are paying cash or card pay attention, it’s easy to ring up extra on a card sale as well, don’t leave the shop until you have checked it’s right. Mistakes can be genuine or deliberate so don’t assume either.

How much are we talking about Op?

Generally you would know if you were missing a note or a notes worth of change.

I would imaging counting the change out stopped not long after the till showed what was owed.

Does anyone else remember when the notes used to be left in front of the till whilst your change was taken out?

Is anyone else now wondering whether the coin in question was a great deal lower in value than £2?

Always check your change before leaving the shop because -

1/ Most shops say check it before you leave
2/ A lot try to scam shops
3/ Always check your change before leaving a shop. I always checked bank notes that customers gave to me. I did not like doing it but it stopped a pair of scammers passing me dud 20 pound notes. Shops will not be offended it saves them time and money and keeps customers happy.

I rarely use cash anymore. Use a card when you go shopping. Then this would not have arisen.