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.

Once you leave the till without checking then its your problem. Im in retail. Trust me we have upwards of 15 people a day claiming to be shortchanged and demanding money back after leaving the shop. Most havent been shortchanged at all.

They arent giving all your change in coppers, it doesn't take long to glance down and count quickly the few coins you get back

It's very difficult. Lots of customers are scammers, falsely claiming to have been short changed. Some shop workers are also scammers, deliberately giving short change, particularly if the victim is distracted with little kids. In your case, it's surprising that the assistant was so sure that you hadn't been short changed. The fact that she didn't even need to stop to consider what might have happened, to me, indicates that she likely did it on purpose.

Used to work in a supermarket, this was a basic rule, change mistakes are only verified at the till, after that it was your mistake not to check.

only if it was a large sum or the customer was really clearly upset that we would close the till to check the balance was correct.

She didn't go into the till because you have no idea how many people pull this one. It is your job to check your change there and then and if its wrong request they check the till on the spot. Once you leave who is to say you have not dropped it, given it away, pocketed it, spent it elsewhere or put it somewhere. Happens all the while in retail so you check at the time. She should have offered to check the till later to see if it was up by that amount but its not always doable at that moment if working alone.

You sound extremely naive to be questioning why she shouldn't trust you. People do scams with this all the time. Unfortunately you're misdirecting your anger at her when yes she was wrong to give you incorrect change but quite within her right not to trust you, why should she?

No checkout assistant or retail manager will take a customer's word for it on a shortchange matter. Never. You have to check your change at the till and call them on it immediately. Even then, it is he said, she said sort of deal and it comes down to the staff being professional and taking your details, offering to check the till's taking that night/next day, and giving you a call if a discrepancy is found. If it is then you get your money and an apology.

As a teenager and student, I worked in a variety of retail jobs. You really can't trust what any customer says. Have had people claim to have given £20 when only gave a ten pound note. Had others give us literal pennies and then claim it was pound coins. On one spectacular occasion we had a fella come in and say one member of staff had short changed him about twenty minutes ago. It was 70 something pence he claimed. Till girl said she didn't even remember serving him and as we were a very busy shop, that wasn't unusual. Manager came down and apologized and said we'd check the till that night if he left his details. He went spare. Shouting, screaming, threw stock on the ground. Girl I was working with on tills at the time was 17 and she couldn't believe a grown adult would act like that. Security showed him out.

The manager let her have a tea break cause she was so overwhelmed that something she may have done wrong could have caused that scene. A couple days later she got called to the managers office and she tells her they reviewed the security footage for that whole morning she worked and the fella who claimed she had short changed him 70 p...he was never even in the shop! Never at any till. Wrote up an incident report about it and we printed a CCTV photo to go and warn other local retailers. Boss came back pretty shocked, turned out the guy had been pulling the same stunt in a couple shops down the street over the last few weeks for pennies and a few quid. Some had just given him the money to stop a scene. We had his picture behind the till then to keep an eye out.

Basically, the idea that any person is so honest, and it just happened a few minutes ago and we should trust and believe everyone is nonsense. At best, give your details and ask for the till cash out to be checked that night and give you a call if it is over. Your not owed an apology until it is proven a mistake has occured. The days of being taken at your word are gone.

Also yes its perfectly ok to question change at the till if you think its incorrect we also have people do that a lot and we appreciate being able to rectify any errors straight away. Sometimes its the customer who has mistakenly added up wrong but theres no harm.

I think it's a real shame that assistants don't count change into a customer's hand anymore. Even though the till tells the assistant what change to give, he/she can still make a mistake when getting the change out of the till. As a shop assistant I would always at least say how much I was giving them - it protects us both.

A couple of years ago I was buying euros from the local post office and he was distracted (talking to someone) while counting them out in front of me. So I asked him to do it again - silly me, I wasn't looking, tinkly laugh - and he had short changed me by twenty euros.

Is there any chance you dropped it.After all you still had it in your hand when you got home @dottypotter

But OP it's a transaction that both of you should check. So don't feel shy about checking your change in front of them as you put it away. It sounds to me in your case that she may have done it on purpose. But even if she seemed to not trust you, don't take it personally - sounds as if people try it on a lot.

YABU to claim she "shortchanged" you without evidence to back that up. Shortchanging someone is a deliberate act, you cannot accidentally shortchange someone - that would just be an error when issuing the change.

It's similar to calling someone a liar because they said something that isn't true. They're only lying if they knew what they said wasn't true. If they believed it to be true, they are not lying.

i don’t ever use cash now but when I did I never ever considered counting it and would deffo not have gone back to my local after leaving for a few coins. You may know your an honest person but they don’t

I think it's a real shame that assistants don't count change into a customer's hand anymore.

In my recent experience people look at you like you have grown an extra head if you try to do this 😂

It takes me literally one or two seconds to glance at the change in my hand and notice if that's the right change or not. If I'm having a brain fart I'll double check but I still don't take more than say 5 seconds. This is normal, isn't a delay, inconvenience or slut on your trust of the cashier, and unless you have a medical reason why you can't, you should be doing this as a matter of habit.

I worked in Woolworths, as a Saturday girl, in the early 80s, and we were taught to count the customer’s change back to them. We also has a clip on the front of the till, and we’re told to put notes there, until we had counted the change out into the customer’s hand, before putting the note into the till - so if the customer said they gave us a £20 not a £10, we could show them their note.

You need to check there and then, should not take a lot of time

You can't come back in 5 mins later 😁

Surely you know this?

There's not much you can do, once you've left the shop, even if you go straight back.

If this has never happened before, as far as you've noticed, I'd just chalk it up as one bad experience. But I'd be making a point from now, either way, to count out your change as you get given it, there and then.

“Something I won't forget.”

You must find daily life pretty stressful.

To you, it’s obvious she made a mistake - because you have the coins to check.

To her, it’s not obvious at all - she can’t know that you’re honest, and people do lie.

Check your change in future, and don’t get yourself worked up with declarations of never forgetting!

Why didn't she say to the OP. Mistakes need to be raised at the time though and not afterwards
She seemed to insist she gave the right change. Her wording was wrong.

Yes. I always check the change at the till even if there is a queue because I have nearly been short changed many times.

I’m another one who was taught to count change back, it was a good way of double checking you were handing over the right amount. I was also told never to hand over change with your hand palm down because it looked like you were hiding the amount! It’s horrible when you realise you’ve got the wrong change and the shop doesn’t believe you though. I had it happen to me when I handed over £20 and they gave me change for £10. They refused to believe I was telling the truth and made a big thing of “Well, we’ll go and check the till now then.” To which I obviously said “Fair enough, I’ll wait.” They came back a few minutes later and shoved the extra change at me, no apology or anything!

The lesson here is always check before walking away. You cannot prove it after leaving. The shop person possibly can by knowing exactly what’s in the till if it was closed off & reopened I’ve had this with people at work saying they were short changed or I put 20£ in & only got 10£ out, resulting in the change machine being completely emptied & recounted whilst being watched by security only to tell the person that it was bang on the nose. & they sheepishly say sorry it was my mistake

I was short changed by a waiter at a restaurant about 2 weeks ago.
I was alone.
I know he did it on purpose.
I wouldn't leave until the shift manager sorted it out.
I was very pissed off and I made sure they knew it.

It happened to my husband, he immediately said they'd given him change for a £5 and he'd given them a £10. Shop owner denied it and he'd already put the note in the till so even though it was immediate he wouldn't back down. He was quite nasty about it and some of the stuff he said was offensive e.g. people like you/your type and husband is black in a very white town so he took that badly.

We left our phone number and when he cashed up he was £5 over so phoned us and we collected it. No apology for his earlier attitude. We've never been in the shop since.

I sympathise OP.

Ideally you should have checked before leaving and raised it then. I work in a shop and our security camera can move in very close to see what you've got in your hand - if you really feel she's in the wrong, you could ask the manager to check that.