Generally there’s no way to just change the amount owed. I suspect the other teller was either a manager or knew a manager’s code and was able to void the sale and then re-enter the sale and put the right amount in.
This is why, on the rare occasions I pay with cash and I want to get rid of change, I don’t give the cashier anything until I have the change I want in my hand to give them at the same time as the bill.
The problem is not new. Way back in the 60s I went with my father to buy a large quantity of bread rolls. The small bakery sold them at 1d each and there are 12d in a shilling. We bought a gross (144)
This may look awkward to modern eyes used to base 10, but at the time base 12 was perfectly easy for those of us used to the currency. The sharper among you will have spotted that a gross is 12 x 12 so it is no great leap to see that the buns cost 12 shillings in total.
The shop assistant failed to spot this and insisted on ringing up, on an old type till (ding ding) 144 1d sales. She lost count twice so had to count them on the printout while we stood in an ever growing queue.
Is it really the case that the register aims to keep an exact count of bills and coins of all denominations? If so, there would (for example) have to be a way for the teller to distinguish between $30 paid in the form of three $10 bills or one $10 and two $20 bills. And it would be a big problem if the person who is owed $1.25 in change said “Could I have that in quarters, for the parking meter?”
Put me down as skeptical whether at the end of a shift anything more than the total matters.
Is the cashier dealing in currency that he/she is unfamiliar with? This could be part of the issue.
When I crossed the border into Canada, I found getting used to $1 and $2 coins to be very easy and I could slap down a few toonies and loonies and zip by. Coming back was likewise a non-issue. Sure, that experience is from the other side, but I don’t think that unfamiliarity with currency is such a great issue.
Drives me crazy. Bills, coins. Put coins on counter while wallet comes out. Then retrieve coins. Sometimes stuff it all in pocket, like upthread.
BTW, I was taught at a job to always give change directly into the customer’s palm, not on the counter.
It doesn't. But I remember more than one co-worker at more than one job who we couldn't convince that there would be no shortage if she entered $100 tendered instead of $10 as long as she didn't give $9X.xx in change. It was often easier to have the sale voided and rerung than to try to convince the cashier that she wouldnt be short. (Would have been even easier if the owner had just disabled the "00" key, since that's what usually caused the problem)
My dad bought a store from his cousin when I was 9½, so by the time I was 10 I had learned how to ring up a sale and make change. And to make change, you counted up, as tangent and Xema have already stated. One thing that wasn’t mentioned that you place the larger bill the customer gave you on the little shelf on top of the box (?) the cash drawer slides out of until you’ve completed giving the customer his change. Then you tuck it into the proper currency section in the drawer. That way, when the customer says “Hey, I gave you a 20!” you can pick up the 10, show it to them, and say “No ma’am, you gave me this 10.”
Maybe not between US and Canada, but quite possibly if the cashier’s native currency does not use dollars and cents. Such rupees and/or rials, etc.
I buy far more stuff than I should through the window of my car*, and I much prefer the coins on top. I’d rather a few cents slip off and out of reach than have the wind take bills away from me.
When I train someone, I always tell them to put the coins first and the bills last, but they all think they are smarter than I so they never listen anyway. My philosophy is that it makes it easier to just dump the coins in a pocket or purse first and then get the bills.
Handled perfectly this would indeed cause no shortage.
Register thinks I’ve given 9X.xx change and I’ve in fact given only X.xx
Agreed about the 00 key, though, more trouble than it is worth.
I support this pitting. My notes don’t fall to the ground, but the coins often do as I try to pocket thenotes, especially since 7-Eleven puts the receipt on top of the coins. I try to move out of the way quickly, with one hand for bags. Notes and coins go in different pockets; coins first would work better for me.
Did you work out-of-doors where notes got blown?
BTW, the clerks were I live are totally dependent on calculater. If I want to present 101 baht for a 61 baht bill I have to present the single baht first. Otherwise, the 100 baht will get rung up and change is impossible. I never present 101 baht for a 66 baht bill. “11 take away 6 is 5 exactly” seemed convenient once upon a time, but is now beyond the ken of anyone who hasn’t studied advanced math. :smack:
To me, “I can’t handle putting coins into my pocket if they’re on top of bills” sounds like the sort of problem experienced only by the type of people who appear in informercials and show off how mind-bogglingly difficult it is for them to drain pasta, open a carton of milk, or use a blanket.
For some reason, I could never quite wrap my head around counting up. Not that I don’t know how to do it, it just slows me down and I find it easier just to think “20-8=12,” pick up a tenner and two singles, and just looking at “.33” I know it’s 67 cents to make it whole, so two quarters, a dime, a nickel, two pennies.
It didn’t really matter as through sheer repetition, almost everyone learned with a couple of weeks all the common orders, what they totaled with tax, and the change from any number of bills without even needing to use the cash register. (Although our cash registers didn’t calculate change.)
Hah.
I remember around 1980 (in my early 20’s) going to the corner store. A new young girl was at the cash register. She tendered my change the way I like it (but that people rarely do), dropping the coins in my palm, and then handing the bills in a nice neat stack.
Her supervisor corrected her, telling her to place the bills first (as she said the number of dollars) and then the change (as she spoke the amount in coinage). While that makes sense from one standpoint, I wanted to tell her that the kid did the right thing, because I don’t want coins slipping all over the place, and yes, I CAN manage to understand “7 dollars and 34 cents” when being actually given 34 cents and then 7 dollars.
Maybe the kid saw by my expression that I disagreed, but I held my tongue rather than interfering in the super/trainee relationship.
Regardless, when I’m paying with folding money and coins, I hand the coins first. I’m clumsy enough without adding variables.
I’ll second this one. (Though my favorite example is the commercial where the woman is using a knife like she has no bones in her wrist.)
There’s also the option of saying “Could you give me the coins first?” if that is someone’s preference.
And I just don’t understand why some people want to bitch about this so much. When I was in college (mid-90s) and working at the campus bookstore, I did everything the way management asked me to do it and it never failed that about 5% of the customers felt it imperative that they stop to explain to me how it should “obviously” be done. I just wanted to say: Look people, I’m a cashier. I’m here because I have two hours to kill between chemistry and calculus and making minimum wage on campus makes more sense than a long evening shift somewhere else. I do what I’m told and they didn’t ask for my opinion. Why do you want to make everyone miserable just because we don’t do it the way you learned during the Depression?!
(And for the record, we were taught to say “Your total is 12.31. Out of 20.00, then?” - a pause to see if any more change or bills were on their way “Your change is 7.69. Five, six, seven, and sixty-nine in change. Would you like me to put the receipt in your bag?”)
It’s not my fault if the cashier can’t do math. The other day I bought something where the total was $2.17. Not wanting extra pennies, I give her $2.22. What does she do? Gives me *back *the 2 cents and then rings up the amount as $2.20, and gives me 3 cents change.
:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Interesting to see that no one has mentioned the registers in some supermarkets. You give the cashier your twenty for a 14.67 sale, the cashier enters that in the register, and gives you a $5 note, and the 33 cents gets delivered from a change dispenser at the end of the checkout counter.
You can tuck the 5 into your wallet and pocket the change in two separate actions.
This was in several different stores in California including Albertson’s, Walmart and Safeway
Well, sure , I can try to stuff the whole pile of coins,bills and receipt in my pocket at once as I take my purchase with the other hand.(as long as I don’t need to show the receipt at the door) Or I can try to slide the coins into my pocket while still holding on to the bills while I have my purchase in the other hand. Both of the preceding will be done while I am walking away from the counter and I am likely to either drop something or have a huge uncomfortable wad of coins bills and receipt in my pocket. Not because it’s mind boggling difficult, but because I’m too clumsy to do this one-handed while walking. Because if I hold up the line by taking the coins off the bills and putting them in my pocket before I pick up the bag and walk away, the people on line behind me will trample me. If there was room for me stand to the side to put my money away it would be different - but there never is.
Back in the olden days when the coins were returned first , they were handed to me before the bills were counted out and I therefore was able to put them in my pocket before I was handed the bills. It wasn’t a matter of the coins being on the bottom of the pile- there was no pile. I wouldn’t have a problem if the cashiers gave me the bills first and then counted out the coins while i was putting the bills away. It’s getting the pile all at once and needing to move out of the way that’s the problem.