Slightly tangential, but even banks are getting shitty about giving change. Yesterday, I ran into a Sun Trust to get a roll of quarters. I had a ten dollar bill and wanted a roll of quarters so I could do my laundry last night. Easy, right? Nope, the fuckers would not give me change. You people are a BANK! What do you mean you don’t give change?! “We only give change to account holders” I didn’t yell, but I stood there staring at the teller in disbelief for a few seconds. It’s not like I was trying to cash a two-party out of state check with no ID, I just wanted a roll of quarters. Ridiculous, but I had nothing else to do but get back in my jeep and drive a few miles to a First Union.
I always ask for Carter dollars. I once paid a friend back the forty bucks I owed him Susan B’s…
I would go to the bank, cash my check, and all the tellers at the bank would scrounge thier drawers to get rid of em, they loved me. Course a lot of places didnt know what to do with them…
I’m with the OP totally. If you cant break a fucking $5 bill, shut the goddamn place down and file for unemployment!
This thread is another good example of the “cash is dead” thoery. I usually avoid all this nonsense and only get gas at “pay-at-the-pump” joints and pay for everything with credit cards. Quicker and faster, no fuckin’ around with change.
Two more observations of little note or importance to the topic: 1. I have never seen an ATM give anything but $20’s ever. 2. This is the second thread I have read today, and came accross posts by the same person. In both of these posts, this person (to remain nameless) has the worst fucking attitude and sounds like a total cunt! I have a feeling if I ran into this twat on the street, the first thing to spew from them would intice me to smack the shit out of them! (Someone having a bad day?)
May the mediocrity of several greeting-card salesman inhabit your soul like unmatched buttons in a empty mayonaise jar.
The OP sounds like it has a point. If the guy DID have change and just “preferred” not to hand out singles, then the cashier was being a bit rude.
I worked for 3 years as a cashier at a gas station. And for the record, even though there was a big Shell sign and Shell gasoline and Shell motor oil and Shell “save save save” signs all around, we pretty much were a “mom n’ pop” station, since the boss was pretty much on his own, business-wise.
And the “buy $2 of crap and pay with a $100” is far more common than many would think. We started out a shift with a $200 till (which apparently is quite a large amount, judging from previous replies), and within two hours, we’d have a huge stack of $20s, maybe 7 $10s, a handful of $5s, and hopefully maybe a few singles left. It was quite common, too, to have a few fifties or hundreds under the till and not even have that many bills in the lower denominations. This leads to frustration and irritation.
Luckily my boss told us, “unless they’ve already used the product (like they already pumped their gas), if you don’t have enough change to give to him and have enough for the till, refuse the sale, I don’t want you busting the change for one person.” There was a bank right across the street from us, and we’d get people coming in asking for change daily.
True story:
Guy walks in and asks if we have two tens for a $20 (nice and polite, so I check for him). Unfortunately we have only one $10 and 3 $5s with a handful of singles, so I apologise saying that I don’t have that.
So he asks, “well, what about a ten and two fives or four fives?” I repeat that we don’t have enough change to be able to help him and that I was sorry.
So the fucker takes a 25¢ pack of Wrigley’s and smacks it down on the counter with his $20, smirking (his friends were laughing behind him).
My boss was behind me as i said, “sir, I can almost guarantee you that I make less money then you, and I will pay for that damn pack of gum if you really want it, because I already told you that I DO NOT have change for that bill!”
It was really fucking obvious he didn’t want the gum, he just wanted change and was being an ass about it. He left after I said that, and my boss didn’t bat an eye.
Odd, that’s how I feel about 95% of your posts, gato
(incidental aside to the peanut gallery. I am not who he was originally refering to as this is my second post in three days. I just don’t like the guy. Gatopescado never fails to be unpleasant)
I grew up in a retail setting. At my mother’s store there were generally one or two people working at any one time. The bank is several blocks away, probably a good fifteen minute walk, times two for the two directions. So that makes it about 45 minutes (counting the time in the bank). If the store is at all busy (and this is a small store in a large mall), then that simply is too much time for one person to be away. If there was only one person there anyway (which is the case for most of the non-holiday season year), then it’s just out of the question.
Sure, in the morning they start out with lots of fives and ones, but if you haven’t worked in retail, it’s hard to believe how fast those disappear. I have said in the past “if at all possible, we’d love it if you could pay with ones,” but if they can’t or won’t, I’ll still give them the right change. If they in fact don’t have the right change, then don’t get all huffy…it’s not necessarily their fault. If it is, then ok show your annoyance. But believe me, I don’t suggest trying to partially eat your food and then pay with a fifty. You’re just inviting a trip to the police station.
It is not an absolute right on your part to receive the exact change you want. If they don’t have fives, you’re going to get all ones. If you’re supposed to get $13 in change, please don’t ask for it all in ones. That means you’re just forcing this above situation on someone else. If you want $20 in ones, then go to the bank. Businesses should just be able to provide a reasonable amount of change. If they can’t, tough shit. Yeah, they need to go to the bank. They can’t do it five times a days. It’s just not possible - they’re not going to pay someone else to come in just to go to the bank, and they may not have an extra hand to go. It’s life.
There’s also a question of time of day, and time of week.
When I worked at a fast-food restaurant not to be named in this thread, we would often run short of change on Sunday evenings. No matter how the boss tried to be sure we were stocked up, this happened.
You cannot go to a bank on Sunday Evening.
I have to weigh in on the side of those who want change. I pay with close-to-exact change as often as possible, simply because I hate having lots of small bills clogging up my wallet. However, if all I have is a twenty, I don’t expect some clerk to give me attitude when I want to buy a 60-cent candy bar. Why should I buy extra things just to satisfy some business’s need for change? I’m already giving the company money for their product, should I give them more for their ineptitude?
And a special pet peeve for taxi drivers who try to force a high tip by pretending they don’t have change:
Taxi driver: That’ll be $6.10
Me: I’d like $12.00 back from this twenty (includes a nice tip, yes?)
Taxi driver: I don’t have any singles, I can only give you ten back.
Me: Then you’re getting a $5.00 bill.
Taxi driver: But it’s $6.10!
Me: Well, the law says you’re required to have change for a twenty. And I don’t think you deserve a 80 percent tip.
Taxi driver: I guess I do have singles.
Me: Good, now I’d like $13.90 back from this twenty. (Attempted extorsion does not get a tip.)
I mean, how low can you get? Trying to force a huge tip by pretending you don’t have change? You’re in a taxi, for goodness’ sakes, you can get to any bank in the city! (Yes, I know banks are only open during the day, but both times a driver has tryed this trick on me has been daytime. At night, most drivers know friendly coffee stands/convience stores/whatever who will happily give them change. It’s their job.)
I too spent quite a bit of time making change.
This is why we need dollar coins and two dollar bills and to get rid of the one dollar bill.
It would be much easier to keep 20 dollar coins in the till than 20 singles. The two dollar bill would keep people from getting back more than one of them in change so that should shut up the (whine)they’re too heavy in my pocket9/whine) bit. Not to mention that this would speed up transactions so the wait in line should be shorter.
Another reason cashiers don’t like dealing with large bills is because of con artists.
Back when I was a supervisor at a bagel store, I was closing with a new trainee. I was in back cleaning, when I heard the cash register ring (our drawers would buzz if they were left open for a certain amount of time). I went out to the front, and saw her trying to deal with a would-be con. He bought a $1.25 item, and handed her a $50 bill. She made the change, and after she handed it to him, he suddenly came up with the correct change, and wanted his $50 back. While conveniently keeping his $40+ in change. She was new, and easily intimidated. I told him he had been given correct change, closed the drawer, and told him to keep what he had, and that I wouldn’t open the drawer again.
Also, we opened at 6:30, and I won’t tell you how many times we had fucktards come in and buy a single bagel and pay with a $50 or a $100. We kept $120 in the drawers overnight, and since we were supposed to have at least 2 rolls of every coinage (a minimum of $35, plus whatever change there was), we didn’t have a whole lot of bills. Yes, we had a safe, but deposits were in locked bags that only the bank had keys to.
I think that’s what the gripe is. If a business cannot, or refuses, regularly to accept my cash of whatever denomination, I’ll find one that will. Does my money not say right on it “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private?” On the other hand, you could make a point of paying these bastards entirely with nickels.
Heh, we’d let people pay in all pennies if they wanted to at the gas station.
BUT you had to be willing to stand to the side and count it for us. 
The counterargument that I have seen several times on these boards is “A purchase is not a debt.”
I agree with the OP. Both times he owed about 75% of the bill he offered. That’s reasonable. A business should be able in the large majority of cases to make that change.
I dunno if many businesses would prefer credit for everything. Credit card companies get, what, 4-6% on transactions? I recall gas stations having separate cash and credit prices.
Also on ATMs - they only give 20s by me. I also wish the banks would try to use USED BILLS? I have twice received 20 consecutively numbered $20 bills. Stiff as a board, and hard to try to make sure you peel off one at a time. Take each and crumple 'em up.
Gato,
Some people have things that bother them, but it’s a little over the line to call her a cunt and a twat. I think I do know who you mean, but lately has been more an aberration than usual behavior, IMO.
There is a balance for everything, the OP is right according to his examples… Others are right when talking about paying a $2 bill with a $100 bill.
I love my debit card…
Hence my favorite currency nickname of all time: Yuppie Food Stamps.
We call them “ATM Units”
“What kind of cash do you have?”
“Just an ATM unit…”
AT which point, security would be called, you would be forced to pay for it with MANAGMENT, and asked not to come back.
That’s just being really, REALLY fucking shitty.
Oh, and if you hand me a large bill, what I DO have to do is walk over to the service counter with you and get you the change for it, then put the extra in my drawer. THAT I do not mind. BUT…do not get pissy about it.
Beeblebrox, so *you’re * the rooster dat been hangin’ round my henhouse! 
(aw, come on now, even I fail once in a while!)
lurkernomore: Nah, it ain’t them.
She told me she loved me like a brother. She’s from Arkansas, hence the Joy!