I want my pennies! Seriously: my b/f used to throw his in the garbage until I made him give them to me. I have about three pint jars full, and will keep saving them until the day I’m desperately broke and need them. They add up, just like anything else!
ABOLISH THE PENNY!
Whenever I’m in a gas station or “convience”:rolleyes: store, and my change is less than a nickel, I always end up having to ask for it. This really pisses me off. Then, after asking for it, I get “You want your change?” Grrrrr!:mad: One time I got:
“I was just going to put it in the dish” [the take a penny/leave a penny dish].
:mad: You were going to put MY fucking money in that dish without even asking me? I oughta shove your Green Card up your ass! i don’t care if it’s only a penny! I put them in a jar and, after a while, cash them in. It’s usually enough to buy a case of beer with!
I never take nor leave a penny! That dish is a device of socialism! it’s part of a commie plot for redistribution of the wealth!
Now give me my fucking change!
He He! That sounds like something Dale would sale on King of the Hill.
My unusual choice for the narrative style of the OP did give me second thoughts, Enderw24, but when voguevixen proved that the real problem was discernable, I stopped worrying. It’s not about the change. It’s about the principle of doing your job.
I do appreciate your kindly-worded response, though. 
pkbites, I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of that line, I tell ya whut.
So KneadToKnow, um, penny for your thoughts?
[sub]Sorry, I guess I just had to add my two cents. [/sub]
I wondered how long that would take.
I think we should do away with pennies. For most people, they serve no purpose except to avoid getting more pennies. So people horde them until they have a reasonable number to make it worth changing them in, which costs the U.S. Mint money as they have to keep making more. (I learned this on a tour of the U.S. Mint.) If they just round off to the nearest nickel, it will average out and you will have no less money than you would have otherwise.
I also think that getting upset over $0.02 is pretty damn lame. Principle schminciple. It’s two friggin’ cents.
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In any other developed country, the penny (and the one dollar bill) would have been retired long ago. But US Americans are cranky. I mean populist. I mean democratic.
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At my local office supply store [sub]Office Max, btw[/sub], I have twice bought items that were mismarked by about 20 - 40 cents. It took about 10 minutes to straighten out, which probably was a waste of my time.
I’m still not sure how much trouble I should go to for .02 / .20 / .40 cents.
Maybe a few months at Fark have mellowed me out or something, but Jesus H. Christ, people, calm down. It’s two fucking cents. No one needs to have their green cards shoved up their ass for two lousy cents. I leave piddly cents in the penny jar, myself. Though I guess that makes me a communist or something.
And me, personally, I can’t wait to break twenties, because so many places these days don’t want to take them. The Subways around here all have signs saying “$1, $5 or $10s, please!,” and the lady at KFC had to go to some other register to change it and yelled at a guy trying to pay for lunch with a $20. I save all of my change in a jar, and once every 6 months or so, take it to CoinStar at the supermarket and get a nice, $50 or so treat. And I save myself from the stress of using math skills I don’t have to count exact change. (There’s a reason why journalists don’t go into retail.)
It is this tone which I have a problem with. You’re choosing to get on your high horse about two cents, because somebody made a mistake, one which was not in your favour I might add - people seldom rant so eloquently when they do well out of a cashier’s error. Staff make misakes. Worse, staff make stupid mistakes that can be avoided, with care. But, under pressure, stress, whatever, people fuck up. If you can reassure me that you have never made a single mistake at your place of work, or that nothing has ever slipped your mind, then I’ll accept your OP as reasonable (and feel fairly sorry that you will probably find yourself let down by human fallibility the rest of your life). Until then, to me it just reads as snotty, arrogant, intolerant and petty. It all comes down to a ‘Casting the first stone’ principle.
Sorry, this response is not kindly-worded, and I may be taking out a lot of my own frustration with a certain type of customer on you. Which is also the reason I am going back to a nice, boring, easy office job next week (whoo!). But before you decide to judge somebody’s ability to do their job solely on the evidence of one (miniscule) mistake, I’d thoroughly check that your own career history is shiny-white and unblemished beforehand.
If I had been due 7 cents change and she had given me 5 cents, it would have been a different issue.
I was due 2 cents change … let’s simplify this, so as to eliminate all this it’s-just-2-cents-get-over-it talk … I was due change and I was not given any. None. She didn’t err in the amount of change she gave me back; she completely neglected to give me any. I realize I said in the OP that she should learn to count, and that may have confused some of you. But I have said repeatedly throughout the thread (and in the thread title) that the problem isn’t the amount of change, it’s that it is my money, it is her job to give it back to me, and she chose to act like I was putting her out by actually expecting her to do her job.
And for the record, Potter, I agree with your statement that “people seldom rant so eloquently when they do well out of a cashier’s error,” but I happen to be exactly the kind of person who gives back extra change I am given. And thanks for the “eloquent.”
I ain’t with you here, KtK. Her job may be to take your order, give you food, and give you change. But they don’t pay her enough to be polite. And if she were smart and attentive to detail and ambitious, do you really think she’d be working at a drive-through window?
You’re getting your nasty biscuit for cheap because they’re paying her shitty wages. You want service, you want intelligence, you want friendliness, go to a real restaurant. But don’t expect salaried-manners from a minimum-wage worker.
As for the principle of the situation: what principle, exactly, is worth defending here? Consider how unhappy the situation made you. Would you have been willing to pay $0.02 to avoid that stress and frustration and resentment?
Apparently not. Me, I’m pretty willing to forgo the occasional penny, nickel, and even quarter if it means that my day is less stressful for doing so. It’s certainly not unethical for me to do so; no principle of mine is violated.
Finally, her nasty look was probably not directed so much at KneadtoKnow as it was directed at Line of Demanding Customers, Plus My Damn Manager Who’s Been Hanging Over My Shoulder All Morning And Who Is Burning My Butt. When things get stressful, people take it out on convenient targets often. It’s not worth taking a nasty look from a stranger personally.
Daniel
Ain’t it the truth. There’s a Target right around the corner from where I work, and it’s all black and blue from the abuse it gets.
Serves ‘em right. What kind of moron puts up a store in an urban area with a giant freakin’ BULLSEYE out front?
Nope, I’m still not getting it. You’re primarily upset because she skipped a step in her job duties? It’s not that this step-skipping resulted in any actual harm to you (in that you can afford to let those two pennies go), it’s the idea that a worker would perform their duties at a sub-standard level that outrages you? And you eat at fast food places…why?
She forgot your two pennies? Yes, she made a mistake – let it fucking go! She gave you a dirty look when you asked for two measly pennies? I’m certain it was precisely because you made her manager reopen her register and hold up customers so you could have two cents. The amount of money involved is relevant here. Two cents is nothing. It’s not even money, in my opinion. If someone makes a mistake that doesn’t affect you, just let it go. It makes for a much more pleasant society.
Personally, I think people who act like petty tyrants to fast food employees, waitresses and retail workers ought to be sterilized. (If you weren’t a jerk to the person in the OP, KtK, then this doesn’t apply to you.) Those are shitty, difficult jobs and pay next to nothing. Those employees deserve patience, not abuse, when they don’t serve you as perfectly as they could.
Actually, it is part of her job to be polite, or at least not to be impolite. Sure it’s shit work and she’s underpaid - that’s her problem. Everybody’s railing on KneadToKnow for making a big deal out of two cents. All he did was ask her nicely to fulfill part of her job requirements. There was no reason for her to get upset, even if her boss was right there. I’m sure it happens all the time, right? Okay then, give the guy his change and move on. Oh, it’s a pain to open the register again? So what? She made a mistake the first time and they had to rectify it. The world will continue to spin. She didn’t even have to apologize, all she had to do was not be a bitch.
If it had been me, I would have called her on her nasty attitude right in front of her supervisor. Give her something to really complain about. I also hate it when people are rude to service professionals, but KneadToKnow wasn’t. He was PERFECTLY REASONABLE AND POLITE (at least according to the OP ;)).
Okay, the girl fucked up?
Yes
KneadstoKnow had a right to ask for his change?
Yes
Should he have bothered them over two cents?
In my opinion, no.
Was this worth a Pit Rant?
No, no and HELL NO!
Good god, it’s two cents! She made a mistake! HEAVEN FORBID!
And don’t tell me it’s the “principle”. The principle is, you probably got her in trouble over two cents.
If it were me, I’d pull the two cents out of my wallet and give it to you. But that’s me.
Just remember the next time you make a mistake.
Well, except for, you know, every single country that converted to Euros this year. The Euro coins come in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents as well as 1 and 2 Euros. That’s 8 coins in regular circulation, whereas on a regular basis Americans can expect to see 4 coins – pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters – with half-dollar and dollar coins fairly rare.
And as soon as this modern trend of “customer service people don’t have to be polite or do their jobs well” bullshit ends, it won’t be a moment too soon.
Guin:
Um, isn’t this just a little bit ironic?
What does customers suck have to do with this?
I don’t have a problem with people making mistakes-I have a problem with people making mountains out of molehills.