I know it's just two cents, but it's MY FUCKING CHANGE

The BBQ Pit
41

Okay, help. If it’s not that big a deal, and everybody makes mistakes, and nobody is perfect, and blah blah blah friggady blah, how is his asking for his change back going to get her in trouble? If the customer gets irate, sure. If the entire exchange is handled in a calm, courteous, and professional manner, what is the big fucking deal? Is her boss going to bawl her out for :gasp: **TWO MEASLY FRICKING CENTS ** (why, it’s “not even money!”)? Sure it slows down the line, but for how long? Twenty, thirty seconds? And everyone’s telling KneadToKnow to calm down?

Sure, her boss could be a sadistic mega-prick who took her out back and beat her black and blue (or at least yelled at her and made her upset). So should we not expect a minimum level of customer service from people who are * paid to provide it * because their supervisor might get pissed?

42

pldennison: Good point. Consider that scrap of ignorance soundly defeated. :slight_smile: Those Europeans did indeed introduce a coin currently worth less than one penny.

For completeness, I will note that their lowest bill is of the 5 Euro variety.

43

Myrnalene nailed this right on the bullseye.

In the OP the cashier writes “I was angry.” Everybody in the anti-KtK camp is buying into his/her anger. Why? Anger is not an appropriate reaction in this scenerio (which is why, incidentally, I even have a problem with the cashier bitching about KtK in the employee lounge after his/her shift).

Look, KtK came to the store to transact his business. Presumably he was not disruptive, unreasonable or impolite; he paid with good money; he noticed a mistake and pointed it out in a polite manner. The mistake should be corrected in good humor and the cashier should move on to the next customer with no hard feelings. Where does the anger fit into the equation?

As a customer, it’s not my job to safeguard the staff (or their feelings) or to manage the store. It’s my job to reasonably and honestly transact BUSINESS with the store; it’s their job to reasonably and honestly transact BUSINESS with me. By shortchanging customers (yes, for only 2 cents) the store is not living up to its end of the deal. And when someone points it out to them they should not get angry. In fact they should apologize.

44

Sorry about that Guinastasia. This is only my second Pit thread, and I’m still learning. I put it here basically because I specifically wanted to say “fuck” a couple of times. :slight_smile:

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

Anyway, for those who are concerned about my well being with all of this, please let me assure you. My own turbulent feelings about the situation pretty much settled down once I figured out how to make an amusing post out of it all.

Good point. But, yes, I think that everybody ought to be held to being responsible for doing their jobs. People who work in fast food places have lower responsibility, so yes, it is fair to assume that they have lower ability. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold them accountable for doing their little part to keep the world going round. IMHO.

45

The above sequence of quotes is not intended to suggest that Guinastasia said the second quote. Giraffe did. I just cut and pasted it. If any confusion results, please forgive me.

46

I doubt the cashier got into trouble, and if she had, it should’ve be for her attitude as it is as much a part of her job to be polite with customers whatever the situation, as much as giving change is.

I understand why the OP was annoyed. I understand it is frustrating, that it is his money no matter the amount. What I take HUGE offense to is the assumptions made in the OP that because this person short-changed him two cents, it indicates that she is incompetant, working an easy job where mistakes should never be made, stupid/ignorant/uneducated… you measure her competance on one mistake and think it’s fair to assume she has lower ability? That’s a big jump to be making there. And says a lot about your opinion of service workers which is what I am taking offense to.

I doubt she was angry. She was probably embarrassed at being caught out on a mistake, in her shitty job, which she probably hates, so got annoyed and :gasp: dared to get short with :bigger gasp: a customer? Yeah, string her up, the world’s better off with people like her, let’s make an example. Big fucking :rolleyes: right here. Chill the fuck out, be a little tolerant and move on, it really does make for a nicer society to live in for everyone, including the OP. Ask for your change as yes, it is yours, but at least make some attempt at empathy when she’s a little off. Why? Because it is the nice, respectful, adult thing to do. If she’d not probably had an entire shift already of people treating her like she must be an imbecile to have to work that job in the first place, she could’ve just laughed it off, apologised profusely, and sent him on his way with a smile. KneadToKnow was polite to her as far as we know, and I applaud him for that, and would’ve thought him the bigger person for it if it wasn’t for the tone of the OP. It is the OP which offends me, not his actions in the situation.

Wow. What a lovely way to act toward your fellow man. Nice.

47

For all the folks saying that “a penny isn’t real currency”: Be aware that a college student in Chicago financed his education by asking people to give him a single penny. He got a Chicago columnist to write about him (in the Tribune, I think), and wound up collecting more than $28,000 from people … all because he asked for a penny.

And before you cry “BS!”, here’s the link from snopes.

For the most part, I agree with the OP. It’s not really the same situation, but it reminds me of the waitperson who says “Do you want your change?” in a sit-down restaurant. You bet your sweet bippy I want my change. Don’t assume that you’re getting all of it as a tip. You probably will, but the assumption is rude.

48

I was a waitress for several years so I always start a meal planning on tipping at least 20%. I feel that I have a good understanding of what a good server should do or not do and what “mistakes” are actually their fault or out of their control so it takes quite a bit for me to start reducing a tip.

The moment the server says to me “Do you want your change?” they are getting their tip reduced, and usually below 15%. Yes, tipping is SOP, but one should never ask for a tip, and that’s what the question does. It’s beyond rude. The proper way to do this is to say, “I’ll be right back with your change.” This gives the customer a chance to say that they don’t need any back.

49

Wow. You seem to be a bit…contradictory.

50

Sauron: a penny isn’t real currency. I say this because a single penny is of too little value. Of course if you get enough of anything, it can add up to a significant amount of money. (Hackers used to take money from banks by shaving off the extra decimal places from millions of transactions.) However, the same argument can be made to reinstate the half-penny (which used to be a coin). Why not have a 0.1 penny coin? Just collect a thousand of them, and you’ve got yourself a crisp dollar bill! There is a threshold at which it’s not worth the costs of making and distributing these coins, and we’re way past it.

As for the OP, I think most of the criticism is due to the rant itself, not due to his behavior in the situation. The transaction itself would have just made me roll my eyes, and understand why the girl gave him a look at being made to reopen her register for just two cents. Not because it’s not her job, or because he was a jerk, but because of the triviality of the request. The fact that he needed to open a pit thread and call her names over the incident is really the lameness that has led to mockery by myself and others.

That said, KtK has been good natured in the face of said mockery, and handled the thread well, I think, so I’ll stop bitching at him.

51

Originally posted by Giraffe

Tell you what. Since you don’t think a penny is “real” currency, you obviously don’t spend them. Send me all the pennies you collect during each month for a year. Don’t throw them away, don’t spend them anywhere – send them to me. I think you’ll be amazed how much money you can collect in a year by keeping pennies.

Cecil once answered a question regarding picking up a penny if you see it on the sidewalk – the questioner wanted to know if it was worth the effort. Cecil calculated that one could make an hourly wage of around $7.50 by picking up pennies. Not enough to retire on, but nothing to sneeze at.

Conversely, though, Cecil has also concluded that minting pennies doesn’t do us a whole lot of good; see his column here.

52

Sauron, you’re welcome to every penny I receive. Granted, I have no interest in carrying, collecting or transporting them, but if you want to follow me around, every time I get a penny, I’ll hand it to you. :slight_smile:

53

I’ll do that if you promise to hand it to me using your 18-inch, prehensile tongue.

54

This “trend” will probably end when rude, fat-assed morons quit expecting underpaid, overworked–EXPLOITED–people in customer service to provide fast, courteous, efficient service, while receiving next to nothing in wages and being expected to take more or less unlimited abuse from the public just so the aforementioned rude, fat-assed morons can get their bacon double cheeseburgers a little faster and a little cheaper. I’ve done customer service–though thankfully not in a fast food setting–and it is an undeniable scientific fact that CUSTOMERS ARE CRETINOUS ASSHOLES.

55

That’s right, LP! The masses will arise! We will have a glorious revolution! All hail the downtrodden, the exploited, the workers who can’t do their job correctly! In the sweat of their brow will we find redemption! In the seat of their pants will we find dingleberries!

I’ve done customer service, too. In my experience, 95 percent of the time customers will mirror the attitude they see on the other side of the counter. So – you willing to take a look in that mirror?

56

Okay, so I exaggerated just a wee bit–but I’m surprised nobody’s demanded a cite yet …

I’d say probably 98% of the public I dealt with while working customer service were perfectly patient and courteous even when problems (sometimes quite aggravating ones) popped up. The catch is that sooner or later you have deal with one of that other 2% who seem to think the only reason you’re standing behind that counter is to serve as a verbal punching bag for them. It doesn’t take a lot of that to poison your attitude about customer service. I mean, come on, this is one of the reasons these kinds of jobs are generally considered presitigious and glamorous … as well as one of the reasons that the burnout and turnover rates tend to be so high …

57

Ummm–that should have read “are not generally considered prestigious and glamorous…”

58

I do NOT condone the cashier’s attitude. I’m just saying I don’t think two cents is a big deal, that’s all.

Of course, it all depends on how the question was asked.

If someone said, “Oh wait-you forgot my change-it’s just two cents, but I try to keep my change handy, just in case.” Said with a smile, I’ll smile and say, here ya go.

If you come up and say, “You didn’t give me my change! I get two cents!” I’ll give it to you, but beneath my teeth gritting smile, I’m thinking extremely murderous thoughts.

I have to say, the majority of customers I run into are polite-but it’s the assholes I remember.

I had this girl yesterday get all huffy when I wouldn’t sell her cigarettes without an id. She was there doing inventory for Kmart. She was like, “But I’m WORKING here!” Well, you should know the rules, bitch.

Then, she said to her friend, “Well, I guess next time I’ll bring my fake id in…”
I looked up, incredulous and said, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

She got all snotty and said, “Well, I’ll just buy them somewhere else.” With this look on her face like, you’re losing business!

I said, “Good, you do that.”

Um, hello? My manager is standing right there, shit for brains! What, did they bleach your brains when they bleached your hair? I lose your sale-big deal! If I sold you sigs with my boss standing there, I’d lose my job!

I wasn’t really pissed, so much as amused at how stupid people can be. D’uh!

59

I went to Burger King tonight, and my total came to 5.96. I gavehim 6.01, so I could get a nickel back. He shut the window without giving me anything. I was mentally preparing my counter-rant for this thread. It was quite impressive, if I do say so myself.
And then he opened the window to give me my food, and gave me a dime.

Damn. I was looking forward to my rant.

60

Oh, I didn’t even mention going to Wendy’s a couple of weeks ago, when the total for my food was something like $8.96. I gave the lady behind the register a twenty and six cents (or whatever it would have taken to just get back a single coin in change – it was several days ago, and my memory isn’t great, so sue me). She rang it up, and the register showed me getting back $2,002.96. (I DO remember that.) Coins showered out of that automatic dispenser that Wendy’s uses on their registers. The church youth group in the line behind me started murmuring to themselves (“What did that guy BUY?” “Man, I want to be his kid!”). It took five minutes and two assistant managers to get the situation straightened out.