Being short-changed in shops ...

shandyclover

Has happened to me. Handed over a E50 note and cashier said it was 10! I pay much more attention now and like others on here have advised I always say now 'there's 10/20/50' whatever. Means I've gotten some funny looks but that money I lost on a rare weekend away meant we had to cancel a treat planned for that day.

OH lost 100 once. In a bank he cashed a check and cashier counted it out very hurriedly shoving it at him and shouting 'next'. He's very unassuming and immediately stepped aside, to find out 3 mins later he was 100 short. He immediately went back and tried to explain and cashier insinuated he had passed it on to our 12 year old daughter who was with him at the time. I can see the banks must have that happen sometimes and have to cover their bases, but we learnt our lesson. Children don't come into the bank with us, and we DON'T BUDGE no matter how many people are hurrumping behind us until we have counted out the money ourselves at the cashier's window.

Some french friends of ours saved for a year to go to Africa to do aid work. Late at night they withdrew most of their savings from a ATM. Somehow the machine malfunctioned and only produced half the amount. It took 6 mos for them to sort out with the bank. Since then they say the same. Only withdraw from an ATM inside a bank during banking hours.

Farway

I have always prided myself on checking the receipts / change etc, and normally only pay by card, and have sometimes benefited from the £2 Asda error offer

But pride comes before a fall

And was therefore mortified, having bought some clearance offers in local Co-op, paid with cash, to suddenly realise on way home I had been charged full price for a reduced price chicken

I left it at that, too far to walk back, and put it down to experience

The following week, in same Co-op was again charged full price for a reduced price item, this time however I had learnt my lesson and queried it

It was not dishonesty, just the same new lad on the till not spotting the reduced label. Unlike some other shops such as Asda, my Co-op does not cover the bar code when reducing price, so a novice on the till just scans the original code in

I have also passed back when given too much change, but admit sometimes not pointing out the undercharging on occasions, like loose mushrooms entered as say pears, not a common occurrence, but does happen

zippychick

as this has dropped down the OS board ive moved it to shopping and groceries

Zip

McKneff

The times my receipts are wrong at Morrisons and the Coop are horrendous, at least twice a week I am querying something.

Just today in Morrisons, there are big boxes of PG Tips, on the shelf for £5.45 or so, further along on an aisle they are on special offer at £4. I picked one frome th £4 pile, got home and checked my reciept, yep, you guessed it, charged £5.45. When I went back later they said it was probably because someone had taken one from the shelf at £5.45, saw the cheaper ones on the aisle, dropped the dearer one on the pile instead of taking it back to the shelf. guess who picked it up...........

But why are they two different prices, if they are on special offer they should all be on special offer. !!!!!!.

I get too many mistakes made by the Coop to not have a receipt, dont bother if I get one or two items but over that I always get a reciept.

And having fallen for it once, I always say now 'Ive only got a £10/20 note' when I hand them over. Got done out of a fiver once.

valk_scot

I do miss the old fashioned practice of the cashier back-counting your change into your hand up to the total of what you gave them. Are cashiers not numerate enough these days, or does it take too long in a checkout queue and they're told not to? I can't remember the last time it happened in a shop, though I distinctly remember having to do it in every retail job I ever worked in. (Back in Dark Ages, admittedly.)

But yes, I do check my change. It's quite automatic for me to stand and glance at it, do the mental arithmetic (I'm fast...) but also make it quite obvious before I move away. I'll also say "Sorry, I've only got a tenner/twenty" as I hand it over, plus if I'm going to give them the odds I'll say this too, followed by "...to save your change". You do get the ocassional mystified look at this last from some of the younger cashiers, have to say! I find doing this cuts down drastically on the nuber of "mistakes" as it shows you're quite aware of what you're handing over. If I do find an error though I'll query it. I'll also hand back any over-change...the big supermarkets will discipine any cashier whose till is found short, remember, and I'd hate a nervous new cashier to lose her job just because she inadvertantly gave me an extra £5....or one too few! Pulling a cashier up on their mistakes can be educational, remember, and make them more careful.

As to dishonest cashiers the sooner they go the better tbh. I've never had the same cashier in the local supermarket short change me twice (possibly because they remember me from the last time?) but one of our local shops is notorious for it, especually with kids. I remember my 8 year old coming back purple faced with fury because he'd short changed her 50p and when she queried it, he told her she was a liar. As it happened I knew for a fact I'd given her a £2 coin so was happy to stomp down and call him out in front of a shop full of customers, with the added rider of telling him it was shameful that his arithmetic was worse than an 8 year olds when he had the cheek to try to call me a liar too. She got her 50p.

It's like everything else though...it pays to be careful. On a slightly different tack I always check my reciepts too and my current total for overcharges at Tesco this year is over £300. Naturally I always query these and get DTD back which is a handy £300 extra to me over and above the refund, but if they're doing that to every customer annually and most don't check, how much extra money is tesco getting just from that?

LilacLillie

No, but it annoys me no end that cashiers never count the change back to you like they used to, they just crumple it up with receipt and dump it in your hand. I make a point of checking it and they often roll their eyes or make some comment about a queue waiting.
LL

Middy

I have been short changed in the past. The last time I was short changed, I was expecting £7.30 and got £6.30. The girl did apologise and realised she picked up £1 coin instead of a £2.

reformedEffortmaker

A close friend of mine used to work at Barclays as a branch manager and said that till discrepencies were a regular occurance but he was surprised how many people didnt come in to query it??!!....if it wasnt claimed after a certain period of time, just ended up in the charity box:o

I have to say, I am not surprised people dont know how to count anymore, I could go for a whole week without handling cash sometimes as everything can be paid for on a card, the brain needs regular arithmetic tests to keep active, and where can you get that these days????

reformedEffortmaker

On a seperate note, I find more than getting short changed, I often seem to end up being given fake pound coins in my change or american dimes instead of 5p or jersey coins/american cents instead of 1p. Of course you never notice until you try and get rid of it at a self-serve checkout or vending machine and it wont accept it!!.
I'm convinced my local tesco's give their dodgy coins out in change on purpose to try and get rid of them!

Middy

If I see any foreign coins - that includes IOM/Gib/CI coins, there is a small section in the till to put them in. On Saturday I saw a 1961 shilling in the 10p section. I regularly see 5 euro cent coins in the 1ps.

One customer handed me an old 50p and I explained to her that I wasn't to accept it. She accused me of being a liar.