wrong change given to me

hopeneeded

hi I had a incident and would like some opinions,

I study at the University of Manchester and often get a breakfast on campus on a 'food on campus' cafe.

Yesterday at 9.30 am I got a breakfast deal at £1.99 but the cashier tilled up £.19. She corrected the til to £1.99 and I handed a £10 note over. But she only gave £3.01 in change. I told her the change was £5 light to be rebuffed saying I had only have her a £5 note in the first place.

I told her I just came from the cashpoint and only had tenners on me with her response being that she would not check her till as she was 'adamant' (her words) it was just a fiver. Even the student next to be telling her it was a tenner was just dismissed.She refused to check the til as she felt their was no need and was under no obligation to do so. I pursued but her only reply was they would check on cashing up that night (8.5 hours later!) and I could only leave my name and number and I would get a call this morning (which I have no recieved).

I have emailed the food supplier last night but no reply, I rang them but no answer.

Would ought I to do? It is just a fiver but I feeling totally annoyed and thoroughly embarrassed yesterday.

QfanatiQ

Who it is run by (and as you are sure) ask them to check the till's tally for the end of the day (in writing)

I hope it does not happen again. But if it does, get a manager involved there and then. It might have been the case she could have moved to another Till and that one taken away right way.

zenmaster

It should have been checked there and then.

All she has to do is remove a fiver and stick it in her pocket then, as if by magic, the till will balance.

BettyAngel_2

I work in a shop and if this were ever to happen it is our procedure to close the till then and there and count the money to see if it tallies correctly. We do this to protect the shop from losing money in case people are trying to pull a fast one! I'm not sure if this is standard procedure across retail places but I think it is really the only logical thing to do in these situations.

I would go back to the food outlet on your campus and ask to speak face to face with a manager about the situation. I think that if you are shown to be persistent then the manager may believe you but as zenmaster said she may have been sneaky and pocketed the £5!

I think most universities have independent advice centres that deal with a whole range of student queries/questions and can offer free advice. Might be worth running it all past them too if you don't get anywhere with the manager.

I hope you get somewhere with this though! Good Luck!

paddyrg

Follow it up with the management. A busy cafe will not close a till and count everything on the spot for everyone who claims wrong change, the queues would be enormous and the inconvenience immeasurable. Just ask nicely, by letter, if you can have your £5 back, giving details of the date, time and location (ie which till) of the underpayment, and ideally the server's name too. Say you agreed to follow it up after they cashed up at the end of the night as it would clearly have caused them problems to do so at that moment, and this is you doing so.

I doubt it was deliberate, if you've ever worked a till/bar/cafe etc you will see how often people claim to give you one note when they give you another. The way to counter it is when handing it over, saying 'here's a tenner', or 'sorry, I've only got a tenner', or 'can you change a tenner', etc. Just draw subtle attention to it. Similarly as a server, state the note value to the customer as they pay - simply 'that's £5, so your change is...', or whatever. Very simple action and it stops all the palaver of who's right and who isn't.

esuhl

hopeneeded wrote: »

Would ought I to do? It is just a fiver but I feeling totally annoyed and thoroughly embarrassed yesterday.

She has effectively stolen £5 from you. I would have phoned the police immediately to report the crime and refused to let the cashier serve anyone else until the issue had been resolved.

I know some people on this site can be quite submissive and compliant when it comes to dealing with companies as opposed to individuals, so I'm sure they will think this is an over-reaction, but what would they have done if you had tried to shoplift £5-worth of goods? Would they have allowed you to leave the premises, check your pockets later that day and have trusted you to get back to them if you found the goods?

For all you know, the cashier could have done this intentionally, knowing that students are an easy target.

paddyrg wrote: »

A busy cafe will not close a till and count everything on the spot for everyone who claims wrong change, the queues would be enormous and the inconvenience immeasurable.

I would expect this to be done immediately, otherwise you are in danger of having the "evidence" destroyed. Such inconveniences are just part of the running costs of such a business. If the company wants to avoid such problems, installing CCTV at the tills should allow for an easy way for such situations to be resolved expediently.

vikingaero

hopeneeded wrote: »

Would ought I to do? It is just a fiver but I feeling totally annoyed and thoroughly embarrassed yesterday.

Firstly, don't worry about the embarrassment. It's not you that has caused the problem. Be assertive and tell the firm what you want. If the cashier didn't want to check the till then you should have asked for her manager/supervisor. If you know the other student who witnessed it then tell the manager that you have their name.

Secondly, I imagine you still want to eat at the Food at Campus place for reasons of cost/convenience etc. Next time when you hand over a note say: "Here's £5/10/20" to reinforce the amount you have handed over.

I used to buy drinks from a branch of Costa, until the server decided to scam me a couple of times. I couldn't prove anything so I've stopped going there and my friends are wary of the server too.

F_T_Buyer

This happened to me in a club, short changed £10. Nothing I could do, as he just continued to serve others. I should have followed it up, but didn't.

texranger

paddyrg wrote: »

Follow it up with the management. A busy cafe will not close a till and count everything on the spot for everyone who claims wrong change, the queues would be enormous and the inconvenience immeasurable. Just ask nicely, by letter, if you can have your £5 back, giving details of the date, time and location (ie which till) of the underpayment, and ideally the server's name too. Say you agreed to follow it up after they cashed up at the end of the night as it would clearly have caused them problems to do so at that moment, and this is you doing so.

I doubt it was deliberate, if you've ever worked a till/bar/cafe etc you will see how often people claim to give you one note when they give you another. The way to counter it is when handing it over, saying 'here's a tenner', or 'sorry, I've only got a tenner', or 'can you change a tenner', etc. Just draw subtle attention to it. Similarly as a server, state the note value to the customer as they pay - simply 'that's £5, so your change is...', or whatever. Very simple action and it stops all the palaver of who's right and who isn't.

in my store we have a clip on the till so if someone gives a note this is placed in this clip util the customer has their change, this way if they say they gave a tenner when they gave a fiver then the note is still in the clip to prove that they gave.

you will be surprised at how many try and say they gave a tenner when they gave a fiver and then go all red when you prove that they never and for some reason they never return to your shop

charlieann

I had simular thing happen in train station cafe. needed change for connecting bus so handed over a tenner and got change for a fiver.
sales assistant was adiment it was a fiver as he had rung it up as that and put it in the fiver section. he had no access to open tills. i kicked up a fuss demanding to speak to manager.
the manager was not helpful to begin with and the response was he would need to close down the till and count up money which could take over an hour if i wanted to wait. i assumed he thought we were in a hurry and would leave it at that. told him to go ahead and i would wait with which he didnt seemed pleased with.
as soon as the till was opened the sales assistant noticed the tenner in the fiver draw. he realised his mistake and told his manager we were right and tried to give us the rest of our change, to which the manager questioned him if he was sure before begrudgingly gave us the rest of our money.

im not sure if there is much you can do now you have left, but should it happen again refuse to leave until you have spoken to a manager. it may be worth going back in and speaking to a manager asking if they had been made aware of the incident and if they had extra in their tills that day.