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  • Ugh! Lottery

    Let me start by saying that I really do like my job; it's a small store, most customers act as if we're old friends instead of someone there to provide a service. But then there is Lottery . . .

    Miserable Old Fart . . .

    Brings over a dozen scratch offs to my counter to be checked. I get them all done and tell him that seven are good for free one dollar tickets, and the rest for $20 cash.

    MOF: "Now how does that work out? It should be $27."

    Me: "Some of them are good for cash, but these seven can only be used to redeem another one dollar ticket."

    MOF: "And what if'n I don't want a ticket, then what are you going to do?! I've never had this problem before. Why can't I just have the cash?"

    This conversation was no less stale the third time we had it than it was the first. I spotted K, one of our managers, and asked her to come and help me out. She explains to him that Florida law states that you can only use a ticket that says it's good for a ticket for, guess what, ANOTHER TICKET. He argues with her some more about it being the same value, and why can't he just have cash. She is in the middle of explaining this to him yet again, when he decides to change his tune altogether and looks at me like I'm the idiot.

    MOF: "I don't see what the problem is, that's 27, and this is 28, 29, 50, 60", all as he's laying cash on the counter. "I want sixty tickets."

    K:

    Me: *thinking* Oh, no he didn't . . .

    K and I managed what sounded like a sincere apology for the misunderstanding, and I spent a few minutes pulling sixty scratch off tickets from the roll, which apparently took too long because he kept asking me what the problem was. However, as I was doing this, J, the lead front end manager walks by, and he stops her.

    MOF: "Hey, how's come I can't get cash for a these tickets? I've never had this problem before!"

    J: "Well, that's because you usually always get more tickets anyways. "

    MOF: "Well I still don't see what the problem is. $27 is $27 . . ."

    Stupid idiot muttered about this the whole way out. I hope when I'm old I have better things to do than harass people selling lottery tickets.

    Oh, Sugar!

    Old lady comes to the service desk with a few items to be checked out, and one of them is a small bag of sugar that has been taped back closed. She said she got it out of the reduced bin and "I thought maybe you could tell me how much it costs, cause there ain't no price on it."

    (Because cashiers and service desk clerks know how much EVERYTHING is, right? )

    I'm waiting for a reply from the person in charge of pricing that sort of thing, and the lady says "If it's more than a dollar, they can keep it!" I refrain from rolling my eyes.

    They get back to me, and I inform her that it's 99 cents.

    OL: "That's 'reduced'?! It ain't even that big, it can't cost much more than a dollar anyways, no keep it!"

    She then proceeds to hand me a damn $100 bill for her purchases that didn't even come to five dollars, and bemoans the fact that that bill has got to last her for two weeks and how expensive everything is. I'm about ready to give her her receipt and send her on her merry way, when she hands me a dollar and asks for a scratch off ticket.

    Since she threw such a conniption about spending a dollar on SUGAR, a staple, and how supposedly 'poor' she was, it burned me up that she would be tossing money on Lotto after all that. I mean, if I were on a budget, 'just a dollar' or not, I don't think I'd be gambling.

    I don't ask questions to hear myself talk, you know.

    The lotto machine goes down. It happens.

    *Lady walks up to counter*

    L: I need Lotto.

    Me: "You want to buy some or do you need tickets check --"

    L: *looks at me like I'm stupid* LOTTO! *waves yesterdays tickets around*

    Me: Our Lotto is down right now, that's why I asked you. I can get you scratch offs, but I can't check those right now. But if you like, the one in the liquor store next door is still wor --"

    L: UGH! *walks away*

    That's right, I predicted that you would come in and need those checked, [i]more so[/] than the other customers I've turned away who were understanding and just went to the liquor store, and I personally crashed the Lotto machine myself.

    *sighs*

    And then there are the times when you're really busy, trying to do returns, Western Unions and such, and the same person keeps coming back over and over again, to buy more scratch offs, or play more numbers, or have me check the twenty that I just sold you. Sometimes I wish I could just . . .
    The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

  • #2
    One of my employers paid me in winning lotto tickets once.
    Check out my cosplay social group!
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    • #3
      Quoth Gabrielle Proctor View Post
      One of my employers paid me in winning lotto tickets once.
      Is that legal?

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      • #4
        Quoth CanadaGirl View Post
        Is that legal?
        I don't think so....?
        Military Spouse Support.
        http://www.customerssuck.com/board/group.php?groupid=45
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        • #5
          Oh God, lottery customers can be the worst pain in the ass. Not all of them are bad, but a majority of them are bigger pains than they're worth.

          I really love the ones who complain that they never win. I'm not that sympathetic toward them. My philosophy is that you only have yourself to blame for being so foolish as to believe that you're going to come out ahead in the game of gambling by blowing such a sizeable chunk of your money on it. We have this one cranky old fart who has a buttload of money and blows a huge chunk of it every day on lottery. He's retired, and all he does all day is go from one store to another playing lottery, or so he tells us. Usually, I just make some wisecrack about how lottery is gambling not a retirement plan when he gets to moaning and groaning about his losses for the day. Go find somewhere else to hover ya crochety old buzzard!!!

          Then, we have this one who wants to play 20 questions about what number each ticket is on, and which ones have been hitting. I don't play except once in a blue moon, so I don't pay attention. More importantly, I'm not winning anything out of it, so I don't give a crap. I simply started ringing up the tickets and throwing them on the counter as soon as he asks about them. He seems to find that off putting for some reason, and has stopped wasting my time with so many stupid questions.

          Another annoying group are the ones who bring in a huge stack of tickets to check. They always seem to wait until I'm busy and running shift by myself. Most of them will wait until a lull in customer chaos, so I'll check a few for them between customers and cash out their winnings when another customer comes to check out. Most of them seem to understand my position at such times.

          However, we had this one extremely rude, pushy bitch who had a bad habit of bringing in huge stacks of lottery tickets to check. She always had to fuss about something every visit. We'd locked horns on several different occasions over her attitude and the fact that I'm not afraid to give back a dose of my own bad attitude. So, this one Saturday night, I was running a shift by myself. It was busy. She brings in what must have been 40-50 scratch-offs. There was a line behind her. She wasn't buying anything else. I told her I don't have time for that right now. Naturally, she threw a hissy, and insisted that she was in a hurry. She really threw a hissy when I pointed out that she really doesn't have time to be checking lottery tickets if she's in such a hurry. She could just be on her way much faster by agreeing that I'm right rather than trying to argue with me. The moral of the story is that I had no intention of fiddling with a stack of lottery tickets when I had a line of other customers waiting to go. I'm running the store, and so I win.
          The Borg wouldn't know fun if they assimilated an amusement park. -- B'Elanna Torres, Star Trek: Voyager

          Math! Math, my dear boy, is but the lesbian sister of Biology. -- Peter Griffin, Family Guy

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          • #6
            Quoth LadyBarbossa View Post
            And then there are the times when you're really busy, trying to do returns, Western Unions and such, and the same person keeps coming back over and over again, to buy more scratch offs
            HATE. That. If you play $20 in scratch-offs and even get $5 back, go! Count yourself lucky and go! Don't keep going back and forth until it's all gone! What's the point then?

            And then, as has been said, the ones that tell you how much they lost any given time. I can't bring myself to say anything usually, because my only two thoughts are ever, "I don't care," or, "GET HELP. Lotto still counts as a gambling problem."

            The only good thing is that people buying lotto tickets are generally happy at the time. They're getting their fix, after all.

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            • #7
              I don't understand why anyone would buy tons at a time. As has been said, if you're spending lots on it every week, it;s still a gambling problem. Now, If I have a spare £1, and I happen to be passing I might risk it, or the boy will now and again buy a scratch card. If we win anything on them- at all, we're happy, and figure we beat the odds. If we didn't- ah well, it's gambling after all.

              Some people can be really, really odd about stuff like this.
              Deepak Chopra says, "Fear deprives people of choice. Fear shrinks the world into isolated, defensive enclaves. Fear spirals out of control. Fear makes everyday life seem clouded over with danger.

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              • #8
                I like playing the lottery. I only play $1 a week, not every week, just if I happened to be in the store because its a cheap thrill. But I check my own ticket, and I don't complain to the cashiers how I never win. I win once in a while. One time I won $100 so I got my money back that I ever put into it.

                What gets me is people think i am crazy for paying $1 for a lottery ticket that I know that I will not win, but oh well, are the same people who spend $20 a week on cigrattes. Not really sure the logic behind that.

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                • #9
                  What I always thought was funny was our white trash clientel would rip on the old people who played lotto......

                  "Good to know our social security is going somewhere, huh?" they'd say to me, hoping I'd agree. I'd think to myself "Good to know my tax dollars just bought you a carton of smokes and a 30 pack of Bud"

                  That does irritate me the way old people are addicted to lottery tickets. But hell, it probably saves them from watching Jeopardy and eating Spaghettios every day.
                  You really need to see a neurologist. - Wagegoth

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                  • #10
                    The only time I ever buy a lottery ticket is when the PowerBall gets up to some obscene amount. But I forgot to get one for last Saturdays.

                    Quoth blas87 View Post
                    But hell, it probably saves them from watching Jeopardy and eating Spaghettios every day.
                    Hey there! I watch "Jeopardy" and eat Spaghettios (not every day, though). What, are you trying to call me old you young whippersnapper you?
                    It's floating wicker propelled by fire!

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                    • #11
                      The only upside to doing lottery, is that on the rare occasion when people do end up bringing a ticket worth $500 to cash in, there's a good chance that they're feeling generous

                      People at my store have been tipped anywhere from $5-$50 just for being the cashier to cash out the ticket. And yes, management is aware of this, and they just simply shrug and tell us to keep it.
                      The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

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                      • #12
                        I hardly buy lottery tickets unless it's a huge jackpot or something. I've hit it kind of big one time, when I got four numbers and was $67 richer for it. But, I never get nasty or ugly about it. To me, it's all in fun as long as you don't make a bad habit of blowing your life savings trying to hit it big. When I buy my occasional tickets, I normally buy only $10 or $20 worth, not these huge fat stacks of them I've seen others buy. In Florida, we do not have the Power Ball, and I do not plunk down hard earned money to fly to Georgia so I can waste five minutes buying my most likely to lose tickets.

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                        • #13
                          one of my first retail jobs was a store that sold lotto. There were lazy, nasty coworkers with seniority that would leave me alone up front for my entire shift to run two registers as well as the lotto machine. Hated that place. The only thing I liked about that job was wrapping things up for people to give as presents... "She's never gonna believe I wrapped this myself".... of course, if they were mean to me I'd leave the price tag on....

                          The regulars learned not to whine at me about not winning. "If I had the money to waste on gambling and cigs, I'd just put it in a high yield savings account or IRA.... must be nice to have so much money to waste. "
                          Everything sucks. I must be living in a vacuum.

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