Short change scam? Or just can't count?

[bhskittykatt]

I'm not entirely sure what was happening here. I saw this at the bank today.

A woman was withdrawing about $1550 in $10 and $20 bills. I didn't quite catch the reason, but it sounded like the bills were to go into Christmas cards, which is why she needed those denominations. (That's a lot of Christmas cards!)

The teller was counting out the bills in stacks of $100, with one $50 stack. She would say "These are all $100, and this one is $50" after she counted them. The woman would then pick up the stacks, rearrange them, count them, and say it wasn't right. The teller then took all the bills, recounted them out into individual stacks, lather, rinse, repeat.

The branch manager came over to see what was going on, since she could sense the teller was having trouble with the customer. The teller filled her in, and then the branch manager picked up everything and took the customer into an office. When I left, the branch manager was still helping the customer count the bills!

From my vantage, I'm not sure if it was scammy, or just regular old sucky. I watched the teller count it out at least three times, though!

[MoonCat]

Maybe the customer couldn't keep up. Years ago I used to cash my paycheck at a customer service counter in a mall, and sometimes they would count too fast for me to count along with them. One time they shorted me a $100! Luckily when I called them, they admitted they had been $100 over in their drawer the night before, and I was able to get my money.

Sounds like the manager should have gone reaaaalllly sllloooooowwwly with her...OK, ma'am, $10 (long pause)...$20...(long pause)...$30.....etc..

[Teskeria]

What he should have done is set the stacks, then hand her one stack to count. once she counted it, hand her the next. like a little kid.

[Anakah]

I get yelled at a lot for counting too fast to the customer. Sadly though I do feel bad and try to slow down but when there's a line out to the moon and you want like 200 in fives I'm gonna count fast to get your ass out.

If something feels out of place to you more than likely it is. That's what they tell us--if we have a gut feeling something isn't right--something probably isn't.

[Argus]

From my vantage, I'm not sure if it was scammy, or just regular old sucky. I watched the teller count it out at least three times, though!

I wonder whether she had miscalculated a total before coming in, so the total she got didn't match the sum of the amounts she needed.

[Sapphire Silk]

It really doesn't matter to me. I'm going to count the money again right then and there before leaving. I can count quick, so I don't see it as a problem.

[Kristev]

Nor do I.

But I see a scammer. There is no logical reason to move and re-arrange the stacks unless you're attempting to confuse the teller. Period. Re-count the stacks, perfectly reasonable. But not move them around.