It's all I've got

[Roland]

Another customer type that's getting to me lately.
The person buying six bucks worth of stuff with a
hundred dollar bill. When I still worked 3rd shift I
would just say no.
During the day, I'd like to tell them to go to the bank.
With the low amounts I have to keep in the register
at my jobs, that's starting to annoy.

[Dreamstalker]

When I used to cashier for the morning shift I'd get these people all the time. Who walks around with a c-note (or multiples) at 7AM? ATM's don't give them out. I guess some people just have to let the peons know they make more than them.

When this happened (and I both had enough in my drawer and knew they had smaller bills because I could see them), I'd give their change in tens and smaller The cash office knew what I was doing and didn't mind making change for me later; they hated those SCs as much as anyone but didn't want to give the satisfaction of coming from the back and making change just for them.

[Roland]

Oh, if someone does that right after I've dropped fives, you'd better believe that's what they get.

[Slave to the Phone]

Does it help if the person doing it is honestly apologetic? I once had to stop at the local C store for smokes first thing in the morning and only had a fifty (long story about how that happened). I apologized several times and the clerk seemed to forgive me. I still got a bunch of ones and fives, but I didn't think I was being punished. I thought I had taken all of his change

[judecat]

Does it help if the person doing it is honestly apologetic? I once had to stop at the local C store for smokes first thing in the morning and only had a fifty (long story about how that happened). I apologized several times and the clerk seemed to forgive me. I still got a bunch of ones and fives, but I didn't think I was being punished. I thought I had taken all of his change

To me it doesn't matter how much a person apologizes. If I have to give you small bills, then it means you have taken all my change, which means that until the boss comes in I have to either get exact change from my other customers, or I have to start handing out coins. Which in my case could be hours, because I work overnight. I'm not trying to be mean, but except for rolls of coins I have no access to the safe.

[Slave to the Phone]

I didn't think that you were being mean. This happened almost 10 years ago, I have taken steps to be sure that it doesn't happen again. (Glares at sweetie who put me in that position.)

Follow up question. We have a change jar. I knew how much smokes cost. Would it have been better for me to show up with a pocket full of quarters, dimes and nickels?

When I was cashiering, I always had a safe that would allow me to get more small bills, but I hated getting handfuls of change because I would have to count it out at the end of my shift.

There is no snark intended with that question. I honestly do want to know what would have been the lesser of the two evils. The point is moot now that I've gone cashless, but sometimes things happen.

[Trixie]

Personally I hate it when people pay with change. We have managers on duty all the time so getting change isn't much of a problem. One night in the span of a few hours I had three transactions with change payers. The first two were for over $10 and the last was $8. Also had a guy pay me with a dollars worth of pennies. I made him count it out. Yeah, I'd rather have a big bill than that.

[AdamAnt316]

My job mostly entails running errands for my boss. Usually, he gives me what he thinks will be enough money for what I need to get; sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't (which means I have to pay the difference from my own wallet, and he pays me back the difference). Sometimes, though, he does the opposite, giving me way too much for the intended transactions.

A few months ago, he had me go to a FedEx Office store to make some copies and the post office to send some packages out, and gave me a C-note. At both places, I apologetically showed them the C-note, and at both places, I was told they couldn't take it. I paid from my own wallet each time, and grumbled that he might as well have given me Monopoly money. And yes, he did pay me back once I returned with the C-note and an explanation. Fortunately, he's gotten a little better about that since then...
-Adam

[Becks]

I hate hate hate hate HATE when people pay with big bills for a small purchase.
I don't know what banks THEY deal with, but the ones I've dealt with ask how I want my bills. (I tend to ask for 10s, with the occasional 20 for variety. The only times I ask for 50s or 100s is if I'm buying something big and know I'll be using them for such.)

My night job is a gas station/truck stop. For safety issues, I'm not allowed to have big bills in my drawer, meaning anytime I get anything that's a 20 or larger, it gets dropped into the safe. Yes, I have access to the safe, but I'll be damned if I will let random strangers (or my shadier regulars) know that I can get into it at 2 in the morning.

Weekends are the worst.
SC: *makes small purchase and whips out $50 or $100*
me: Do you have anything smaller?
SC: Nope.
(Lying dick biscuit. I saw the $5s and $10s you pawed through to pull out that bill.)
me: Well, I hope you like small bills, because that's all I have.
SC: You don't have any 20s?
me: Nope. Safety issue.
SC: *CBF* and angrily gathers up their small bills

You know, be glad that I didn't give you your change in singles and rolled change, ok? Because I have NO problem doing that, too.

[Roland]

Yes indeed. The small amount of cash I have to keep
in the register, plus a finite amount of change available
in the stores I work at. There are only so many of those
transactions I can do during a shift.
We are not a bank, is what I'd like to say sometimes.

[An Haddock]

Since we're a small business I get less flack if I tell someone we ran out of change.

Even so, if it's during a weekday there's no reason a customer couldn't break a $50 or a $100 in town - we have at least 5 banks in a 12 block stretch on the main road through town, one of them a block away.

[Monterey Jack]

(I tend to ask for 10s, with the occasional 20 for variety. The only times I ask for 50s or 100s is if I'm buying something big and know I'll be using them for such.)

Same here...when I'm planning on paying my rent, I'll usually ask for some fifties when I cash that week's check, just so it's easier to count out the money when I got to my landlord. Other than that, I never have anything bigger than a twenty in my wallet, and I usually break those down into fives and singles when I know I'll be using the train, to make it easier on the ticket-taker when he comes around.

[EricKei]

Personally - When I was a register jockey -- I'd rather take coins than huge bills. Well, as long as the coins weren't just dumped unceremoniously onto the counter (or worse, the conveyor belt)...Counting coins slows things down, and is an annoyance. Accepting a big bill is an annoyance, slows things down a bit as you ask for normal-sized bills, AND can easily wipe out my till for half a day with no recourse (especially overnight or on a weekend). This means not being able to help (potentially) *dozens* of other customers, all for the sake of one.

So I'd say that coins are the lesser of two evils. They don't even take all that long if the customer comes prepared, and makes at least a token attempt to sort them (e.g. handing in four or eight quarters at a time, and counting out more as I verify those, and so on).

[Roland]

Coins can be a pain. Had a customer get a pack of cigs and
at the end he slams down a bunch of change and says put
the rest on pump 7.
I told him to hold up this has to be counted. You don't get
to slam down a bunch of change and walk off.

Another one is when they ask if they can use change. As
if they expect a no. Doesn't really make sense. I'll take it.
Unless they have so much it should be in rolls. Then they
might not get the answer they expect.
I had one customer buy a couple packs of cigs and wanted
gas with the rest and he literally had almost 30 dollars worth
of change. He had no idea how much he had either.

I appreciate the customers that roll their change when they
have a whole bunch.

[Catwoman2965]

I dog and housesit for friends and they like to pay me in larger bills. Which is fine since they normally will just get deposited into my savings. I have, on occasion, paid with a $100 bill, but usually only if my total is over $50 or more. I figure this way they don't have to give me too much change back, and I can get rid of it, if I'm spending it vs. putting in the bank. And this usually is in the grocery or bullseye store, where they generally (i think) have more change than somewhere smaller.

But if I were only buying $20 or less, even if I wanted to pay cash, i'd use a card so as not tobe annoying.