You still owe me three cents. Pony up.

[Shalom]

My pharmacy has one particular patient, a senior citizen, who is often a pain in my tuchus. That's OK, old people often are. But then he pulls stuff like this:

He came for his prescriptions and some other stuff. Total came up to $20.03.

He throws down a $20 and looks expectantly at me.

Me: "You got three cents?"

He pulls out a huge handful of change and looks at it. "Nope." Dumps it back in his pocket.

Me: "You got a nickel?"

He pulls out a huge handful of change and looks at it. "Nope." Dumps it back in his pocket.

Me: (sigh) "How about a quarter?"

Him: (sigh) Pulls out a quarter and hands it to me.

WTF man, did you think I was just going to just let it go? I might sometimes do that at my own option, but he was looking at me as if he expected me to say "Oh, that's all right." Would you go into CVS or Walgreens and expect them to take 3¢ less than the amount due? Then why do you try it here?

[Cookie]

Good grief. I can't stand when people do crap like this. It's not like you're going to let your register be short because of him! Stupid entitlement attitude. Ugh. The thing that kills me is that he hand a handful of change right there!

[Aut]

I might have been tempted to open up the bottle and take one of his pills out.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I guaran damn tee you that if you'd shorted him three cents, he would have gone through the cottage cheese.

[Argabarga]

A clear case of "It's okay if the man sticks it to "DA MAN", but if "DA MAN" sticks it to the man, that's outrageous!"

[ShadowTiger]

Man, now I feel bad. I once went into a CVS to buy two things, and my final cost was $10.01. I had been all "Hi! ^_^ Happy <day of the week>! How are you? ^o^ " to the guy, who I had been preceded by a semi-snobby customer. I looked and looked in my pocket for any change, (I thought I had just one penny left. .. Just.. One... Penny. >.< ) but I couldn't find it, as I stared back apologetically. I had bills, sure, but no penny.

He just said "Aww, don't worry about it, I gotcha covered. " I stared back at him incredulously like he'd just swallowed a sword. (A claymore, likely. Damn things are massive.) And I said "No, that's not right, man..." But he replied "No, really, it's just a penny."

So I told him a joke instead. I know the books don't cover it, but apparently, you CAN buy happiness. Left the guy smiling.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've had plenty of clerks tell me not to worry about a few cents. Even when I protest that I've got a quarter, or whatever, if it's 2 or 3 cents they say just forget it. I wonder how they keep their till right.

I'll bet this old guy has heard too many clerks say, "it's ok, just forget the 3 cents," and has turned that into an entitlement expectancy. If you HAD said don't worry about it, this guy wouldn't even have said thank you.

It's one thing if the clerk offers. If not, pay up.

[Taboo]

I've seen this done if it's under 10 cents and there's a 20-person line (ie the place I get my morning caffeine from) just for the sake of speeding it up, but geez, you don't assume that you can pay someone less. What a jerk!

[Ravenzfire]

I guaran damn tee you that if you'd shorted him three cents, he would have gone through the cottage cheese.

Took the words right out of my mouth

[BookstoreEscapee]

I wonder how they keep their till right.

Any retail store winds up with pennies lying around. Customers often leave them when their change is just a penny or two. Sometimes when you count the drawer at the beginning of your shift, it turns out to have an extra coin, too. I used to set the extras aside in the empty cup in the till (if it was something other than a penny I would take out that much in pennies and put them aside). Then when I had someone who was a penny short, I'd be able to toss one in.

And sometimes if the person is really nice, you just let it go. Being off by a penny or two isn't going to get anyone in trouble (unless you work for a really crappy boss, at least). We actually weighed the money on a scale, rather than actually counting it, so sometimes it would come up off by a penny just because depending on when the penny was made, the metal content will be different from pennies made at another time, so the scale can't really measure them completely accurately, anyway.

But when they clearly expect you to let them slide, it just makes you not want to.

[arminius58]

Forgive my ignorance, but weighing your ending till that just seems odd, I mean it seems like it would be really easy to take advantage of it.

[ralerin]

Seconded-though I can see why it's done that way.

Usually if it's a penny or two and I don't have it, I let myself be off, and usually it's by that same penny or two. My managers don't mind because I'm very good with my register. If it's a dime, then I get testy. But no way will i let you be off by 15 cents or more.

[BowserKoopa1]

Its times like this I am glad as a customer that I don't have to go through that hassle. I always pay with credit cards so I get my points, cashback, etc.
I had a customer one time get very angry with me because his total was $*.02 for his meal. He didn't have 2 cents, but he did have another dollar, so there was no way I was going to let him have it. Hey come on, people. If its all you have, I'm willing to let it slide. However if you still have more money but you don't want to break your precious big bill that you got in your dam hand, then you will give me that 2 cents.

[Shalom]

Man, now I feel bad. I once went into a CVS to buy two things, and my final cost was $10.01. I had been all "Hi! ^_^ Happy <day of the week>! How are you? ^o^ " to the guy, who I had been preceded by a semi-snobby customer. I looked and looked in my pocket for any change, (I thought I had just one penny left. .. Just.. One... Penny. >.< ) but I couldn't find it, as I stared back apologetically. I had bills, sure, but no penny.

He just said "Aww, don't worry about it, I gotcha covered. " I stared back at him incredulously like he'd just swallowed a sword. (A claymore, likely. Damn things are massive.) And I said "No, that's not right, man..." But he replied "No, really, it's just a penny."

Don't feel bad about that. I've had people come up short by a few cents, and I have no problem telling them to bring it by when they have a chance, or just to let it go altogether. (Especially when it's a choice between that and letting them put it on the credit card, in which case we'll lose more in fees than the few cents.) What bugged me was that he clearly had change, he just didn't want to give me any of it, plus his expectation that I'd just write it off. That $20 wasn't the only bill in his wallet either.

In his defense, though, it occurred to me afterward that he might have thought he was making a joke. He thinks he's funny sometimes.

[bainsidhe]

I tend to be a hardass about it, depending on my mood. I might make an exception if I see you rooting for change and you've been polite so far. Act at all like you expect me to eat the cost, then forget it. What drives me nuts is that it's almost always over tax. You can pay your own damn tax, thank you.