OMG! I stole a penny from a customer!

[BowserKoopa1]

As the title says, I "stole" a penny from a customer. Here's how it went....
I completed a cash transaction and handed the lady her change back. With a suspicous look, she inspects her change carefully and then informs me that I shorted her 1 cent.
Me: I'm sorry about that, Ma'am.
Customer: Well, aren't you going to do anything about it?
Me: Well, I have to wait until my drawer opens again. I'm very sorry about that. I thought I gave you the right amount of change.
Customer: But you owe me a penny!
Me: As soon as I open the drawer again, Ma'am, I will give you a penny.
Customer: I have somewhere I have to be.
Me: Ok, let me call my manager up here, Ma'am, and I will get you the penny I owe you.
Customer: Just forget it!
She walks away, then stops and gives me a nasty look.
Customer: I guess this is how you guys make your money, huh?! Stealing from customers?!
Then she storms out, and I call to her, "whatever".
Ok, wtf is that all about?! I mean, I made an honest mistake, and I even offered to call a manager up front. How can she accuse me of stealing like that?! And anyways, it was 1 lousy cent! You can't buy anything with a penny anymore! It really makes me mad when people assume we are stealing from them, all because of an honest mistake, and when its only a few cents!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Whoa, don't spend it all at once.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Wow, a whole penny? Gotta bump up that company stock somehow... I once had a girl exchanging something she had bought in a New York store; I live in Jersey. At the time NJ sales tax was 6% and NY was 8.25%. I forgot to change the tax on her return and she came back bitching that she didn't get her tax back. It was a pain to fix it with our old register system so it took several minutes for me to figure it out. What was her huge savings on tax? Approximately 58 cents.

[Crow The Robot]

Eh. She had to get to the regional cheapskate asshat convention. Welcome to CS by the way.

[powerboy]

My register is easy open without another transaction. So if I short changed them, then I will pay what I owe, very fast. But I have never stole a penny from a customer. If I am short changed a few cents, I would not complain about it, now if it was like 50 cents, then I would just mention that I am short changed.

[karma_gypsy]

Too bad you didn't have some change in your pocket or laying around the register. At least you would have made her feel like an ass if you paid her the penny out of your own pocket.

[grocerynazi]

I had a cashier at my store that was a quick change artist. One of the local quick changers, IDed by closed circuit cameras, made the mistake of trying to ply her trade on him. After she hit his register and left, he calls me over to say he'd been hit by a quick change artist. I asked how much he thought she'd gotten from him, he asked me what he needed to do with the $20.00 he skinned off her.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Welcome to CS by the way.

Hey, Thanks

[SCSlave]

What a jackhole.

I would have said "OK if you can wait just a second, let me get my purse and I'll give you your precious penny." Geezzz.

[ahanix1989]

There is ONE thing you can buy with a penny:




Frooties are awesome.

[0oAmericanGirl]

I hate that, I would have customers that I would short (on accident) a few dollars and they were as nice as they could be and I'd get those that would browbeat you over a stupid nickle. Some people are just WAAAAYYY too uptigt.

Welcome to CS.

[MadMike]

I had a cashier at my store that was a quick change artist. One of the local quick changers, IDed by closed circuit cameras, made the mistake of trying to ply her trade on him. After she hit his register and left, he calls me over to say he'd been hit by a quick change artist. I asked how much he thought she'd gotten from him, he asked me what he needed to do with the $20.00 he skinned off her.

Oh man! I wish I could have seen the look on her face once she realized she had been had!

[BowserKoopa1]

This is a similar story when I worked at a computer store.
In our add, there was a "buy this, get this free deal", and a lady came up to my register with those 2 particular items. The way we do this is we have to ring the free thing out at 1 cent (surely nobody gives a dam about a penny, right?)
Lady: Excuse me, why did you charge me for that item? Its supposed to be free.
Me: Ma'am, I did free it out.
Lady: No, you didn't.
Me: What do you mean?
Lady: You charged me a penny for it.
At this point, I figured surely she must be joking around. Who would make such a big deal over a stupid penny?!
Me: Sorry about that, Ma'am. Its just that we have to charge you something so it shows up on your receipt in case of any problems, and also so we can better keep track of our inventory.
Lady: But its supposed to be free.
Me: It is.
Lady: You call that free?! You're not doing it right!
Me: (slightly irritated) Ma'am, its only a penny.
To this remark she gives me a very dirty look, pays for her stuff, mumbles something under her breath, then leaves.
What a nut! We ran this add all week long and I did the same thing with everyone else. Not another person complained about it. We also did this on all of our other adds, and still no one complained. Is this lady that poor where a penny will make all that much a difference?! Loser.

[Becks]

I had a cashier at my store that was a quick change artist. One of the local quick changers, IDed by closed circuit cameras, made the mistake of trying to ply her trade on him. After she hit his register and left, he calls me over to say he'd been hit by a quick change artist. I asked how much he thought she'd gotten from him, he asked me what he needed to do with the $20.00 he skinned off her.

Oh, my damn, that was so worth having Pepsi come out of my nose!!!!!!!!!

Sooooooooooo...what DID happen with that $20? Did he have to turn it in? Did he get to keep it? Some people want to know!!!!!!!

[AFpheonix]

I'll do the penny thing on some substitutions for BOGOF products, but the critical difference is that I price modify the first item to be 1 penny less, and the 2nd for 1 penny, so it ends up being truly free.

Your customer was mildly sucky, but she does have a point, in that it's not really free if you're charging something for it, even if it's just a penny.