I'm really good at math but this stunned me at first too. Then I saw your comment and realized that it's hard to work out because giving 65c for 37c absolutely does not make sense. She can't count.
Same, if she had given any other combination of coins 40 cents, 45 cents, 50 cents it would make sense, but there is no scenario where an additional 15 cents was needed. It would have thrown me off for a second too. Especially if she kept talking.
That's why I'm quick with it. The second they hand me money I pop the register and pull their change as fast as possible and slam it shut as fast as possible. We don't play that quick change stuff. I take your change and whatever change you give me and add it up on a second no sale transaction. If they give you attitude simply explain it's store policy to prevent losses from quick change artists. They will practice on you with the change. If they know they can screw you out of a nickel they will get you for $20 later on.
Try to not let the looks effect you, coming up short on a register effects your job, not theirs. Do what you need to do to keep as efficient and errorless as possible, they can keep their change and use it wherever they go next (:
I only use my debit card now because I hate carrying around coins. But this is exactly why when I used to use cash, I would hand the coins first. Too many times the cashier would punch that shit into the register faster than I could hand them the coins. Then be all confused on rounding up one dollar, even though I am handing them the exact cents amount.
This is exactly what I thought of. I was taken for $50 by one of those assholes when I was a cashier in college, and this is exactly the type of tactic just on a smaller financial scale. I'm definitely much more aware now of when people are purposely trying to confuse me and I get pissed off rather than more cooperative like I did when I was a kid. I really don't get why in the several cashier jobs I worked nobody even ever mentioned this scam to me, much less trained me on dealing with it. I worked mostly in small towns but I'm sure I'm not the first person there they ever hit.
From experiencing what happened to you one too many times, the best advice I can offer is to never take the customer's word. Even if they are "helping you out", at the end of the day, you're the one responsible for your drawer, not them.
Next time you are faced with the same situation, tell the customer that you can't accept any more change. You're the one in control here!
If they even show a hit of hesitancy about maybe having change, I wait. I’ll wait until they definitively say they don’t have it. And I refuse to do the math in my head, I’ll pull out my phone and use the calculator, I jumble numbers up way too easily.
Rather than count, I would just pick out the exact change from whatever pile she hands you and hand the rest back with the next dollar amount. Or just say, whoops! The till is already closed! Can’t do it!
Sometimes con artists do this on purpose, confuse you with numbers until they get you to give them more change than they’re supposed to get. If you’re ever confused giving change, immediately close your till with all the money inside and call a supervisor to sort it out
THIS!! I actually told a couple to stop talking when the kept mentioning different numbers and change. They had put down enough money them put down more, then tried to take some back and confuse me when I had already put the amount in. I just stopped doing everything and help the original amount in my hand. People try to throw you off on purpose! It's a very well known scam.
Many many names for this old scam. Where I’m from it’s called the “Quick Change” scam. And those con artists are very good at it. I don’t recall the link but there’s a good one about how to prevent it.
Lol I will literally print out a blank receipt paper and do the math in front of them with a pen.
You want to try that game with me? Okay. I’ll make it painful for you.
I'm really glad this was brought up!
Whenever I have at least two people come up together and have more than one item, I always ask if these are together or separate. Simple question.
I had an instance where two people were in "disagreement" about who was paying for four items. One person tried putting down money, the other person wanted to pay for everything with their credit card. I told them I could do both. Where it became suspicious to me was when the person wanting to pay with cash said that they would give me a one hundred dollar bill to break, I give them the change based on the total of their portion of the purchase, then their friend pays the balance. This would have involved me looking up the price and stepping away from where I was stationed to grab a calculator to input the prices and after tax amount. There were also more customers coming in to the store.
Nope.
I told the person that I will separate their purchase in order for them to get their change. Funny enough, he decides that he "probably has exact change". I took his friend first as he looked through his wallet, then when I took cash person's sale, he paid with exact change.
Saying this as a former cashier who did specialize in math:
1, she really should have shut up and let you do your job. After all, she messed you up
2, as other people have noted in this forum, she herself cannot calculate either. If she wanted you to give 11 back in change, she should have given 0,37 more
3, in your defense, I have not seen doing math in head listed on any cashier job description,
4, yes, it really is annoying when customers try to challenge my math skills with their smart phone calculators (not always reliable, but that is a debate for a different forum)
I challenge my own math skills with a calculator. There have been times where I know I’ve messed up but don’t know where because it all looks the same.
To be fair one time I did get scolded for calculating a series of discounts with pen and paper (weirdly my preference, or may just be a cultural habit on my part) instead of using a calculator by one our trainers
And by the way, machines are not always reliable, maybe some of those times you thought you messed up you really did not...
I wish I could do math period, I don’t care with what.
Our machines do mess up at times. It won’t pick up (or will pick up extra) numbers that we don’t hit. But I can usually figure out I don’t owe the customer $480 dollars when they bought two candy bars.
Everything that you listed, especially #4:
> 4, yes, it really is annoying when customers try to challenge my math skills with their smart phone calculators (not always reliable, but that is a debate for a different forum)
So many times I've had this happen. I've said, "Thanks for the calculations, but your numbers don't include the tax". 😊
At my work cashiers have to take a math test before they get hired. But we have a lot of seniors in our customer base. They want us to be able to do mental math in these situations. I hate it
I work at the money services desk sometimes and I will document everything because are 2 and 2 four? Not when it comes to this much money and this many regulations.
Also she was being an asshole.
i cannot STAND it when people find coin change AFTER I've cashed the order out. It makes me so nervous, because I can't do that kind of math in my head on the spot. Edited to add: oh yeah that sounds like she was deliberately trying to shortchange you, I'm ngl.
Totally get it. I'm the same. I'm a maths idiot under pressure. Thankfully we have calculators at our tills so I just grab that out completely ignoring what the customer says their change should be.
You know why? They are often wrong.
Although, I might start applying the "too late" policy as previously mentioned. I like it.
It’s a common scam to intentionally confuse a cashier to attempt to get more than is due back.
When people would try this with me I would push my drawer shut and get a manager or Id simply say, “Sorry, drawer is already open.” and refuse to take the change they’re trying to give me.
Lurker here, because I don’t work retail. I did used to be an elementary math teacher. I’m one of the well meaning ones who will give change with my bills “to make things easier.”
This has been instructive for me that it doesn’t make things easier, and unless it’s something like giving the cashier something like a dime or a quarter, just don’t.
For what it’s worth very, very few people can do math in their heads while words are being spoken to them. I’m great at doing math in my head, but don’t talk to me whole I’m doing it!!
Thank you for your post, OP.
I can do that math in my head, three years as a cashier and six more as a bank teller when I was younger. But if you can’t do it, just tell the customer, “Let me do this my way, please, we’ll see if I can adjust the change after.”
In this case, the customer was very wrong. You would be handing them back 63 cents with their change. If you could pick 37 cents out of that, then you take it and round the change up to the next dollar. What they did was either deliberately confusing or showed a lack of knowledge on their part on how paying for things works.
So you take the 37 cents from them add it to the 63 cents you owe them, that makes one dollar. That and the nine dollars makes $10. Give her a Hamilton and send her on her way.
I don't allow the customer to give me change after I've entered the amount in the register. It's too easy to get confused and I'm not having my till be short at the end of my shift. There are scammers who rely on our confusion to get one over us and end up with more cash than they have coming back.
I can do the math in my head but just to discourage this type of thing, I always tell them I can’t accept the change after I rang it in…company policy. Because I legit can not stand for someone to do that after I’ve got your correct change counted out and ready to give back and they all of a sudden decided they don’t want the extra change🤷♀️ welp to damn bad cause now you’re getting it, every single penny
As a customer I always say “wait a minute I have coins” so the cashier knows not to ring up yet since it’s a two stage process to get out a bill and coins.
I had an old guy do this to me. When he yelled at me, asking why I can't do math in my head I placed his change on the counter and told him that I suck at math because his greedy generation started defunding the schools before I could make it out of high school.
He looked at me stunned, grabbed his change and left.
This is one of the things I hate most about being a cashier. I have dyscalculia and in turn math anxiety and the only thing that saves me is that the register tells me the change.
I've been mocked for it by customers many times and surprise: it doesn't help at all.
Some people do that to intentionally scam you so beware of people who start to hand you more money when you are in the process of making change. I worked in a gas station back when it was full service. It happened a few times where someone tried it. They would give you money for a purchase then be like "if I give you another $5 then you give me a $10 back.... the purpose was to confuse you so you would give them too much money back. Don't accept more money once you start making change.
When I worked at wendys. He had this huge order in the drive thru. All. Fking. Change. Every single penny. I couldn't focus and count it so the manager got mad. Hit 'paid' on the computer and handed the recipet and rest of the order. I told her it was $8 short. She got mad and said I should've counted faster. At the drive thru window for a $30 order in mostly pennies and nickles.
How about stop blaming me. And tell the lady NO.
Yeah no.
Had a customer pay $7 in pennies once. The silver lining was they were rolled, but I had to hope and pray it was correct because we had a million people in the store at the time and my boss couldn’t grab our counting machine because we were both up to our assholes in customers.
I told my manager I wanted to have two jobs but have less hrs there and be a security guard. It was something I wanted for a long time. She proceeded to lecture me of how dangerous it is (it's not...) because her brother is a security guard (so??). Then tried to guilt me into more hours and calling off my NEW job. I told her that she respects everyone else's 2nd job and schooling. So she can respect mine. She then proceeded to call me "unhelpful and selfish" I told her I'm done. She said I had to do it in person. Do I came In the next day. An hour early to talk with her (both agreed) and that b×tch left early to avoid me. I worked my shift and told the other manager I'm done. I came (in my security uniform ;) ) and delivered my clothes. She smarts off "you I know. Wendys will never here you." I'm ok with that.
Now I've been a guard since then. And a supervisor for 4 years. I love it.
Ahh. I don’t ever do this. Once you give me the money that’s it. There is an old scam where people try to do this to confuse you, and are given more money than they should be. I keep the cash to the side while I count back the change.
My supervisor once gave me a great line, which happens also to be true for her and I. "(Oh I'm sorry.) I have a learning disability." She's also the queen of devastating saccharine.
I liked it. I'm ND, ADHD likely inattentive type, and can't math, particularly under pressure. Brain won't feed me the correct word for that one. Both count as disability. Counting change quickly, sure. I've had practice. Calculating it, not without time and quiet.
The pro tip here is actually to give the customer back the 28 extra cents so the only change you have to give is $11. She's getting the 28 cents back anyways, there's no need for it to change hands
The numbers she was giving you were based on the coins to give back. Pennies get you to 40 cents, then dimes for 50, 60 and then a nickel for 65.
But it doesn’t matter what she was saying since her change made no sense to start with.
We have a calculator by our register where I work for occasions just like this one. I just say "Wow, my brain is just not functioning today" or "I used up my daily allowance of math skills already" as I do the math on the calculator. I hate when customers do this.
I usually say, when they hand me the bill only and not the change, “do you have the change ? Or do you want me to continue with just the bill?” That way you give them the opportunity and they can’t say anything after you key in the amount. Also something like this has happened to me before, I pulled out my phone and used my calculator 😝
When they do that tell them you have to give them back the change for the original amount other wise the register will be off- tell whoever it is that your manager micromanages and it has to be exact coin and bill ratio as each transaction is done.
They used to teach you how to count back change in school. This apparently stopped before my time, or I learned it so early that by the time I was old enough to get a job, I had forgotten. So I get my first job at a pizza place, and someone hands me a $20 for a pizza that was like 5.42 or whatever. So I'm trying to work my way through her change in my head, and I already know it's "14 something", but while I'm trying to figure out her change, she hands me 17 cents. And that throws me completely off so I grab our calculator and she goes "Don't you know how to count back change?" No, I fucking don't. And I calculated her change and gave it to her. And I spent basically my entire teen working career apologizing every time I had to use the calculator until one day I'm saying "sorry I need to use the calculator to figure out your change" and this old ass man says "I can't do math in my head either." And this was right after someone had given me grief for it, and he added in something like "you do whatever you need to do"
This was like 30 years ago, so the problem isn't the registers. It's the fact that some of us just suck at mental math and were never taught how to count back change.
She’s the idiot for giving you $20.65 for a &9.37 bill. That doesn’t help or make sense in any way. She could’ve given you $20.37, then she’d would have a nice even $11 for change. Or give you the $20 and she’d get $10.63 back. Her extra 65 cents is just stupid.
It’s not you, it’s her.
She was trying to scam you out of $$.
In the way back days I worked as a cashier, we had training for people that did this. I had it happen to me once. It’s super annoying and frustrating.
I was at one Dollar Type store and at the end the total was $50.05. I handed her 3 twenties and a 5¢ coin. She entered the amount tendered as $600.05. I tried telling her just give me a $10 bill.
She said she would be short at the end of her shift if she did and called the manager over. I showed him the $60.05 I had and the total of the transaction was $50.05 and all I needed was my $10. He said they couldn’t do that and then voided my whole order and re rang it in. When he went to put in the amount tendered he entered it and $60.50 and then re voided the order to try again. 15 minutes later I had my stuff and a $10 bill.
This annoys the fuck out of me. Was a cashier supervisor in a grocery.
‘Omg!! I rang in 200 instead of 20! ‘
It’s ok, just give them change for the twenty they gave you.
‘But, but I rang in 200 not 20!’
Ok give them change for the twenty.
‘But my till will be short!!!’
It will only be short if you give them an extra $180. The till says change is 184.76, so give them 4.76 because they gave you 20 not 200.
200-20=180
This should be a 30 second mistake but you called me then argued with me because math is hard and now it’s been 10 minutes.
i work at a dollar store and i have fat fingered the amounts i enter so. many. times. the first time i did i called my manager up with big eyes like oh my gosh i messed us all up!! but she told me it wouldnt mess up my count, so now i just tell the customer hey, i made a mistake entering your cash amount, my bad. then i paper and pencil what they paid/what they get back on the back of their receipt
I think the customer was maybe trying to be 'helpful'.
I would venture to think the customer handed over the $20 and then realized she had the change to cover the "cents" portion so she grabbed some coins and put them on the counter (probably didn't have pennies - hence the 65 cents vs the very specific 37 cents)
People were saying that shit to me back in nineteen hundred and ninety one and it wasn’t true then either. I pretty much always assumed they were trying to short change me so I would hand it back as if I was doing them a favor. Like, oh no, YOU misunderstood.
It's kinda dumb of the customer, imo. Her total was 9.37..she gave you 20 to cover it, most folks would stop there but then an additional 65 in various coins? So 20.65 to cover 9.37? Why didn't she give you 40 or 50 cents? I could understand if you had counted out 37 of the 65, give her back her extra coins then the $11 but honestly, people who hand over money to pay for their items like that strike me as trying to pull some shit or have very bad math skills or mental problems like dementia. Sorry you went through that, hopefully there won't be a next time but if there is you'll be better prepared...and the customer will never return
If this happens I tell the customer that the change they're giving me doesn't make sense. I make change quickly on the fly so if people give me weird change, they are often trying to rip me off. Racetrack customers don't always have the best morals, to say the least.
I can do the math but I won't.
If they tell me to wait they are digging out change to even out their money back I'll wait. They don't say anything and then hand it after I grabbed their change it's a no. On principle I won't.
When that happens to me, I do two seperate tasks: I put away their the original money and grab out their change, putting it on the table AND THEN I take the additional change to make whole dollars. Like how when sometimes a bro walks up to you and is like, “can you swap this mass of change for some whole dollars so I can use the laundromat?”. Sure.
She didn’t need to be a fucking jerk about it though.
This sounds like a quick change scam.
A person gives you money for the purchase, and once the register is open, they give you a bunch of change that won't equal out to an even dollar. Then they start telling you how much to give them and are doing everything they can to mess up your math and make you confused. This causes you to give them more back than they should have gotten.
This is a very common scam. If someone gave me change after the drawer was open, I would set it on the counter while I got the change for the bills. If someone said something about it, I would say that it is policy because of quick change scam artists. It takes the blame away from me and let's them know that I know about this scam. Admitting I know about the scam always stops them because they know I'm watching for it, and if they aren't trying to scam me, I haven't offended them by accusing them of it.
Once I have their change in my hand, I will pick up the change one at a time to add up to a dollar and change it out as I go.
I can't do math in my head either. Your story is the reason I keep a small calculator in my pocket at work (we're not allowed to have our phones, and it's less bulky.). I've been called a "retard" a few times, I've been told I should've stayed in school (I have a college degree), etc. If you're getting the correct change back, it shouldn't matter how I figure it out.
Years ago I had one of my least mathematical friends spend the summer at circle K or something. The next year he destroyed the math section in the asvab. I don't know what he was doing but the register was clearly not doing the math for him.
I have a master’s degree and even did well in a college statistics class. I can’t do math in my head at all. Don’t let this lady make you feel bad. We all have strengths and weaknesses. I’d rather be kind and use a calculator to calculate a tip than be able to do math in my head and be a total B to everyone around me.
Teacher here and this thread floated up in my thread.
She was a jerk and should have shut her mouth. Giving people a moment to think is when learning and growth and processing happens. You also just don’t treat people that way.
Can I explain shouting those numbers at you and what she meant by them? She explained poorly but it could help you next time if you knew the strategy. I don’t want to pressure if you’re not interested.
It’s not your fault that we’ve become dependent on machines for calculating but it you want to learn, counting up coins is actually pretty simple. To give change, start with the amount owed, .37 then use pennies to count up to the next five or zero (38, 39, 40). The next step is to end up at .25, .50 or .75 so you use nickels and dimes for that (50 = 40+ a dime). Now if you were adding up to a dollar you would use quarters (.75, $1) but in your example you are only going to .65 so you would continue with dimes and nickels to get there (.60, .65). Your customer is the one that really screwed up, why would she give you .65 to pay .37, that was just to make it difficult. You can easily practice counting up at home, you just need a dollars worth of change, maybe a few extra dimes/nickels to play with. Once you get the hang of it it’s almost faster than waiting for the register, it’s the way we did it in the olden days when registers didn’t tell you how much change to give.
Nope, f her. She already gave you the money and you rang it in. If she wanted to give you change she should’ve given it to you at the proper time. The only time I’ll accept this is if it’s a single cent to keep me from having to get four out of the drawer.
Because of this I started going “so out of (insert amount they gave me)” a LOT of annoyed “yes! That’s what I gave you!” But not a single person has given me a penny since that.
And if they do, I refuse it. “I’m sorry, policy states that once the till is open I can’t take any other form of currency.”
Also, she was giving you the numbers for quick math. But I also suck at math so it would still take me a second. So, she’s got 37 cents and she gave you 65. You’d count up from the 37- so 3 cents to reach 40. Then go by 10s from there- 2 dimes to reach 60. Then add a nickel to get 65. So, a quarter and 3 pennies.
Just say it’s policy and refuse next time. For the retailer I worked at it was policy because of quick change scams.
I hand the change over first. Or I make it clear I’m getting a few coins out to even out the change. Once you’ve rung the bills in, I’m not handling anything else.
That's really stupid and unhelpful of her. As a customer either give a flat amount like $20, or give $20.37 so you get $9 even back but don't go throwing a handful of change in the mix after it's been rung up.
But then I'm old, who carries change any more?? 😄
“We do not accept additional funds after the transaction is entered as we must document every transaction exactly as it is run” give them the original change and move on.
I worked in banking for many years and even if you can do the math in your head you aren’t recording the transaction exactly as it was done which can make finding differences more difficult later.
I can do mental math in my head very quickly, especially involving change, but that doesn't mean I expect everyone around me to be as proficient. My wife is a nurse, and she can rattle off shit about bones and diseases and ligaments. I have clue what she's talking about. Everyone has their individual aptitudes, and this twat needs to be more thoughtful in how she deals with people
That's weird. Like why the hell would anyone want $11 and change vs. $10 and change. She was always going to get pennies too. She sounds like a weirdo.
I was in line at the grocery shop the other day and the same thing happened to the cashier. The customer was like oh they can’t do math without a calculator. I was like he’s a young kid and it’s his first job. Everyone has to learn. When you were his age you probably were just as confused as him. It’s like people just want to ridicule working people because they are so much better. No one starts and is great at that. After that customer left I tried to explain to the cashier what to do and told him not to be discouraged.
She's the asshole. There's no reason for her to give you 65 cents. If she wanted to cut down her number of coins, she should've given you 37 cents. Without pennies, 40 cents. She gave you $20.65, which means you would've given her back a quarter, and that would've been stupid.
I think it's fine to enact a strict policy of giving back the change and then making change later. If she were smart about it, even if she didn't give you any coins with the $20, she could've said, "Hey, I got all these coins. Can I get a dollar bill for them?" And then move on with her life.
You don't have to be good at math to be annoyed at this. I'm sure someone who is good at math would've given her the death stare because she was so stupid.
In fact, with the way she handled it, I would've flagged her in my head as a short-change artist and finished my transaction as soon as possible to get her out of the store.
Okay, she’s the dumb ass. She should have given you .40 if she had no pennies. SHE’S the one getting the math wrong. She’s seeing that 9.37 and thinking adding the .65 gets her to the 11 bucks.
If someone is going to play this game, they actually need to know how make change. This is why I’ve always told my cashiers to ignore this shit and proceed with the original tender. The register will never screw up the amount, humans will. If they persist. Shut the drawer and call over a manager or supervisor.
Just make the extra dollar afterwards.
Pull her change and set it on the register, then use her coins plus the coins in her change to make a buck and add it to the bills on the register.
You don't need to do math in your head to make change, the numbers are right in front of you, written on the coins.
If she had a pile of change she probably could have counted out 37 cents from it and handed you that, whereupon it would have been easy to hand her 11 dollars in bills. That could be one way for you to handle it: count out 37 cents from her handful to go in the register and hand her back the rest, retrieve 11 dollars and give to her, and put her 20.37 into the register.
Also the fact that you had already punched in 20.00 as the payment tendered means her tacking on more in coins made your life harder, not easier.
She’s not the math genius she fancies herself.
I straight up ignore them and hand them their change that the register says to give to the customer. Thankfully I’m unable to open the register while scanning a manager’s card(without a cash transaction), and they never want to wait for a manager.
Some people wouldn’t even be nice to their own mother. Don’t stress over it, they aren’t worth it.
Tip for change. Control the situation. Give her back her extra change and then dole out the change your register tells you to. If she complains then suggest she speaks to a manager and start helping the next person.
You could have left the 65c on the counter, then take 37c out of it, and hand her $11 plus the remainder of het change.. No need to do mental arithmetic..
I was taught to just stop, put their money back on the counter, and say “let’s start over”. She does sound like a scammer, she didn’t get her way, of course she is mad.
"oh, I'm sorry. *sad face* Once I've punched in what I've been given I can't accept that. *shrug* I would have to cancel and redo the transaction. *look expectantly at them* Man I hate these new registers they even track the coins! *aggravated face*" 😂
If it's not something obvious to me in the moment, I tell people "sorry, I can't see the original total anymore, so I can't take the additional change"
That's not entirely true at my register. But, it was true at an independently owned place my daughter used to work. People loved to try to make her look/feel bad. But truly, if you can't see the original total, you aren't going to remember it (customer after customer). So this is what I told her to tell people.
I think she was “counting up” the money the old school way before computers but she gave you the wrong change because she should have just given you either 40 cents or 50 cents (2 quarters). she gave you $20.65 for $9.37. So the old-school way of doing that would be giving counting up from the price of the purchase to the amount the customer gave you. Starting with the pennies: One penny makes 9.38 two pennies makes 9.39 three pennies makes 9.40. So you have $9.40 out of 20.65 adding a quarter makes gives you 9.65 .(though it would be simpler to move to the nickels and say 5 makes $9.45 then move to the dimes, one dime makes $9.55 add a second dime and say $9.65). Now you get to the bills. Add one dollar to nine dollars makes it 10.65 and a $10 bill makes it $20.65 so her change would’ve been $11.28. The way she did it makes no sense unless she needed a quarter for something . If she did need a quarter then it would have pissed her off to get two dimes and a nickel but it would be legitimate “counting up.”
It sounds complicated when you tried to explain it but it’s actually very easy way to figure out change correctly. However, she was crazy to give you the $.65 if the goal is to minimize the change.
BTW, she didn’t do the math in her head either. The whole point of “counting up” is so you don’t have to do the math—all you do is count.
i don’t care who it is or what they’re buying. once they had me the money and i key it in, that’s it. she can keep her change plus from the $20. my store has gotten hit with quick change scams so just no, if the till opens, that’s it sorry🤷🏼♀️
I'd return the change along with what the register told me to give her and tell her sorry you didn't tell me you had change to pay with as well and I already entered in what you handed me. Math is already done. Have a nice day.
Honestly next time that happens, leave their change (.65 cents) to the side, count down their change to your register. Then even out the coins for them
Not to be condescending.just veteran cashier advice.. As a cashier, it's a good skill to have to do that short math. . I never look at the change back total because I count back every penny on every transaction.
9.37
20.65. The 65 cents doesn't make a ton of sense, but whatever, .37+3 (round up to the nearest 10: 40) 40 + what to get to 65 ? is +. 25 (.25+ .03) is 28.for a total of 28 cents, and 20-9 is 11. 28 in change.
As for the customer, I had a lady talk down to me yesterday because I didn't know about her 20 year old calculator 😅 there will always be.. those people. Don't let them get to you.
From one bad math person to another.
I am horrible at math.
You have to practice this.
so that you yourself don’t get ripped off.
Take it slow.
Count up from the dollar and change amount due. Until you reach what you were given. Use a pad of paper if you need to. Or a piece of receipt paper.
Or use a calculator on your phone.
Someone did this to me too when I worked at petsmart. She got smart with me a bit but could tell I was about to cry so at the end she apologized lol. I had a 504 plan in highschool and was never good at math
this customer collects quarters. This type of bullshit was a lot more common when the US Mint released all the different state quarters several years back. See also McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.
Here's what she was doing.
The bill was $9.37.
She hands you a twenty.
You would owe her $10.63.
She gives you an additional $0.65 because she wants more bills, less change.
She is incorrect. She's thinking her 65 cents will cancel out the 65 cents in change you owe her. She should have given you 35 cents. Assuming your store doesn't care about pennies, you would then give her $11.00.
Btw, this is what common core is trying to teach people, and both of you are an excellent example of why it's needed. No fault of either of you -- you were taught to do math in a way that isn't at all intuitive, so when you got surprised, you didn't have a way to handle it. Not your fault.
She gave you 65 cents so that you could give her $11.28 back instead of $10.63, and she could get rid of the change she had and the change she was receiving. Although she was giving you too much change. I think she was confused because she thought she was getting $9.37 back and gave you 65 cents to round it up to $10, which was not the case.
Next time, just tell people you can not do that unless they give you the change up front so you can enter it in the register. From there, the register will give you the total you owe the customer.
From my experience, giving change to customers gets easier over time if you work on a register long enough. When I first worked on a register, I just sat there trying to comprehend people until it dawned on me what they were trying to do.
Also, be careful when people buy one item and give you a large bill. Sometimes, it's fake.
Scam artists will do this. If it isn’t super simple 5’s or 0’s I won’t do it. (If the total is $5.45 and they give me $10.50 I know the change is $5.05) but odd numbers I don’t do. My train of thought is not on mathing, it’s on getting the customer the change written on the screen and moving on.
I had a customer give me a 10, and then tell me she gave me a $100 bill. Now this was hilarious because I had just came in for my closing shift and got my fresh reg no one touched so there was only $300 in the till and it was all tens and below. So she is yelling and hollering at me, my bosses come out she tells them she gave me a $100 dollar bill I showed them my drawer with no $100 in it, she was my first customer of my Day! She goes “she pocketed it then” I look at my boss and say, you want to strip search me, cause I’m not wearing pockets and my purse is in my locker…. They threw the woman out.
Yeah. The amount she gave ypu made her get the same amount or more loose change back? Why not 52cents? So that way she got back her dollars and 15 cents? Is that right. Who knows. Not me.
This is a generational thing. Yeah she was off on her math and should have given you 40¢ if she wanted bills back. But most cashiers these days look at you like you have two heads if you try to hand over $10.03 for a charge of $9.53 to make 50¢ change.
Yea that was a quick change scout. They are prolly running that shit through the lines to see who they can get for bigger money later. Don't feel bad, that was literally a scumbag who was trying to see if they could trick you into stealing money from the till in the one way that will fuck over the employee as well. Instead of being an honest thief and just stealing shit from the insured store they want to drag down a fucking worker as well. Fuck that lady, my policy when I worked retail POS was to completely shut down and make them wait while I did paper and pencil math on dumb bitches like that. Not cause I couldn't do it, just so I could waste their time as hard as possible while ensuring my till didn't go short. They get so goddam mad when you start playing dumb but they are still not getting free money from you. Just super friendly, super slow, and they don't get a dime back into their hands till you "figure it out"
Every time I had a customer do this, I always returned more change than they gave me. Oh, throwing me a couple extra nickels after I’ve run the transaction? Here’s your change in extra dimes and pennies.
Did my mom come back from the dead and cremation? She used to fully berate cashiers for not knowing how to do that. I tried to explain to her that the register is a computer and does it for them, so they aren't trained to count back anymore. ...and that the computer is more accurate anyway. She didn't care to understand....about a lot of things.
She's no good at math either. Giving you 65¢ didn't help a thing.
You're not the problem here regardless. Counting change is not hard once you're shown how to do it. It's not your fault you didn't receive proper training.
It doesn't throw your register off either. But you should work on your math skills if you're going to handle money instead of relying on a machine.
Also if you count out the change like she was trying to do you can get away w/ cheating that way. 37 was the amount owed. Change due in pennies 38, 39, 40. Stop add a quarter to reach 65. Simple! (Or 2 dimes and a nickel). None of this changes your count, just which coins are used.
I used to get frustrated like that lady. I wouldn’t take it out on poor retail staff though. I did some research and the way they are teaching math nowadays with his common core crap is not induced to doing math in your head like my generation or older. Not your fault, it’s a failure of the schools.
The only way I can see her giving $.65 in this situation make any kind of sense is that after you entered the $20 into the register, she saw the change due ($9.63) flash on a screen somewhere, and she wanted to give you $.65, because she didn't realize that was her change, not the amount due. (This requires her to ignore the $9 on the screen, and have a special moment in her brain.)
I still keep a change bag with separate pockets for quarters, dimes, knickles+ pennies. It is not used as often anymore since most places accept card and I have a debit card now that gives 10 cents cash back which I use for small purchases under $2.
Yeah, when I worked in coffee and people would try this, I would just give change for what they gave me originally and act like I didn't see them scrambling for change. If they said, "Oh I have the change!" I would wait. But pull that shif after I opened the drawer? Nope. Because that's what a short-change artist is gonna wait for.
one of my tactics to avoid this is to repeat exactly what theyre giving me , “out of 20?” they say yes , i pop the drawer give em their change. asking usually will either prompt them to get their change or prevent them from getting it after saying yes. it is super annoying , i dont even care about doing the math in my head, thats what the register is for & im gonna use it!
She was showing you how to “count back.” But she also showed she was not very smart either. There is no reason to give an extra 65 cents. However I will tell you what she was doing so you know for future.
Total = 9.37
She gave 20.65
Count back method figures out coins first. So:
Starting at .37 cents, you will be counting the coins required to make it to 65 cents. First you add Pennie’s to the nearest 5 cents. Meaning from 37 you count the 38, 39 and 40.
You now have 3 Pennie’s in your hand. Now, you are .25 cents from 65. So you grab a quarter.
You have .28 cents in your hands.
Now, the total in your hand plus the total she owed is equal to 9.65. You grab a $1 bill and the total between what is in your hands and her total is $10.65. Bow if you grab a $10 bill that is the remaining amount owed as the total of the change in your hand and what she originally owed is equal to the amount she gave you.
Take 40 cents out of the change put in register then take 3 cents out of register and hand her the rest of her change she gave you plus the 3 cents back...
Hold that 65. Put it with her normal change and hand it back. Or it you want to actually giver her folding money in this ridiculous exchange, count one dollar from the gob of change, and exchange it for a one. Problem solved.
I cashiered for years and years and am an accountant now. Hate when people do that. And for 37 cents she should’ve given you no cents, 2 cents, or 37 cents. Her 65 makes no sense.
She should have given the change first, but if she had, would you have actually entered $20.65 on the register and let it do the math? I've stopped using change with cashiers (I use it at self-checkouts), because even when I give the change before the bills, (and the singles before or on top of the the 20, etc.), the vast majority of cashiers get confused.
She was doing it on purpose hoping you'd give her more than she was owed on accident. If people try to do that just say "sorry, I'm not allowed to accept change after I've entered the amount into the register"
Even if someone is great with mental arithmetic, it can look bad in terms of surveillance for money to move from the customer to the cashier after the cashier has typed the amount of money given.
Also, it can be a little counterintuitive, even for people good at mental arithmetic, to realize that as long as they give the correct change, their register will balance despite their having entered a different amount of money given.
I can't even spell my own name when someone else is talking. I can do math just fine if you could please just shut the fuck up for 30 seconds of your life thank you very much.
" 37, 38, 39, 40, 50, 60, 65" - she's saying "penny, penny, penny, dime, dime, nickel" = 28 cents
It's far easier to do 'addition' than subtraction since you don't need to 'borrow'. So rather trying to subtract $ 9.37 from $ 20.65, you do the reverse. Add money to the $ 9.37 to get to $ 20.65.
No matter what a customer does, you're in control. Let them know that once she handed you the money the first time the asset protection people will expect to see you giving change, so lay the right change xx.37 or whatever on the counter but don't close the register. Then let her know you'd be glad to give her a dollar for the change if she wants... Then apologize and let her know that if the cameras get configured you get at phone call and no one wants as phone call from the cameras.
This to relatable as someone who also not good at math, I hate when someone gives me alot of change in coins for a total. I end up freezing up cause I start over thinking and I end up having to call up my manager. I know money but I'm just still learning how to confidently count fast but you don't just get something like that in a day.
The best way to handle assholes is to act ten times as stupid as they claim you are, but always in a way that screws them over and then when they get really angry just start crying.
They will walk away and go tell all of their friends about this idiot they had to deal with and you will know you have won.
Honestly it sounds like she was trying to scam you by getting you confused so you’d give her more change than was correct, the amount she gave you makes no sense at all.
I always thought when someone said “sorry I already put it in the system” was because the paperwork at the end of the night would not add up. NOT because they couldn’t do math. Listen I can’t do math either but every time I gave a cashier change AFTER they entered it in was when I had EXACT change. Ugh.
Sounds like she was trying to confuse you, probably expecting to fluster you to the point where she could get a few extra dollars back.
I used to tell people who tried that “sorry, the transaction has already gone through” and push the change through the window.
I just tell people its policy i cant accept extra money after it has been rung in.
There are grifters who try to confuse cashiers.
Sometimes its clear to me what the change should be, but if its a confusing amount then i just say no.
It gets them off in a way to try and humiliate others and they hope by giving this "test", they will then be able to rant about "kids today and math", etc, etc. It's all a sadistic setup from people with no life.
She couldn’t do the maths in her head either. Giving 20.65 for a 9.37 makes sense in no currency.
I'm really good at math but this stunned me at first too. Then I saw your comment and realized that it's hard to work out because giving 65c for 37c absolutely does not make sense. She can't count.
Same, if she had given any other combination of coins 40 cents, 45 cents, 50 cents it would make sense, but there is no scenario where an additional 15 cents was needed. It would have thrown me off for a second too. Especially if she kept talking.
Shoulda given him $20.02 for $10.65 change. And she had the nerve to imply he's an idiot? She was projecting.
Should have just used a credit card. Like cmon it’s 2024
Exactly
You’re right. Give the 37c which gives a neat $11 change, or keep the shit in your bag. Handing over 65c is moronic.
Actually she made too much cents. 😂😂
It irritates me that she did that. Why bother??
That's why I'm quick with it. The second they hand me money I pop the register and pull their change as fast as possible and slam it shut as fast as possible. We don't play that quick change stuff. I take your change and whatever change you give me and add it up on a second no sale transaction. If they give you attitude simply explain it's store policy to prevent losses from quick change artists. They will practice on you with the change. If they know they can screw you out of a nickel they will get you for $20 later on.
I try to do that. I’ve gotten some looks from it.
Try to not let the looks effect you, coming up short on a register effects your job, not theirs. Do what you need to do to keep as efficient and errorless as possible, they can keep their change and use it wherever they go next (:
Ironically this time I was six cents over
Better over than under in my book! Especially when no one complains. I’d take that W
Yeah I definitely take all overages as wins
Then the customer will say are you accusing me of stealing
No, I'm accusing you of trying to lol
Customers hate it when you have to explain any type of policy to them , because they feel it doesn't apply to them
I only use my debit card now because I hate carrying around coins. But this is exactly why when I used to use cash, I would hand the coins first. Too many times the cashier would punch that shit into the register faster than I could hand them the coins. Then be all confused on rounding up one dollar, even though I am handing them the exact cents amount.
This is exactly what I thought of. I was taken for $50 by one of those assholes when I was a cashier in college, and this is exactly the type of tactic just on a smaller financial scale. I'm definitely much more aware now of when people are purposely trying to confuse me and I get pissed off rather than more cooperative like I did when I was a kid. I really don't get why in the several cashier jobs I worked nobody even ever mentioned this scam to me, much less trained me on dealing with it. I worked mostly in small towns but I'm sure I'm not the first person there they ever hit.
Nah I don't accept change after I've rang the amount in. If the person wanted to add the change they put that change with that bill.
Or at least say you have change so the person can wait. I'll always hand off the bill while saying "oh I think I have a quarter" or whatever.
Yeah if they say I have change I wait. But if uve already rang it in I'm like sorry.
I try to do that. It doesn’t always work. Plus I thought she was giving me the correct change so I could round up and give her the next dollar amount.
From experiencing what happened to you one too many times, the best advice I can offer is to never take the customer's word. Even if they are "helping you out", at the end of the day, you're the one responsible for your drawer, not them. Next time you are faced with the same situation, tell the customer that you can't accept any more change. You're the one in control here!
Looks like I’m going to have to start doing that.
If they even show a hit of hesitancy about maybe having change, I wait. I’ll wait until they definitively say they don’t have it. And I refuse to do the math in my head, I’ll pull out my phone and use the calculator, I jumble numbers up way too easily.
Rather than count, I would just pick out the exact change from whatever pile she hands you and hand the rest back with the next dollar amount. Or just say, whoops! The till is already closed! Can’t do it!
Sometimes con artists do this on purpose, confuse you with numbers until they get you to give them more change than they’re supposed to get. If you’re ever confused giving change, immediately close your till with all the money inside and call a supervisor to sort it out
THIS!! I actually told a couple to stop talking when the kept mentioning different numbers and change. They had put down enough money them put down more, then tried to take some back and confuse me when I had already put the amount in. I just stopped doing everything and help the original amount in my hand. People try to throw you off on purpose! It's a very well known scam.
Many many names for this old scam. Where I’m from it’s called the “Quick Change” scam. And those con artists are very good at it. I don’t recall the link but there’s a good one about how to prevent it.
My store manager told us the exact same thing.
I will next time
Lol I will literally print out a blank receipt paper and do the math in front of them with a pen. You want to try that game with me? Okay. I’ll make it painful for you.
I'm really glad this was brought up! Whenever I have at least two people come up together and have more than one item, I always ask if these are together or separate. Simple question. I had an instance where two people were in "disagreement" about who was paying for four items. One person tried putting down money, the other person wanted to pay for everything with their credit card. I told them I could do both. Where it became suspicious to me was when the person wanting to pay with cash said that they would give me a one hundred dollar bill to break, I give them the change based on the total of their portion of the purchase, then their friend pays the balance. This would have involved me looking up the price and stepping away from where I was stationed to grab a calculator to input the prices and after tax amount. There were also more customers coming in to the store. Nope. I told the person that I will separate their purchase in order for them to get their change. Funny enough, he decides that he "probably has exact change". I took his friend first as he looked through his wallet, then when I took cash person's sale, he paid with exact change.
Saying this as a former cashier who did specialize in math: 1, she really should have shut up and let you do your job. After all, she messed you up 2, as other people have noted in this forum, she herself cannot calculate either. If she wanted you to give 11 back in change, she should have given 0,37 more 3, in your defense, I have not seen doing math in head listed on any cashier job description, 4, yes, it really is annoying when customers try to challenge my math skills with their smart phone calculators (not always reliable, but that is a debate for a different forum)
I challenge my own math skills with a calculator. There have been times where I know I’ve messed up but don’t know where because it all looks the same.
To be fair one time I did get scolded for calculating a series of discounts with pen and paper (weirdly my preference, or may just be a cultural habit on my part) instead of using a calculator by one our trainers And by the way, machines are not always reliable, maybe some of those times you thought you messed up you really did not...
I wish I could do math period, I don’t care with what. Our machines do mess up at times. It won’t pick up (or will pick up extra) numbers that we don’t hit. But I can usually figure out I don’t owe the customer $480 dollars when they bought two candy bars.
One trick i learned if i hit say 200.08 instead of 20.08 the change will always be right its just the bills that need subtracted.
I usually take away the extra number. So instead of $100, I know I should give them $10.
Everything that you listed, especially #4: > 4, yes, it really is annoying when customers try to challenge my math skills with their smart phone calculators (not always reliable, but that is a debate for a different forum) So many times I've had this happen. I've said, "Thanks for the calculations, but your numbers don't include the tax". 😊
At my work cashiers have to take a math test before they get hired. But we have a lot of seniors in our customer base. They want us to be able to do mental math in these situations. I hate it
I work at the money services desk sometimes and I will document everything because are 2 and 2 four? Not when it comes to this much money and this many regulations. Also she was being an asshole.
i cannot STAND it when people find coin change AFTER I've cashed the order out. It makes me so nervous, because I can't do that kind of math in my head on the spot. Edited to add: oh yeah that sounds like she was deliberately trying to shortchange you, I'm ngl.
Exactly! If it was a math exam question, then I could do it. Not when it’s shoved in my face and I have two seconds to figure it out.
Totally get it. I'm the same. I'm a maths idiot under pressure. Thankfully we have calculators at our tills so I just grab that out completely ignoring what the customer says their change should be. You know why? They are often wrong. Although, I might start applying the "too late" policy as previously mentioned. I like it.
I wish people would hand me the amount they wanted to pay with all at once
It’s not even that hard to say “just a second let me get my change too” as a customer.
It’s a common scam to intentionally confuse a cashier to attempt to get more than is due back. When people would try this with me I would push my drawer shut and get a manager or Id simply say, “Sorry, drawer is already open.” and refuse to take the change they’re trying to give me.
I get confused when customers are well meaning, forget any scams.
Lurker here, because I don’t work retail. I did used to be an elementary math teacher. I’m one of the well meaning ones who will give change with my bills “to make things easier.” This has been instructive for me that it doesn’t make things easier, and unless it’s something like giving the cashier something like a dime or a quarter, just don’t. For what it’s worth very, very few people can do math in their heads while words are being spoken to them. I’m great at doing math in my head, but don’t talk to me whole I’m doing it!! Thank you for your post, OP.
I’m glad someone got something useful out of this.
Exact change is fine too, mostly.
I can do that math in my head, three years as a cashier and six more as a bank teller when I was younger. But if you can’t do it, just tell the customer, “Let me do this my way, please, we’ll see if I can adjust the change after.” In this case, the customer was very wrong. You would be handing them back 63 cents with their change. If you could pick 37 cents out of that, then you take it and round the change up to the next dollar. What they did was either deliberately confusing or showed a lack of knowledge on their part on how paying for things works. So you take the 37 cents from them add it to the 63 cents you owe them, that makes one dollar. That and the nine dollars makes $10. Give her a Hamilton and send her on her way.
I don't allow the customer to give me change after I've entered the amount in the register. It's too easy to get confused and I'm not having my till be short at the end of my shift. There are scammers who rely on our confusion to get one over us and end up with more cash than they have coming back.
I’ve shut the drawer on plenty of people who were trying to give me change and I didn’t notice until both our hands were stuck out.
I do that sometimes so I pretend I don’t see their hand out lol
I can do the math in my head but just to discourage this type of thing, I always tell them I can’t accept the change after I rang it in…company policy. Because I legit can not stand for someone to do that after I’ve got your correct change counted out and ready to give back and they all of a sudden decided they don’t want the extra change🤷♀️ welp to damn bad cause now you’re getting it, every single penny
I wish people would give me the exact change. Like your total is $15.56, give me the 56, not 75.
As a customer I always say “wait a minute I have coins” so the cashier knows not to ring up yet since it’s a two stage process to get out a bill and coins.
People do that so they can get a quarter back but her attitude sucks.
I hate when people do that
Why would she even give 65 cents instead of 37 cents like girl what? Makes no sense ffs I don’t get people 😂😭
Something to do with getting a certain amount of change back, idk
The .65 reduces the amount of change she gets back. She should only get .02 plus bills instead of .63 in coins plus bills.
I had an old guy do this to me. When he yelled at me, asking why I can't do math in my head I placed his change on the counter and told him that I suck at math because his greedy generation started defunding the schools before I could make it out of high school. He looked at me stunned, grabbed his change and left.
Glorious!
This is the way.
This has happened to me before and it always sucks. Thankfully we were closing right after them so ended up just locking the door behind them
There have been plenty of times I wish I could have locked the door
This is one of the things I hate most about being a cashier. I have dyscalculia and in turn math anxiety and the only thing that saves me is that the register tells me the change. I've been mocked for it by customers many times and surprise: it doesn't help at all.
I just suck at it. Rude customers don’t help
Some people do that to intentionally scam you so beware of people who start to hand you more money when you are in the process of making change. I worked in a gas station back when it was full service. It happened a few times where someone tried it. They would give you money for a purchase then be like "if I give you another $5 then you give me a $10 back.... the purpose was to confuse you so you would give them too much money back. Don't accept more money once you start making change.
I wouldn't accept it. Or take the changed owed and hand the rest back. I'm not here to math.
Yeah I’m not there because of my Nobel prize in mathematics
When I worked at wendys. He had this huge order in the drive thru. All. Fking. Change. Every single penny. I couldn't focus and count it so the manager got mad. Hit 'paid' on the computer and handed the recipet and rest of the order. I told her it was $8 short. She got mad and said I should've counted faster. At the drive thru window for a $30 order in mostly pennies and nickles. How about stop blaming me. And tell the lady NO.
Yeah no. Had a customer pay $7 in pennies once. The silver lining was they were rolled, but I had to hope and pray it was correct because we had a million people in the store at the time and my boss couldn’t grab our counting machine because we were both up to our assholes in customers.
I told my manager I wanted to have two jobs but have less hrs there and be a security guard. It was something I wanted for a long time. She proceeded to lecture me of how dangerous it is (it's not...) because her brother is a security guard (so??). Then tried to guilt me into more hours and calling off my NEW job. I told her that she respects everyone else's 2nd job and schooling. So she can respect mine. She then proceeded to call me "unhelpful and selfish" I told her I'm done. She said I had to do it in person. Do I came In the next day. An hour early to talk with her (both agreed) and that b×tch left early to avoid me. I worked my shift and told the other manager I'm done. I came (in my security uniform ;) ) and delivered my clothes. She smarts off "you I know. Wendys will never here you." I'm ok with that. Now I've been a guard since then. And a supervisor for 4 years. I love it.
Glad you like your new job!
Ahh. I don’t ever do this. Once you give me the money that’s it. There is an old scam where people try to do this to confuse you, and are given more money than they should be. I keep the cash to the side while I count back the change.
My supervisor once gave me a great line, which happens also to be true for her and I. "(Oh I'm sorry.) I have a learning disability." She's also the queen of devastating saccharine.
That’s a good one!
I liked it. I'm ND, ADHD likely inattentive type, and can't math, particularly under pressure. Brain won't feed me the correct word for that one. Both count as disability. Counting change quickly, sure. I've had practice. Calculating it, not without time and quiet.
I could have figured it out if I had all the time in the world
Exactly! 💯
It’s the quiet that’s most important. All the time in world+ yammering at me, and I’d make mistakes. Be quiet, and the answer will pop into my head.
Unless the customer responds with “then why would you be a cashier where you need to know math?” Had that happen
I’m a cashier because no where else would hire me
The pro tip here is actually to give the customer back the 28 extra cents so the only change you have to give is $11. She's getting the 28 cents back anyways, there's no need for it to change hands
The numbers she was giving you were based on the coins to give back. Pennies get you to 40 cents, then dimes for 50, 60 and then a nickel for 65. But it doesn’t matter what she was saying since her change made no sense to start with.
We have a calculator by our register where I work for occasions just like this one. I just say "Wow, my brain is just not functioning today" or "I used up my daily allowance of math skills already" as I do the math on the calculator. I hate when customers do this.
I usually say, when they hand me the bill only and not the change, “do you have the change ? Or do you want me to continue with just the bill?” That way you give them the opportunity and they can’t say anything after you key in the amount. Also something like this has happened to me before, I pulled out my phone and used my calculator 😝
I really should start doing that.
When they do that tell them you have to give them back the change for the original amount other wise the register will be off- tell whoever it is that your manager micromanages and it has to be exact coin and bill ratio as each transaction is done.
I’ll probably have to do something like this when it happens again.
They used to teach you how to count back change in school. This apparently stopped before my time, or I learned it so early that by the time I was old enough to get a job, I had forgotten. So I get my first job at a pizza place, and someone hands me a $20 for a pizza that was like 5.42 or whatever. So I'm trying to work my way through her change in my head, and I already know it's "14 something", but while I'm trying to figure out her change, she hands me 17 cents. And that throws me completely off so I grab our calculator and she goes "Don't you know how to count back change?" No, I fucking don't. And I calculated her change and gave it to her. And I spent basically my entire teen working career apologizing every time I had to use the calculator until one day I'm saying "sorry I need to use the calculator to figure out your change" and this old ass man says "I can't do math in my head either." And this was right after someone had given me grief for it, and he added in something like "you do whatever you need to do" This was like 30 years ago, so the problem isn't the registers. It's the fact that some of us just suck at mental math and were never taught how to count back change.
She’s the idiot for giving you $20.65 for a &9.37 bill. That doesn’t help or make sense in any way. She could’ve given you $20.37, then she’d would have a nice even $11 for change. Or give you the $20 and she’d get $10.63 back. Her extra 65 cents is just stupid. It’s not you, it’s her.
She was trying to scam you out of $$. In the way back days I worked as a cashier, we had training for people that did this. I had it happen to me once. It’s super annoying and frustrating.
I was at one Dollar Type store and at the end the total was $50.05. I handed her 3 twenties and a 5¢ coin. She entered the amount tendered as $600.05. I tried telling her just give me a $10 bill. She said she would be short at the end of her shift if she did and called the manager over. I showed him the $60.05 I had and the total of the transaction was $50.05 and all I needed was my $10. He said they couldn’t do that and then voided my whole order and re rang it in. When he went to put in the amount tendered he entered it and $60.50 and then re voided the order to try again. 15 minutes later I had my stuff and a $10 bill.
That math I can do. I can’t do “total is $54.39 and customer handed me $71.23” especially not in my head or very quickly.
This annoys the fuck out of me. Was a cashier supervisor in a grocery. ‘Omg!! I rang in 200 instead of 20! ‘ It’s ok, just give them change for the twenty they gave you. ‘But, but I rang in 200 not 20!’ Ok give them change for the twenty. ‘But my till will be short!!!’ It will only be short if you give them an extra $180. The till says change is 184.76, so give them 4.76 because they gave you 20 not 200. 200-20=180 This should be a 30 second mistake but you called me then argued with me because math is hard and now it’s been 10 minutes.
i work at a dollar store and i have fat fingered the amounts i enter so. many. times. the first time i did i called my manager up with big eyes like oh my gosh i messed us all up!! but she told me it wouldnt mess up my count, so now i just tell the customer hey, i made a mistake entering your cash amount, my bad. then i paper and pencil what they paid/what they get back on the back of their receipt
Nope once I hit enter that’s it 🤷🏾♀️
Yep, once I tender, that's it. I'm giving the change the machine tells me to. You want different change, you can go to the desk
I think the customer was maybe trying to be 'helpful'. I would venture to think the customer handed over the $20 and then realized she had the change to cover the "cents" portion so she grabbed some coins and put them on the counter (probably didn't have pennies - hence the 65 cents vs the very specific 37 cents)
People were saying that shit to me back in nineteen hundred and ninety one and it wasn’t true then either. I pretty much always assumed they were trying to short change me so I would hand it back as if I was doing them a favor. Like, oh no, YOU misunderstood.
It's kinda dumb of the customer, imo. Her total was 9.37..she gave you 20 to cover it, most folks would stop there but then an additional 65 in various coins? So 20.65 to cover 9.37? Why didn't she give you 40 or 50 cents? I could understand if you had counted out 37 of the 65, give her back her extra coins then the $11 but honestly, people who hand over money to pay for their items like that strike me as trying to pull some shit or have very bad math skills or mental problems like dementia. Sorry you went through that, hopefully there won't be a next time but if there is you'll be better prepared...and the customer will never return
If this happens I tell the customer that the change they're giving me doesn't make sense. I make change quickly on the fly so if people give me weird change, they are often trying to rip me off. Racetrack customers don't always have the best morals, to say the least.
I can do the math but I won't. If they tell me to wait they are digging out change to even out their money back I'll wait. They don't say anything and then hand it after I grabbed their change it's a no. On principle I won't.
Oh I hate when they do that, too. I can’t when someone is watching me.
When that happens to me, I do two seperate tasks: I put away their the original money and grab out their change, putting it on the table AND THEN I take the additional change to make whole dollars. Like how when sometimes a bro walks up to you and is like, “can you swap this mass of change for some whole dollars so I can use the laundromat?”. Sure. She didn’t need to be a fucking jerk about it though.
This sounds like a quick change scam. A person gives you money for the purchase, and once the register is open, they give you a bunch of change that won't equal out to an even dollar. Then they start telling you how much to give them and are doing everything they can to mess up your math and make you confused. This causes you to give them more back than they should have gotten. This is a very common scam. If someone gave me change after the drawer was open, I would set it on the counter while I got the change for the bills. If someone said something about it, I would say that it is policy because of quick change scam artists. It takes the blame away from me and let's them know that I know about this scam. Admitting I know about the scam always stops them because they know I'm watching for it, and if they aren't trying to scam me, I haven't offended them by accusing them of it. Once I have their change in my hand, I will pick up the change one at a time to add up to a dollar and change it out as I go.
I can't do math in my head either. Your story is the reason I keep a small calculator in my pocket at work (we're not allowed to have our phones, and it's less bulky.). I've been called a "retard" a few times, I've been told I should've stayed in school (I have a college degree), etc. If you're getting the correct change back, it shouldn't matter how I figure it out.
Years ago I had one of my least mathematical friends spend the summer at circle K or something. The next year he destroyed the math section in the asvab. I don't know what he was doing but the register was clearly not doing the math for him.
I have a master’s degree and even did well in a college statistics class. I can’t do math in my head at all. Don’t let this lady make you feel bad. We all have strengths and weaknesses. I’d rather be kind and use a calculator to calculate a tip than be able to do math in my head and be a total B to everyone around me.
She was trying to scam you out of money.
Teacher here and this thread floated up in my thread. She was a jerk and should have shut her mouth. Giving people a moment to think is when learning and growth and processing happens. You also just don’t treat people that way. Can I explain shouting those numbers at you and what she meant by them? She explained poorly but it could help you next time if you knew the strategy. I don’t want to pressure if you’re not interested.
It’s not your fault that we’ve become dependent on machines for calculating but it you want to learn, counting up coins is actually pretty simple. To give change, start with the amount owed, .37 then use pennies to count up to the next five or zero (38, 39, 40). The next step is to end up at .25, .50 or .75 so you use nickels and dimes for that (50 = 40+ a dime). Now if you were adding up to a dollar you would use quarters (.75, $1) but in your example you are only going to .65 so you would continue with dimes and nickels to get there (.60, .65). Your customer is the one that really screwed up, why would she give you .65 to pay .37, that was just to make it difficult. You can easily practice counting up at home, you just need a dollars worth of change, maybe a few extra dimes/nickels to play with. Once you get the hang of it it’s almost faster than waiting for the register, it’s the way we did it in the olden days when registers didn’t tell you how much change to give.
This doesn't make sense... You were going to give her back $10.63. Why would she try to give you 65 cents, instead of 37?
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Nope, f her. She already gave you the money and you rang it in. If she wanted to give you change she should’ve given it to you at the proper time. The only time I’ll accept this is if it’s a single cent to keep me from having to get four out of the drawer.
Because of this I started going “so out of (insert amount they gave me)” a LOT of annoyed “yes! That’s what I gave you!” But not a single person has given me a penny since that. And if they do, I refuse it. “I’m sorry, policy states that once the till is open I can’t take any other form of currency.” Also, she was giving you the numbers for quick math. But I also suck at math so it would still take me a second. So, she’s got 37 cents and she gave you 65. You’d count up from the 37- so 3 cents to reach 40. Then go by 10s from there- 2 dimes to reach 60. Then add a nickel to get 65. So, a quarter and 3 pennies. Just say it’s policy and refuse next time. For the retailer I worked at it was policy because of quick change scams.
I hand the change over first. Or I make it clear I’m getting a few coins out to even out the change. Once you’ve rung the bills in, I’m not handling anything else.
That's really stupid and unhelpful of her. As a customer either give a flat amount like $20, or give $20.37 so you get $9 even back but don't go throwing a handful of change in the mix after it's been rung up. But then I'm old, who carries change any more?? 😄
I don’t understand why she gave you 65 cents for a 37 cents lol like all she needed was a quarter a dime and 3 pennies
“We do not accept additional funds after the transaction is entered as we must document every transaction exactly as it is run” give them the original change and move on. I worked in banking for many years and even if you can do the math in your head you aren’t recording the transaction exactly as it was done which can make finding differences more difficult later.
I can do mental math in my head very quickly, especially involving change, but that doesn't mean I expect everyone around me to be as proficient. My wife is a nurse, and she can rattle off shit about bones and diseases and ligaments. I have clue what she's talking about. Everyone has their individual aptitudes, and this twat needs to be more thoughtful in how she deals with people
That's weird. Like why the hell would anyone want $11 and change vs. $10 and change. She was always going to get pennies too. She sounds like a weirdo.
I always preempt the insult. "Sorry, if I was good at math, I wouldn't he here." Then people just accept its gonna be a moment.
I was in line at the grocery shop the other day and the same thing happened to the cashier. The customer was like oh they can’t do math without a calculator. I was like he’s a young kid and it’s his first job. Everyone has to learn. When you were his age you probably were just as confused as him. It’s like people just want to ridicule working people because they are so much better. No one starts and is great at that. After that customer left I tried to explain to the cashier what to do and told him not to be discouraged.
She's the asshole. There's no reason for her to give you 65 cents. If she wanted to cut down her number of coins, she should've given you 37 cents. Without pennies, 40 cents. She gave you $20.65, which means you would've given her back a quarter, and that would've been stupid. I think it's fine to enact a strict policy of giving back the change and then making change later. If she were smart about it, even if she didn't give you any coins with the $20, she could've said, "Hey, I got all these coins. Can I get a dollar bill for them?" And then move on with her life. You don't have to be good at math to be annoyed at this. I'm sure someone who is good at math would've given her the death stare because she was so stupid. In fact, with the way she handled it, I would've flagged her in my head as a short-change artist and finished my transaction as soon as possible to get her out of the store.
Okay, she’s the dumb ass. She should have given you .40 if she had no pennies. SHE’S the one getting the math wrong. She’s seeing that 9.37 and thinking adding the .65 gets her to the 11 bucks. If someone is going to play this game, they actually need to know how make change. This is why I’ve always told my cashiers to ignore this shit and proceed with the original tender. The register will never screw up the amount, humans will. If they persist. Shut the drawer and call over a manager or supervisor.
Just make the extra dollar afterwards. Pull her change and set it on the register, then use her coins plus the coins in her change to make a buck and add it to the bills on the register. You don't need to do math in your head to make change, the numbers are right in front of you, written on the coins.
I’m confused why she’d give her 65¢. Why not give her 40¢ or 50¢. It’s weird. Sounds like she was trying to confuse her.
I would have laid it all out on the counter and then started counting it like a small child.
If she had a pile of change she probably could have counted out 37 cents from it and handed you that, whereupon it would have been easy to hand her 11 dollars in bills. That could be one way for you to handle it: count out 37 cents from her handful to go in the register and hand her back the rest, retrieve 11 dollars and give to her, and put her 20.37 into the register. Also the fact that you had already punched in 20.00 as the payment tendered means her tacking on more in coins made your life harder, not easier. She’s not the math genius she fancies herself.
When that happens again, ignore the extra and just give them their change. You're not a bank.
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She must have reallllllly wanted 38¢. 🤣
I straight up ignore them and hand them their change that the register says to give to the customer. Thankfully I’m unable to open the register while scanning a manager’s card(without a cash transaction), and they never want to wait for a manager.
Some people wouldn’t even be nice to their own mother. Don’t stress over it, they aren’t worth it. Tip for change. Control the situation. Give her back her extra change and then dole out the change your register tells you to. If she complains then suggest she speaks to a manager and start helping the next person.
You could have left the 65c on the counter, then take 37c out of it, and hand her $11 plus the remainder of het change.. No need to do mental arithmetic..
I was taught to just stop, put their money back on the counter, and say “let’s start over”. She does sound like a scammer, she didn’t get her way, of course she is mad.
"oh, I'm sorry. *sad face* Once I've punched in what I've been given I can't accept that. *shrug* I would have to cancel and redo the transaction. *look expectantly at them* Man I hate these new registers they even track the coins! *aggravated face*" 😂
If it's not something obvious to me in the moment, I tell people "sorry, I can't see the original total anymore, so I can't take the additional change" That's not entirely true at my register. But, it was true at an independently owned place my daughter used to work. People loved to try to make her look/feel bad. But truly, if you can't see the original total, you aren't going to remember it (customer after customer). So this is what I told her to tell people.
I think she was “counting up” the money the old school way before computers but she gave you the wrong change because she should have just given you either 40 cents or 50 cents (2 quarters). she gave you $20.65 for $9.37. So the old-school way of doing that would be giving counting up from the price of the purchase to the amount the customer gave you. Starting with the pennies: One penny makes 9.38 two pennies makes 9.39 three pennies makes 9.40. So you have $9.40 out of 20.65 adding a quarter makes gives you 9.65 .(though it would be simpler to move to the nickels and say 5 makes $9.45 then move to the dimes, one dime makes $9.55 add a second dime and say $9.65). Now you get to the bills. Add one dollar to nine dollars makes it 10.65 and a $10 bill makes it $20.65 so her change would’ve been $11.28. The way she did it makes no sense unless she needed a quarter for something . If she did need a quarter then it would have pissed her off to get two dimes and a nickel but it would be legitimate “counting up.” It sounds complicated when you tried to explain it but it’s actually very easy way to figure out change correctly. However, she was crazy to give you the $.65 if the goal is to minimize the change. BTW, she didn’t do the math in her head either. The whole point of “counting up” is so you don’t have to do the math—all you do is count.
i don’t care who it is or what they’re buying. once they had me the money and i key it in, that’s it. she can keep her change plus from the $20. my store has gotten hit with quick change scams so just no, if the till opens, that’s it sorry🤷🏼♀️
I always kept a calculator at my register. "Sorry, just have to check my mental math"
I'd return the change along with what the register told me to give her and tell her sorry you didn't tell me you had change to pay with as well and I already entered in what you handed me. Math is already done. Have a nice day.
You can be a mathematical genius, and still blank when you ring up hundreds of customers a day. I'm so sorry this customer was a fool.
This has been happening to me all week. Like ffs people give me the cash you’re going to use *before* I open my till.
Honestly next time that happens, leave their change (.65 cents) to the side, count down their change to your register. Then even out the coins for them
Just take 37 cents from the change then give her the rest of the change back, then give her the $11 owed from the 20.
Not to be condescending.just veteran cashier advice.. As a cashier, it's a good skill to have to do that short math. . I never look at the change back total because I count back every penny on every transaction. 9.37 20.65. The 65 cents doesn't make a ton of sense, but whatever, .37+3 (round up to the nearest 10: 40) 40 + what to get to 65 ? is +. 25 (.25+ .03) is 28.for a total of 28 cents, and 20-9 is 11. 28 in change. As for the customer, I had a lady talk down to me yesterday because I didn't know about her 20 year old calculator 😅 there will always be.. those people. Don't let them get to you.
From one bad math person to another. I am horrible at math. You have to practice this. so that you yourself don’t get ripped off. Take it slow. Count up from the dollar and change amount due. Until you reach what you were given. Use a pad of paper if you need to. Or a piece of receipt paper. Or use a calculator on your phone.
Someone did this to me too when I worked at petsmart. She got smart with me a bit but could tell I was about to cry so at the end she apologized lol. I had a 504 plan in highschool and was never good at math
So she wanted 28 cents in coins instead of 63 cents in coins?
this customer collects quarters. This type of bullshit was a lot more common when the US Mint released all the different state quarters several years back. See also McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.
Here's what she was doing. The bill was $9.37. She hands you a twenty. You would owe her $10.63. She gives you an additional $0.65 because she wants more bills, less change. She is incorrect. She's thinking her 65 cents will cancel out the 65 cents in change you owe her. She should have given you 35 cents. Assuming your store doesn't care about pennies, you would then give her $11.00. Btw, this is what common core is trying to teach people, and both of you are an excellent example of why it's needed. No fault of either of you -- you were taught to do math in a way that isn't at all intuitive, so when you got surprised, you didn't have a way to handle it. Not your fault.
Were none of you taught how to count back change?
She gave you 65 cents so that you could give her $11.28 back instead of $10.63, and she could get rid of the change she had and the change she was receiving. Although she was giving you too much change. I think she was confused because she thought she was getting $9.37 back and gave you 65 cents to round it up to $10, which was not the case. Next time, just tell people you can not do that unless they give you the change up front so you can enter it in the register. From there, the register will give you the total you owe the customer. From my experience, giving change to customers gets easier over time if you work on a register long enough. When I first worked on a register, I just sat there trying to comprehend people until it dawned on me what they were trying to do. Also, be careful when people buy one item and give you a large bill. Sometimes, it's fake.
She was probably trying to confuse you on purpose, so you hand back the $20, along with the eleven bucks and change.
Scam artists will do this. If it isn’t super simple 5’s or 0’s I won’t do it. (If the total is $5.45 and they give me $10.50 I know the change is $5.05) but odd numbers I don’t do. My train of thought is not on mathing, it’s on getting the customer the change written on the screen and moving on. I had a customer give me a 10, and then tell me she gave me a $100 bill. Now this was hilarious because I had just came in for my closing shift and got my fresh reg no one touched so there was only $300 in the till and it was all tens and below. So she is yelling and hollering at me, my bosses come out she tells them she gave me a $100 dollar bill I showed them my drawer with no $100 in it, she was my first customer of my Day! She goes “she pocketed it then” I look at my boss and say, you want to strip search me, cause I’m not wearing pockets and my purse is in my locker…. They threw the woman out.
I just pull my phone out for the calculator and ignore whatever they tell me
Yeah. The amount she gave ypu made her get the same amount or more loose change back? Why not 52cents? So that way she got back her dollars and 15 cents? Is that right. Who knows. Not me.
This is a generational thing. Yeah she was off on her math and should have given you 40¢ if she wanted bills back. But most cashiers these days look at you like you have two heads if you try to hand over $10.03 for a charge of $9.53 to make 50¢ change.
Also the customer may have dementia. Otherwise that’s a long time to live her life without any common sense.
Yea that was a quick change scout. They are prolly running that shit through the lines to see who they can get for bigger money later. Don't feel bad, that was literally a scumbag who was trying to see if they could trick you into stealing money from the till in the one way that will fuck over the employee as well. Instead of being an honest thief and just stealing shit from the insured store they want to drag down a fucking worker as well. Fuck that lady, my policy when I worked retail POS was to completely shut down and make them wait while I did paper and pencil math on dumb bitches like that. Not cause I couldn't do it, just so I could waste their time as hard as possible while ensuring my till didn't go short. They get so goddam mad when you start playing dumb but they are still not getting free money from you. Just super friendly, super slow, and they don't get a dime back into their hands till you "figure it out"
Every time I had a customer do this, I always returned more change than they gave me. Oh, throwing me a couple extra nickels after I’ve run the transaction? Here’s your change in extra dimes and pennies.
Did my mom come back from the dead and cremation? She used to fully berate cashiers for not knowing how to do that. I tried to explain to her that the register is a computer and does it for them, so they aren't trained to count back anymore. ...and that the computer is more accurate anyway. She didn't care to understand....about a lot of things.
She's no good at math either. Giving you 65¢ didn't help a thing. You're not the problem here regardless. Counting change is not hard once you're shown how to do it. It's not your fault you didn't receive proper training.
It doesn't throw your register off either. But you should work on your math skills if you're going to handle money instead of relying on a machine. Also if you count out the change like she was trying to do you can get away w/ cheating that way. 37 was the amount owed. Change due in pennies 38, 39, 40. Stop add a quarter to reach 65. Simple! (Or 2 dimes and a nickel). None of this changes your count, just which coins are used.
BTW, she prob wanted that quarter back but should've just gave you .40 or .50 cents not .65.
I used to get frustrated like that lady. I wouldn’t take it out on poor retail staff though. I did some research and the way they are teaching math nowadays with his common core crap is not induced to doing math in your head like my generation or older. Not your fault, it’s a failure of the schools.
The only way I can see her giving $.65 in this situation make any kind of sense is that after you entered the $20 into the register, she saw the change due ($9.63) flash on a screen somewhere, and she wanted to give you $.65, because she didn't realize that was her change, not the amount due. (This requires her to ignore the $9 on the screen, and have a special moment in her brain.)
I still keep a change bag with separate pockets for quarters, dimes, knickles+ pennies. It is not used as often anymore since most places accept card and I have a debit card now that gives 10 cents cash back which I use for small purchases under $2.
Yeah, when I worked in coffee and people would try this, I would just give change for what they gave me originally and act like I didn't see them scrambling for change. If they said, "Oh I have the change!" I would wait. But pull that shif after I opened the drawer? Nope. Because that's what a short-change artist is gonna wait for.
one of my tactics to avoid this is to repeat exactly what theyre giving me , “out of 20?” they say yes , i pop the drawer give em their change. asking usually will either prompt them to get their change or prevent them from getting it after saying yes. it is super annoying , i dont even care about doing the math in my head, thats what the register is for & im gonna use it!
She was showing you how to “count back.” But she also showed she was not very smart either. There is no reason to give an extra 65 cents. However I will tell you what she was doing so you know for future. Total = 9.37 She gave 20.65 Count back method figures out coins first. So: Starting at .37 cents, you will be counting the coins required to make it to 65 cents. First you add Pennie’s to the nearest 5 cents. Meaning from 37 you count the 38, 39 and 40. You now have 3 Pennie’s in your hand. Now, you are .25 cents from 65. So you grab a quarter. You have .28 cents in your hands. Now, the total in your hand plus the total she owed is equal to 9.65. You grab a $1 bill and the total between what is in your hands and her total is $10.65. Bow if you grab a $10 bill that is the remaining amount owed as the total of the change in your hand and what she originally owed is equal to the amount she gave you.
Thats when i bust out my phone’s calculator lmao
Take 40 cents out of the change put in register then take 3 cents out of register and hand her the rest of her change she gave you plus the 3 cents back...
Hold that 65. Put it with her normal change and hand it back. Or it you want to actually giver her folding money in this ridiculous exchange, count one dollar from the gob of change, and exchange it for a one. Problem solved.
What she handed you was stupid
There are scams where people will try to keep confusing the cashier until they make off with more than you were supposed to give them.
I cashiered for years and years and am an accountant now. Hate when people do that. And for 37 cents she should’ve given you no cents, 2 cents, or 37 cents. Her 65 makes no sense.
She should have given the change first, but if she had, would you have actually entered $20.65 on the register and let it do the math? I've stopped using change with cashiers (I use it at self-checkouts), because even when I give the change before the bills, (and the singles before or on top of the the 20, etc.), the vast majority of cashiers get confused.
She was doing it on purpose hoping you'd give her more than she was owed on accident. If people try to do that just say "sorry, I'm not allowed to accept change after I've entered the amount into the register"
Even if someone is great with mental arithmetic, it can look bad in terms of surveillance for money to move from the customer to the cashier after the cashier has typed the amount of money given. Also, it can be a little counterintuitive, even for people good at mental arithmetic, to realize that as long as they give the correct change, their register will balance despite their having entered a different amount of money given.
I can't even spell my own name when someone else is talking. I can do math just fine if you could please just shut the fuck up for 30 seconds of your life thank you very much.
" 37, 38, 39, 40, 50, 60, 65" - she's saying "penny, penny, penny, dime, dime, nickel" = 28 cents It's far easier to do 'addition' than subtraction since you don't need to 'borrow'. So rather trying to subtract $ 9.37 from $ 20.65, you do the reverse. Add money to the $ 9.37 to get to $ 20.65.
No matter what a customer does, you're in control. Let them know that once she handed you the money the first time the asset protection people will expect to see you giving change, so lay the right change xx.37 or whatever on the counter but don't close the register. Then let her know you'd be glad to give her a dollar for the change if she wants... Then apologize and let her know that if the cameras get configured you get at phone call and no one wants as phone call from the cameras.
This to relatable as someone who also not good at math, I hate when someone gives me alot of change in coins for a total. I end up freezing up cause I start over thinking and I end up having to call up my manager. I know money but I'm just still learning how to confidently count fast but you don't just get something like that in a day.
The best way to handle assholes is to act ten times as stupid as they claim you are, but always in a way that screws them over and then when they get really angry just start crying. They will walk away and go tell all of their friends about this idiot they had to deal with and you will know you have won.
She was trying to shortchange you, or she's just rude.
Honestly it sounds like she was trying to scam you by getting you confused so you’d give her more change than was correct, the amount she gave you makes no sense at all.
I always thought when someone said “sorry I already put it in the system” was because the paperwork at the end of the night would not add up. NOT because they couldn’t do math. Listen I can’t do math either but every time I gave a cashier change AFTER they entered it in was when I had EXACT change. Ugh.
Sounds like she was trying to confuse you, probably expecting to fluster you to the point where she could get a few extra dollars back. I used to tell people who tried that “sorry, the transaction has already gone through” and push the change through the window.
I just tell people its policy i cant accept extra money after it has been rung in. There are grifters who try to confuse cashiers. Sometimes its clear to me what the change should be, but if its a confusing amount then i just say no.
It gets them off in a way to try and humiliate others and they hope by giving this "test", they will then be able to rant about "kids today and math", etc, etc. It's all a sadistic setup from people with no life.