What Do You Think Of Shop Assistants Who Short-Change Customers?

as well as the wrong amount of change you need to check that they give you British currency... I received 2 euros once instead of £2...
also Gibraltar £1 and channel island
coins look similar to British coins but are not legal tender

It's happened to me in a taxi before. I was with a friend, and I owed him a fiver. I'd just taken out two 10's from a cash point so that was all I had on me. When we got out the taxi the fare was only about 3 quid, so I handed him a tenner. At this point the taxi man is holding a fiver and the rest of my change, and my friend assumed that was what I had given him, and goes 'so you did have a fiver!'. The taxi man gave me back my 2 quid, and when I disputed it just said that i'd given him a fiver and got quite nasty, and I didn't really want to argue it whilst I was in his car so I just had to get out. Tbh if he needs 5 quid that much that he needs to stoop to those levels then he can have it!

Taxi drivers are the worst at this. Especially if it's late and they think you might be drunk, they're going to take as much advantage as possible.

I didn't glare at her or anything. I only found out I'd been short changed when I got home from the shops, after shop closing time, so I couldn't have glared. If I had noticed I'd been given the wrong change at the time, I'd have brought it up as nicely as I could have.

I'm fine with her if it was an honest mistake. It's a bit annoying losing five pounds, but if she didn't mean it I don't resent her.

I like to think that I would notice if a shop assistant has not given me the correct amount, though often if there's a queue behind me and I do not want to feel rude by counting it. I glance at the amount as it comes out of the till and if I know that they've not given me enough, I will bring it up. Occassionally the shop assistant may do it intentionally, other times they may not be very bright or panick easily.

I volunteer in a charity shop and I often work at the till, so I have some empathy for the shop assistants. You need to understand that if they did indeed make a mistake it can actually be very embarrasing for the shop assistant, so giving a judgemental glare back at them isn't going to help things. In fact that will make them even more embarrased and it will effect their confidence - in turn leading to the making of more mistakes. Furthermore it is important one understands that they could have just started, in which case they would be struggling to remember all the things they have to do on the till. However having said that I do aknowledge that short-changing with intent, whereby they would be stealing, is wrong, and you have every right to give them a hard time for that.

It's an accident. The tills get counted, so either money would be missing and in their pocket (they'd get in trouble) or there would be extra money unaccounted for in the till (they'd get in trouble.)

Everyone in the country should be made to work a week in retail, because once you're on the worker side of the counter you realise what unreasonable dicks some customers are.

There would be no point doing it intentionally, where I work you get warnings if you shortchange people, and eventually fired if it happens too often. If it's a shop assistant working in a chain store.... They wont benefit from shortchanging you.

And think about it, mistakes happen. Especially when you have to work 9 hour shifts during the run up to christmas, where its really busy and you are trying to be quick.

Fair Enough..

Its just that i've short changed people *accidently* and sometimes people can be really unreasonable and have no sympathy for the fact that it was an accident.

I like to think that I would notice if a shop assistant has not given me the correct amount, though often if there's a queue behind me and I do not want to feel rude by counting it. I glance at the amount as it comes out of the till and if I know that they've not given me enough, I will bring it up. Occassionally the shop assistant may do it intentionally, other times they may not be very bright or panick easily.

99% of the time its just a mistake.

In the back of their mind, they're remembering they need to restock that display as soon as they get an opportunity, and the till roll is running out, they've got a whole script of taught lines to say to the customer, and pack their shopping for them too, and remember to give out some stupid promotional vouchers that the shop is running this week. And then on top of that quickly do mental arithmetic and give correct change, taking into account they're running out of 50p coins so they're trying to use 10s/20s until a supervisor comes with a change bag, and they have to do a cash drop in the next 10 minutes too.

It's quite understandable that they might give the wrong change occasionally.

99% of the time its just a mistake.

In the back of their mind, they're remembering they need to restock that display as soon as they get an opportunity, and the till roll is running out, they've got a whole script of taught lines to say to the customer, and pack their shopping for them too, and remember to give out some stupid promotional vouchers that the shop is running this week. And then on top of that quickly do mental arithmetic and give correct change, taking into account they're running out of 50p coins so they're trying to use 10s/20s until a supervisor comes with a change bag, and they have to do a cash drop in the next 10 minutes too.

It's quite understandable that they might give the wrong change occasionally.

Disagree; the till does the arithmetic for them, of course some genuine mistakes will occur, but in certain industires like pubs a drunk customer buying a pint with a 20 note is perhaps too tempting to give change from a tenner for the staff on minimum wage or thereabouts.

Not all tills do it for you. And if the cashier gives the customer only a tenner in change then there will be a difference in the stock and the money in the till, they will be found out and fired, it's too big a risk, its way to easy to catch someone intentionally giving the wrong change.

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What do you think of shop assistants short-changing customers?

This happened to me a while back, with £5. I only noticed when I got home. It could have been an honest mistake, which I wouldn't mind, but she gave me a few vouchers with my change, and I wonder if that was a deliberate distraction.

This has actually really bothered me. It's not just the money, it's the fact that you feel like a ****ing idiot afterwards. I quite like to chill out when I'm doing day-to-day stuff. I don't see why I should always have to be a paranoid wreck on guard for short-changers. It makes me wonder why she did it too (obviously £5 is about an hour's wage for her so that's one obvious motivation). I live in my hometown and it's reasonably big, but it makes me wonder if she somehow knows me and is now mocking me with other people who know me over "outsmarting me".

I reckon that plenty of clever people could get short-changed if they weren't paying much attention.

I doubt it takes that much brilliance to short-change people. Just do "the distract people with crappy vouchers then give them the wrong change" routine over and over until somebody doesn't notice or is too embarrassed to ask for the right change back. If you socialise a lot so have practised to get reasonable social skills, and aren't a complete plank, you'll be able to pull it off.

What can you do about short-changers? If the shop is part of a big chain, can you complain to the branch through email and get them to take a closer look at their workers? Could you get into trouble for this?

Also feel free to discuss shop-lifters if you have any opinions on them.