Special Snowflake Stories

[LadyJaneinMD]

A few years back I bought some meat from a butcher at the market. The price was £x.99 and he kept my 1p change saying he had no change and needed it more than I did. I asked how he came to that view, but left it at that.
He has of course lost a customer for the sake of that 1p whereas if he had given me 2p back I could probably have found another 1p in my purse.

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

[Pen^2]

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth.

Again: it's my money, and it's not up to you to decide if it's not enough for me to want.

[BabyMama]

Who is going to invent a Snuggie with a wine bottle pocket?

I knew someone whose mother sewed pockets into a jacket lining for them to smuggle alcohol into sporting events for them. 

I bought this for my husband last Christmas. It's a hoodie with a "kangaroo" pouch--an insulated pouch that holds a beer bottle 
http://www.grainbelt.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2229&products_id=22492&osCsid=6f9d5d5eec2eba76b6c8f7ac1abfa70c

[LadyClaire]

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth.

Again: it's my money, and it's not up to you to decide if it's not enough for me to want.

Besides, that loose change really adds up. DH and I toss our loose change into a big plastic bottle at the end of the week. The bottle is about halfway full at this point. When it's completely full we plan on cashing it in and doing something fun with the money. Heck, I stop and pick up any coins I see on the ground when I'm out and about. My place of employment seems especially prone to loose change. I joke with my co-workers that I made 25 cents (or whatever amount I find that day) walking from my car to the building.

[whatsanenigma]

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth.

Again: it's my money, and it's not up to you to decide if it's not enough for me to want.

Besides, that loose change really adds up. DH and I toss our loose change into a big plastic bottle at the end of the week. The bottle is about halfway full at this point. When it's completely full we plan on cashing it in and doing something fun with the money. Heck, I stop and pick up any coins I see on the ground when I'm out and about. My place of employment seems especially prone to loose change. I joke with my co-workers that I made 25 cents (or whatever amount I find that day) walking from my car to the building.

And also, if employees get used to being careless with small change, it could get worse.  First they are a nickel off but nobody complains, because it's "just five cents".  Then it could turn into dimes, quarters, maybe eventually even dollars.  And this is assuming they are just getting careless and giving the wrong change by accident.  Imagine if you worked at, for example, a fast food place, and managed to cheat every customer out of a quarter, or even a dime.  That would add up pretty darn quickly.  Especially because each individual person might not want to complain over that amount.

This is similar to the fact that if I personally am in a fast food place and I get the wrong order, I always take it back, even though I am not really that picky over certain things, I just have mild preferences.  I am always polite about it, of course! (Usually I say something like, "Sorry, I seem to have gotten someone else's sandwich".)  But just because I am "okay" with what they have given me, others might not be, and to the point of a severe allergic reaction if the wrong thing is on the sandwich.  So I want to remind them to pay careful attention to orders and give the customer what actually was ordered.  And I want them to pay careful attention to how much change they give customers, and give them the right amount.

Small things can add up and I think it's important not to let important small things slide.

[Thipu1]

We keep our loose coins,  roll them up and bring them to the bank every few months.  Our last collection came to 185 USD.  Not bad.

[Margo]

he doesn't feel welcome in his own brother's home     

You might have been given a gift there - don't let him feel welcome again!

His behaviour is extremely rude, and borders on harassment.

I agree! He'll get over it or die mad.

[Kariachi]

Not an SS story, but the talk of small change got me thinking about my issue with pennies.

I spent two years living on an AFB in Turkey as a child. Since it was so far away, and this was when the War on Terror was starting up, we didn't have access to pennies, at all. Okay, fine. But this didn't stop everyone from marking their goods as $x.99. Ground my gears down to nothing that I never got change back for my purchases, to the point where I nearly crowed when we moved back to the states and I got a penny back on a purchase.

I all but hoard them now, most of the weight of my purse is pennies.

[Yarnspinner]

How did you keep from shouting "Are we really arguing about 90 cents?!"

The problem with saying "are we/you really arguing about 90 cents?" (or "15 cents," or whatever seems like a small amount in that context) is that it goes both ways: the person saying it is making exactly as much of a fuss about that 90 cents as the person they're talking to. If you think that 25 cents more or less for a cup of tea is trivial, you should be willing to accept the smaller amount (if you're the store) or be willing to pay the larger amount (if you're the customer). The shopkeeper who says "but if I gave everyone that discount it would cost me significant money" is matched by "but if I paid that much more for everything I bought, it would cost me significant money."

Tea Drinker, keep in mind that while both people are probably becoming equally agitated over what seems a small amount, it is the JOB of one of those two people to collect that money.  ONE of those people could, depending on the environment in which they work, put their head on a career chopping block by giving in.  The other person isn't taking a risk of getting fired.

My special pet peeve about that ninety cents (or any small fine for a library book) is that a patron will make a HUGE fuss about it and then pull out a hundred dollar bill (despite signs clearly stating that, as we are a library and not a bank, we can only accept twenty dollar bills) and scream bloody murder because we can't change a hundred.  This despite the fact that wrapped up in that hundred is a huge wad of one dollar bills.  If I had a dime..

ETA because "agitated" only has one "d".

[snowdragon]

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth.

Again: it's my money, and it's not up to you to decide if it's not enough for me to want.

Besides, that loose change really adds up. DH and I toss our loose change into a big plastic bottle at the end of the week. The bottle is about halfway full at this point. When it's completely full we plan on cashing it in and doing something fun with the money. Heck, I stop and pick up any coins I see on the ground when I'm out and about. My place of employment seems especially prone to loose change. I joke with my co-workers that I made 25 cents (or whatever amount I find that day) walking from my car to the building.

I do that too, and  I just bought the entire "Dear America Series" with what I cashed it.  It certainly does add up and I agree anyone doing that looses my business and if it's a chain place - a letter to corporate.

[2littlemonkeys]

*Cough*

Yes, it exists!  One of the women on my float for Mardi Gras had one! 

Holy cow, the first review on that page is HYSTERICAL!

GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I just about died at the end when the writer talked about sizing.   

[Virg]

Pen^2 wrote:

"Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth."

I used to work in a bank, and I'm very familiar with what you describe here.  Whenever someone who shorts change responds in that way, it's a very good indicator that they're skimming and trying to shame the target into letting the matter drop.  I fired more than one teller for that attitude and I'd call for the manager if I ever got a response other than "whoops, let me check that" to pointing out short change.

whatsanenigma wrote:

"Imagine if you worked at, for example, a fast food place, and managed to cheat every customer out of a quarter, or even a dime.  That would add up pretty darn quickly.  Especially because each individual person might not want to complain over that amount."

Precisely.

Virg

[Slartibartfast]

My special pet peeve about that ninety cents (or any small fine for a library book) is that a patron will make a HUGE fuss about it and then pull out a hundred dollar bill (despite signs clearly stating that, as we are a library and not a bank, we can only accept twenty dollar bills) and scream bloody murder because we can't change a hundred.  This despite the fact that wrapped up in that hundred is a huge wad of one dollar bills. If I had a dime..

If you had a dime, you could give them change for their dollar when they paid their 90-cent fine 

[Amara]

Quite a while ago, I remember reading an account of someone who worked at a major, high-end department store. This person dealt with the customer accounts before computers, I think, or at least when they weren't yet all that common. She stole thousands upon thousands of dollars by skimming only the cents from customer accounts. Their customers didn't bother much if any with the "change" so that's how the person got away with it for so long.

[mmswm]

This is partially a 'I'm never shopping there again!' story too, but I once had a kid at a Taco Bell drive-through try to cheat me out of 10 cents.  One thin dime. When I pointed it out, he gave it to me while muttering, 'I never heard anyone b***** about a dime before'.

Well buddy, it's MY DIME!

Ooh, I've had that happen, too. It was 5c, but still, I'm the type of person who sums things as I go and expects a certain amount of change before I get to the register. So when I get my change, I point out that 'it looks like you forgot 5c here' and all of a sudden I'm the cheapest person on earth.

Again: it's my money, and it's not up to you to decide if it's not enough for me to want.

Besides, that loose change really adds up. DH and I toss our loose change into a big plastic bottle at the end of the week. The bottle is about halfway full at this point. When it's completely full we plan on cashing it in and doing something fun with the money. Heck, I stop and pick up any coins I see on the ground when I'm out and about. My place of employment seems especially prone to loose change. I joke with my co-workers that I made 25 cents (or whatever amount I find that day) walking from my car to the building.

I do that too, and  I just bought the entire "Dear America Series" with what I cashed it.  It certainly does add up and I agree anyone doing that looses my business and if it's a chain place - a letter to corporate.

My youngest son is a change finder.  He's constantly looking at the ground and under store shelves.  I make him stash all his finds in a jar, and at the end of the month we take it to the bank. He makes roughly $20-$30 every month by picking up small change.  Every so often it's supplemented by larger finds,(he's found quite a few singles, some fives and tens, and even a twenty). This is how he finances his Lego habit.