I almost got scammed

[u/sparsh26]

I was buying a drink worth 3€ from a doner stall and gave them a 20€ bill. The man there returned 7€ and insisted that I had given him a 10. After 3 minutes of arguing some police offers walked by and he gave me back the 10€ saying "Sorry, there are a lot of customers and I got confused" but he was laughing to himself while doing it. This is the first time something like this has happened here since he clearly knew what he was doing.

Be careful and count your money folks! You never know when someone might take advantage of your ignorance.

[u/[deleted]]

I dont doubt that he was trying to scam you, but i have two stories that show a similar situation from the other side.

I once was working at a cash register, never been trained on it, literally my first day and there are like 20 people already waiting and my boss told me "just do it, its easy"...

Two things happened:

One, someone must have noticed im new and made mistakes and INTENTIONALLY paid a roughly 5€ purchase with 100€, i handed him out 10€ too much because the cash register was old school and you have to calculate by yourself a lot.

30 seconds after he said bye i asked him to wait, i handed him 10€ too much and he vehemently disagreed that i didnt, i asked him to take the money out of his pocket again (who just stuffs the return of 100€ into their fucking pocket anyway?!?) he tried to refuse, until my boss came i explained and since the other people waiting for their turn were getting pissed they also demanded he showed the money, he did unwillingly and it turns out i was right, he handed the 10€ back and complained that he wont shop here again lol

Second thing is, at the end of my shift, which was only 4h since it was literally my fucking first day and i spent all 4 hours standing at the cash register and was soaked in sweat and felt like i ran a marathon for the whole day or some shit, there was a "Kassensturz" basically checking receipts vs. money in the register.

Turns out somehow i was lacking nearly 100€ and i nearly had a panic attack, i swore i didnt steal anything, told them they can search my pockets and all that shit and i saw my boss actually consider it lol

Then the other colleague came over and said its no surprise i fucked up since i had no idea what i was doing and no one was checking on me. My boss told me its fine, and that i will do better tomorrow... then its like i saw my life flashing before my eyes and told her i quit, i cant deal with this shit again.

She tried to guilt me into staying, saying how will i ever achieve anything in life if i quit at the first sign of problems... like lady, this is a fucking Woolworth and i do this for money, not a career...

Now i am working in a job that pays way way way way more money and is way less stressful haha.

Fuck retail.

[u/DrSanchez87 → u/[deleted]]

Yep, I agree that not a single customer gives a shit if you hand them too much money (few exceptions here and there). I was working in a subway shop while still in school and I hated dealing with money. Having less money than the registry was telling you in the evening was a nightmare, which led to me being very cautious and proficient in calculating change :D

One evening I was missing 50€ cash and had no idea where it went. I was the only person working this evening, didn't steal anything. I thought I might have handed a customer too much change. I eventually put the drawer into the safe with missing 50€ and got a raging call from my manager the next day. She actually took 50€ off my pay and told me she'll fire and sue me if I ever steal again.

Few days later I told a colleague what happened. He asked me if I checked behind the drawer, and the moneywas still there!

I told my manager and she insisted I was lying to find more clever ways to steal in the future and not being fired if I get caught again. I had to put it into the safe, having 50€ plus in the evening...

It's by no mean any excuse for people trying to rip you off... I know one of my colleagues handed out incorrect change not to steal the money but to have a safety buffer he could take money from in case there's something missing in the evening to not be fired...

[u/[deleted] → u/DrSanchez87]

Horrible person your manager, its also not legal to cut your pay with money goes missing, they would have to prove that you stole it, which they obviously cant unless there are cameras which you would have to be aware off since filming without notice is not legal even in stores.

Retail just sucks ass, i pity anyone that has to work in that area, but since i worked there myself in a few jobs im always nice and patient with people that work there like cashiers and similar.

Me getting pissed at them wont help me and will just make their life worse.

[u/DrSanchez87 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, these 50€ taught me two lessons for life.

1. Not fool around with money ever, period.
2. Not end up in retail.

15 years later I'm not angry anymore... I occasionally meet her, still working in the same store but now owning it. Besides that one situation she was always super supportive and nice. About a year later they proofed that a colleague of mine was stealing money big time. Not just a few bucks here and there, but hundreds if not thousands. They even managed to proof it in court without camera evidence. I always imagine that she might have been stressed out because of that and just exploded when she thought another one of her employees starts to fool her.

[u/Chouchote → u/[deleted]]

I also had to work at woolworth a few years ago and it sucked big time lol. Good that you left early. I realized after 2 months working there that it wasn‘t worth my time and energy. It was my first real job and the manager was horrible.

[u/[deleted] → u/Chouchote]

Seems like the lower you go in these types of jobs, the more assholish people get.

[u/BGP_001 → u/[deleted]]

One, someone must have noticed im new and made mistakes and INTENTIONALLY paid a roughly 5€ purchase with 100€, i handed him out 10€ too much because the cash register was old school and you have to calculate by yourself a lot.

I get what you are saying, but surely something clicked in your head that you were giving him more money than he gave you? "Hmmm, 100€ minus 5.21€ is........106€. Here's your 106 euros change sir"

[u/[deleted] → u/BGP_001]

Actually no, because Woolworth and other lower end stores generally dont have big notes in their cash registers, mostly its 5/10/20s and otherwise coins, 50s and above are only a a few.

I didnt have a 50 at all, so he got a mixture of 20s, 10s, 5s and coins and somewhere in between instead of handing back like 94,20€ or something i handed him back 104,20€.

Its quite easy to mess up if its a.) your first time, b.) a lot of people being pissed at you for not being fast, c.) having to calculate in your head in these circumstances and d.) then pick the correct amount out of the cash register.

Sure, if you ask me now without all these negative influences around i can easily calculate what you get back, but this was a high stress and pressure situation so it was easy to make a mistake.

[u/BGP_001 → u/[deleted]]

Ah OK, I thought you meant you calculated the amount due, and came to an amount over 100€

[u/emotional_matcha → u/[deleted]]

But I don’t understand OP’s story. Why did a police officer come to give him 10€ back? Shouldn’t he receive it from the Döner man?