I went to Keys Restaurant yesterday for lunch with some friends. My meal bill with tax came to $21.80. Not wanting to pay with a credit card, because they charge a 3% fee to use a card, I decided to pay with cash.
Since I only had twenties in my pocket, I had to give the cashier two of them. I wanted to give my server a $5 tip, so I asked the cashier for a five dollar bill with my change. She didn't count out the change back to me, she just handed it to me with a five on top and two dimes. I took the five and gave it to my server.
I was then talking a bit with one of my lunch friends as we walked out of the restaurant.
When I got out to my car and was putting the money in my pocket, I noticed I only had two fives and the two dimes. The cashier had shorted me $3. I should have received $18.20 from my two twenties I gave her.
Guess they got that 3% fee for the credit card after all. Either that or the cashier is in business for herself. The most likely answer is she doesn't know her math. What a world! And shame on me for not realizing her mistake before I left the restaurant.
Probably just math incompetence George. Fairly common and we have to be alert it seems, every time we do a transaction.
My last occurrence was when I gave a cash tip but paid by debit. When I got home, I found that I had also paid the tip on the debit, hence a double 20% tip. I missed seeing it happen somehow. Too busy chatting with my friends at the payment counter. It just frustrates me that it rarely happens in the customer's favour.
You should try living in France! All the major (French) international companies do exactly this on a grand scale: Banks; telecoms operators; postal companies - and what's more they confer amongst themselves to scam the public! It sounds implausible, but I have files of paper evidence and there is nothing anyone can do because there are no small claims courts (they say there are but this is just another French lie); there are no class A actions allowed.
Some Examples:
A) You close an SFR telephone contract and return fibre-optic equipment to their store. They give receipt by way of postal registration with tracking number to their head office; stamped with company info' signed and dated. They send it to a totally different destination with different tracking number and charge you 175€ for non return. The postal company refuses to give you tracking details of package, (even though with your telecom receipt, this is not your responsibility) but you are able to get those tracking details separately through private means. You have all the receipts - proof of a crime - and not the police, courts, nobody will do anything: the lot of them just grin-Fu(& you!
B) A company returns 35€ (!) to your Visa credit card - you later get evidence that it has been returned, but BNP Paribas say - even after one month - that Visa are still holding it. You go back and forth for a further month. These two huge, international companies are struggling between them to scam their customer out of 35 effing Euros. You withdraw all funds from BNP Paribas, close the account. BUT because BNP Paribas are so pissed that you have dared to defy them, three months later they ask your electricity supplier (yes, that read electricity supplier) to give them 190€ for payments made and cleared, long-since and the electricity company does so! Again, nothing you can do: you have to pay the electricity supplier 190€ again or pay tens of thousands in legal proceedings.
Long ago I learned that the infamous French shrug, rather than mean "what can I do?" - as I think most of us understand its meaning to be - in fact means "Eff-you!". The whole of France is run just like Batista's Cuba under Meyer Lansky's mafia. This is why the population are always setting light to the Champs-Élysées.
George, at the end of the day you were shorted $3.00. What impact will this have on your financial situation? Zero I suspect. Don't sweat the small stuff.
George, at the end of the day you were shorted $3.00. What impact will this have on your financial situation? Zero I suspect. Don't sweat the small stuff.
I don’t think it’s about “sweating the small stuff” but more of a disappointment of the loss of some very “basic” skills that have been list forever…like making change (especially when they have a machine at their side that gives them the answer) or reading an analog clock…none of my grandkids can do either, no matter how hard I try to teach them…
These are unfortunate things that occur with the passage of time between generations, however the real tragedy is that these young people will never get to know Bucky Beaver and Speedy the Alka-Seltzer kid.....and there are more!
George, at the end of the day you were shorted $3.00. What impact will this have on your financial situation? Zero I suspect. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Oh believe me John, I didn't lose any sleep over it. It's stuff like this that gives me things to talk about after shaking my head in disbelief. My "Coffee Talks" provide both conversation and entertainment which consist of my "opinion, experiences, and observations" along life's journey.
The shortage of the $3.00 in the scheme of things isn't what bothers me. What does bother me is that our schools no longer teach reading, writing (cursive), and arithmetic. Kids today are just shuffled through school and graduating without the basic life skills that school was intended to teach.
Hey friends, when I go to McDonalds to get a coffee, it's $1.59 plus 12 cents tax, so a total of $1.71. I will give the cashier $1.75 and if I don't ask for the 4 cents change, they don't even attempt to give it back to me. And pennies or not, "yes", I want my change. Another example with regard to that $1.75, sometimes I hand the cashier 7 quarters. Seriously, the dazed look on their faces is priceless. They will struggle with not knowing that 7 quarters is $1.75. Basic math? It's lost to the ages.
I've also been shortchanged at the register a few times and haven't noticed until I got home, however I've also been given more change than I should have. In those instances, I simply put the money in my pocket and leave the establishment. If the cashier can't read the register correctly it's their loose.
These are unfortunate things that occur with the passage of time between generations, however the real tragedy is that these young people will never get to know Bucky Beaver and Speedy the Alka-Seltzer kid.....and there are more!
Or play with a Slinky and be somewhat fascinated by it...
Being dumb is sad but being dumb and don't know it is tragic.
What do you mean by this exactly Bob........?? Seems a bit deep.
Not deep at all. I think Bob nailed it! A good segment of our younger generation are floating around in the world, totally clueless! If they would spend more time learning important life skills instead of piercing their bodies with rings and pins, and having worthless tattoos inked all over their bodies, they would be much better prepared to be a part of society and function intelligently in it.
