Why would a shop put in more in the till than I paid?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Caporegime
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
77,381
Location
Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Over lunch time I went to get a coffee from Costa (the one on New Street by Victoria Square) in Birmingham today. I got a drink and it came to £3.05. I handed over the exact change, the "Barista" who served me punched in £5.00 in the til, and change of £1.95. Except he didn't give me the £1.95. He did give me the receipt for the transaction though.

Why would he do that? The in take of the til is still £3.05 up, regardless if I paid in exact change or £5 but I don't see why he would put in £5.00?

(Not relevant to my thread but whilst I was waiting I saw one of the waiter scrapping off burnt bit off the bread from a toasted sandiwich before serving it to a customer. It was burnt to BLACK, I wouldn't have eaten it if I had cooked it myself, nevermind getting it from a place like Costa. Lucky for the customer, the waiter couldn't locate him, he might have left?)

Dodgy operation or what!?!

Next time I am going back to Starbucks lol
 
The tills have single buttons for note denominations, probably just quicker to hit one button than the 4 or 5 needed to enter the exact amount tendered.
 
It doesn't matter as cash still in the til is the same. He did not take 1.95 as he would then be 1.95 down. If the money is exact, you could put in 100000000000 quid and it would make no odds as it would say you would have to give x amount of change anyway.
 
Capn' $qu!ff said:
Maybe he had made a previous erroneous transaction and used yours to sort out the error I've had that happen to me before.
Click to expand...

If he added or took away money then this might be the case, but it sounds like it was easier to press the £5 button.
At the end of the day the till machine will quote that the till should have £x.xx in it, not worrying about individual transactions or denomination.
 
Tills have buttons for £5, £10, £20 etc. It's quicker and easier to press them than type in the amount handed over. That is the only reason: he didn't make any money, he wasn't correcting a previous error, etc.
 
Its quicker to hit the £5 button than type in £3.05 so nothing dodgy there, the till will still be right at the end of the day.

The burnt toast on the other hand is a crime punishable by death!
 
Less button presses, often there are dedicated £5, £10 and £20 note buttons so 1 button press is less effot than typing in the exact figure. :)
 
Fortyseven said:
No he hasn't.

There is probably a button for £5 but would be 3 button presses for the exact amount so it was quicker for you. They haven't gained or lost anything and neither have you.
Click to expand...

Russinating said:
Tills have buttons for £5, £10, £20 etc. It's quicker and easier to press them than type in the amount handed over. That is the only reason: he didn't make any money, he wasn't correcting a previous error, etc.
Click to expand...

Bennie-Mac said:
Its quicker to hit the £5 button than type in £3.05 so nothing dodgy there, the till will still be right at the end of the day.

The burnt toast on the other hand is a crime punishable by death!
Click to expand...

Righto, he's just a lazy **** who can't be bothered to key in the correct amount. What's the point in having a till with a tally roll if it's not being used.
 
Further to this, the only way of skimming the cash drawer whilst keeping the till level is to fiddle with combo deals and the like. I did not used to do this when working at the cinema, but if I would have then you could do something like this:

1. Someone pays the exact amount for a chocolate pot (£3) and walks off/doesn't want the receipt.
2. You don't put it through the till and keep the £3 to the side and/or in one of the spare coin sections in the till.
3. Wait until somebody buys a drink and popcorn and add the chocolate pot to that transaction (+£2) at the last minute so they see and you ask for the correct amount/give the correct change.
4. Pocket the £1 difference - the till is balanced, the stock levels are correct, and no customer lost or gained anything.

I did not do this very regularly ;).
 
When I worked at phone4u some days the till would be down over £400 so to make it up the manager used to discount nil value sales.

Bite them in the batty when an auditor came in and the till was down the float of roughly £200 -.-
 
cHk4 said:
When I worked at phone4u some days the till would be down over £400 so to make it up the manager used to discount nil value sales.

Bite them in the batty when an auditor came in and the till was down the float of roughly £200 -.-
Click to expand...

This in kind of my point. When a till is used by multiple people with no real way of tracking the transaction down to one person.
 
Orange Peel said:
Righto, he's just a lazy **** who can't be bothered to key in the correct amount. What's the point in having a till with a tally roll if it's not being used.
Click to expand...

Hah, next time you're stood in a queue waiting for the cashier to work the system 'properly' at least you'll know it's not because they're being lazy ;)

Doesn't matter what you tell the till it's getting so long as you give the correct change for the money handed over, it'll all balance at the end of the shift.
 
Dano said:
Hah, next time you're stood in a queue waiting for the cashier to work the system 'properly' at least you'll know it's not because they're being lazy ;)

Doesn't matter what you tell the till it's getting so long as you give the correct change for the money handed over, it'll all balance at the end of the shift.
Click to expand...

This may be OK in shops where they don't care about audit trails etc. Not keying in the correct information is plain lazy, it takes what a second at most of key in 3.99 rather than 5.00.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom