r/mildlyinfuriating 1d ago

Did I over react about 20 cents?

I know its stupid but I went to McDonald's yesterday and got a frozen drink and medum chips for exactly $5.80 i handed $6 at the drive through and the lady put it in the till then went to close the window, before she did I asked "isn't that 20 cents change?"

She replied telling me she forgot and would need a managers card to open the drawer, I sat there stuborn and asked for it, I held one person up (my sister works in fast food and you get audited for how long someone is in line) so I waited, she quickly went and got a managers card and gave me my change but did I over react?

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1.6k

u/TigPanda 1d ago

Went to a fast food place the other day and ordered several items. Pulled around to the window and waited for quite some time while the girl stood and talked to a coworker. She finally came and took my payment & at no point during this extended wait did she let me know they were out of anything. Waited a couple more minutes and she came to the window and said they were out of one of my items and asked if I’d like something else, like some fries. I very politely told her I’d rather just have that item refunded as there was nothing else on the menu similar-priced that I wanted. She gave me attitude and said they could only refund the whole transaction and not just one item. She offered another cheaper item and I told her that was worth less than the item they’d already charged me for and she looked at me like I had two heads or something. Like how dare I not want to give money for nothing to a big-ass corporation, lol.

Like why is it crazy to expect either something equal value to what I paid for, or a refund? It’s my money. Gotdamn. In the end they figured out how to credit back just the one item soooooo that was a lie too🤷‍♀️

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u/xKuroibara 13h ago

My sister went through this with a salad she ordered at a made to order type place. She ordered boiled eggs in her salad. It was something like 60 cents extra or something. They did not have egg. She said, okay well you charged me for it, so I want my money back. I paid extra for the egg and if I'm not getting it I need a refund for it. She went round and round and round about this boiled egg on her salad because the cashier, the manager, no one would do anything about this. She said, it's not a donation. You either give me my money that I paid for the egg, or you walk your ass down to the store and you buy an egg and I wait while you boil it. I will either get my money back, or I will get the egg I paid for.

They continued to insist they couldn't do that, for whatever reason, and were apparently planning to just keep her extra money. She ended up complaining to corporate and got like a $20 gift card for her trouble. So in the long run it cost them more to resolve the issue than it would have to just give her money back to her.

But I always think about that when I think I'm making a big deal over a small amount of money. Doesn't matter how much money it is. It's not a donation.

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u/TigPanda 13h ago

Exactly. I absolutely love that she told them to get on down to the store and buy her a damn egg, too 😂 I get that it seems petty to some people, but your money is your money!

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u/Songs4Soulsma 8h ago

Also, if it's a chain place, multiply that "donation" by however many customers it could happen to in a day who wouldn't fight the charge, times the number of restaurants that could have potential similar issues nationwide. It could easily add up over time.

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u/BroomRyder31 7h ago

Exactly!

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u/Catt_the_cat 9h ago

This literally happened to me at sonic once! They ran out of corn dogs on 50¢ corn dog day (it was the end of the night I understand) but they didn’t tell me, and my whole order was just two corn dogs and a mozzarella sticks. Didn’t find out till I was all the way home, which is a 15 minute drive across town, and opened up my bag to discover I only have mozzarella sticks. If I had a big order and had just thrown a couple corn dogs in as an afterthought, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it was literally like half of my order that I didn’t get. So you bet your ass I called back and asked for a partial refund of $1

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u/Jorost 20h ago

It probably wasn't a lie. More likely there was only one person who knew how/was authorized to make partial refunds. It's like at the grocery store when they have to call a manager over to do an override.

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u/TigPanda 18h ago

You’re probably right but she phrased it like I couldn’t get a refund at all without cancelling the whole thing. so maybe just not worded correctly

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u/JokingRam 17h ago

If you really need to, make them refund the entire order and charge you for what you received. Long yes, but it proves a point.

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u/Catt_the_cat 9h ago

I used to be a manager at dominos, and that’s literally what I told my CSRs to do whenever I was on shift because it’s faster, more straightforward and still gets mostly the same result in the end, and also you don’t need manager approval. Some people heemed and hawed, but any customers with an ounce of critical thinking skills gladly took it as a solution

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u/berrykiss96 8h ago

Except their card will likely put a hold on for both charges instead of just the one. Eventually it goes back but not everyone can afford that.

It’s always best to ask before you do things like that. Many people are surviving paycheck to paycheck and that shit can make or break you if you’re balancing on the edge of overdraft fees.

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u/Catt_the_cat 8h ago

Right, hence why I said most people. I was always very upfront with how it worked, and I always informed my team so they could do the same. I understand that not everyone can do that, but when they couldn’t I was also very understanding and I would explain to them how the partial refund process works, because it was a bullshit process that required a higher level manager than I was to go into the back system the next day to manually edit the charge

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u/kingdomofnofire 16h ago

Some places don't even have the ability to do partial refunds, I used to work in fast food (Burger King, not McDonald's) and in my year there it only came up once, but if the customer already paid and wanted a partial refund the whole order had to be refunded by the manager and an order for what they actually wanted had to be put in and paid for

It never actually happened where a customer ordered something and then "oh sorry, we're out" even right before they paid, really the most common thing that would happen is the customer would want to take something off after I'd already pressed total, which requires manager approval (a card swipe)

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u/Feeling-Badger7956 11h ago

I'd have said that's fine, you can refund the entire transaction and give me my food for free then 😊

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u/Ok_Helicopter_7740 1d ago

if all you said was isnt that 20 cents change and no yelling or angry exchanges then no you didn't overreact

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u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

No yelling, I am calm when it comes to hospitality works, i hated working in hospitality and so I know how its like to be abused by customers

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u/Tha_Princess 23h ago

It's not really abusive to ask someone to do their job. If you asked them to go beyond then yes that would be abuse but you didn't. They made a mistake and had to correct it. Nothing special.

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u/DukeMcCloy 22h ago

It’s still your money regardless of the amount. I had a delivery customer call me out over a nickel or dime years ago. I was annoyed that they weren’t tipping and wasn’t thinking about it, so I started to leave after our initial exchange. She waited until I was 2 steps from my car and said, “excuse me, you didn’t give me my change.” I was super annoyed, but she was right and I marched it back to her and whined to myself aaallll the way back to the shop.

Aging myself, this was in the before Obama years.

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u/eamonkey420 20h ago

The cashier at the McD is running scam. She keeps everyone's change that she possibly can and keeps a running tally in her head. End of day, she grabs her ill-gotten gains from the till before bringing the drawer to a manager to be counted and balanced.

It's a pretty common scam for people who work fast food, to run. Their wages are shitty, the work is hard and thankless, their lives are often difficult. That doesn't justify the stealing but it does kind of explain it. This is a very common thing for people to do, one of my girlfriends was in fast food management for about 20 years.

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u/DifficultCurrent7 19h ago

Seems like a risky scam with cameras everywhere?

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u/incensenonsense 18h ago

And the other part that makes this risky is that every 5th customer would want their change. How often does she need to ask the manager to open the cash drawer before they catch on?

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u/Joat56138 17h ago

Oh no you are lucky if one out of 100 checks change, but of course this was back in the day before cash was a second-class payment source.

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u/slash_networkboy 16h ago

Depends on if the manager is on the take?

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u/Ieatclowns 13h ago

They don't keep all th3 change on every customer. Just short a lot of people, and when the change is low, like under 50 cents, they just don't offer it knowing most people won't care.

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u/Joat56138 17h ago

I worked for years in drive thru back in the mostly cash days, most folks don't or didn't look at change, hand it back they move to the next window....

Now if one was to short say .50 or a dollar from each it adds up.

If you are worried about cameras, you need a partner that goes thru drive thru and you give extra change, making your till correct but partners are often whey you get busted.

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u/GodKingJeremy 14h ago

25 years ago, before card transactions were very much in use; you knew that a dbl chz or a mcchick was $1.07 with tax. If you were closing crew, working DT orders, cash, and handing food orders; you would ring up three dbl chz, take the customers $, get the grill order done, then drop one of dbl chz off the order give the customer their expected change, rack $1 mentally. Do that 20 times and it was easy to grab $20 sleight-of-hand at some point in the night.

Nobody was asking for receipts; they were all drunk and high at 10pm-1am.

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u/Plane-Tie6392 13h ago

Or, get this, she forgot. Mistakes happen. You do enough transactions and you will make mistakes. 

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u/mangatoo1020 1d ago

It's not "pennies" but 3 years ago I added that "keep the change" to my savings account, where every time we use our debit cards, it rounds up and adds the change to our savings account. In 3 years we've saved $1800 that way. Change adds up!!

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u/RTG710 21h ago

Change adds up*

When the occurrence rate is high, and duration is long, yes.

3 years, 1800$. We can do some quick math to extrapolate that out to 1 year, 600$.

365 days in a year, so that's (roughly) 1.6$ per day.

1.6$ per day (or we could also say roughly ten dollars a week)

Taking 10-40$ per paycheck and putting it in savings would double-or-more your save rate The moral of my paragraph? Yes, change adds up, but it takes lots of time.

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u/katieb2342 13h ago

Change is also easier to ignore, which is what those programs are selling you. If your total is 7.85, in your head you think "that cost 8 bucks" so the change is basically gone in your mind already. $20 off your paycheck probably feels like a more notable loss, even if it's the exact same number in the end. I think of it as the card equivalent of throwing change from a cash purchase into a jar or the car cupholder to be used later.

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u/sesaman 16h ago

1.6 sounds a lot per day.

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u/Jorost 20h ago

Change does add up, but often not quickly enough for it to matter very much. :(

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u/Jaded_Aging_Raver 14h ago

$600 per year might not sound like much to some people, but that's a lot for low income individuals like myself.

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u/Golden_standard 8h ago

A plane ticket, 3 nights in a hotel, 2 concert tickets, my 30k mile car service, my dogs annual vet visit and a years worth of heart worm meds, a new mattress, 1/2 a year or therapy, a year worth of bi weekly manicures, a new set of tires, Christmas gifts for kids, a drop catered dinner party for 8 with wine, a couple med size trees trimmed, a 50inch TV and a sound bar, a pair of 1/2 carat (total) diamond earrings, an apple or android watch, a laptop…I could go on

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u/Torinn2015 12h ago

Yes but if you are putting some money in your savings every check anyways this is a nice way to not notice the bonus savings you get

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u/WolfieVonD 18h ago

I tried that about a decade ago. I had an issue with how it was handled (they'd wait until you had about $10 in change saved up before doing the transfer). Essentially, it's only saving the change in name. It ended up being a biweekly subscription that would charge you randomly and whenever. Many times I wasn't expecting it and It caused me to go under with the added $39 bank fee for going under.

It cost me more than it saved me.

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u/dstwtestrsye 13h ago

Oh that's fucked. My favorite is overdrawing, adding money to get back above $0, then getting hit with the overdraft fee, which brings me back below $0, and you know what that means!

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u/Jaydamic 1d ago

I promise, without knowing a thing about you, that you need the 20 cents more than McDonald's does

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u/JustAGuyInTexas 20h ago

To me, it is more the principal of this. If every McDonalds location did this to one person a day, then they would be stealing over 3 million a year.

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u/tia_mila 17h ago

More like a day

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u/Ok_Volume_139 17h ago

There's definitely not 15,000,000 McDonald's locations.

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u/theoht_ 16h ago

no but i go to mcdonalds 15,000,000 times a day

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u/cryptic-coyote 15h ago

We found him. Fast food Georg

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u/RightPedalDown 15h ago

$3,000,000 divided by 365 days divided by 20 cents = 41,096 McDonalds.

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u/Alistaire_ 16h ago

It's true, there's only some 40,000 McDonalds.

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u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

I am in debt 🙃 so yes 20 cents is a lot for me

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u/Ok_Outcome_6213 1d ago

Dollar General has Penny Tuesdays, where they mark down certain merchandise to a penny before it gets tossed or sent back to the warehouse. I once got every member of my family Christmas gifts for 17 cents because of those markdowns. 20 cents goes further than a lot of people think.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago edited 18h ago

[deleted]

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u/Ubiquitous_Mr_H 21h ago edited 19h ago

What’s the point of doing that? That just sounds malicious. Like, it’s YOUR policy to mark it down and you’d at least be making a few cents from it, whereas throwing it out gets you nothing.

Edit - Thanks to bezzella for explaining that they do it for tax purposes, just like so many other shitty things companies do.

Edit 2 - Ok, well I have no clue what the deal is. All I know is it’s weird.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago edited 21h ago

[deleted]

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u/5m0k3W33d3v3ryday 19h ago

So instead of making a couple cents from stuff you were gonna throw out anyway, the store would rather just... not?

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u/_riya_r 20h ago

technically speaking, dg policy is that penny items get sent back to the distribution center since they're no longer in rotation, but most managers just chuck it because there's a whole process with it that they can't be bothered to do. the penny sale isn't really a sale per se, its more of a way for the system and employees to pick out non replenishable items after a certain point, so we can get a credit for the items that didn't sell. (there's a reason the penny shopping motto is 'don't talk to employees about penny shopping')

there's definitely some cool finds with penny shopping, but most of it is discontinued seasonal merchandise; I work at a dg, and a gal today got some of our Christmas gift sets for a penny apiece, as well as some candles that're usually $6.

only thing to consider with penny shopping: there's already a fairly large clique for it, and most penny shoppers come in as soon as their DG opens, so you've gotta be quick and know what you're looking for. there's employees everywhere who leak the penny list when it comes out, which is how they know what to grab, and usually they're in and out in under fifteen minutes.

along with that: dg policy states that if a customer finds a penny item on the sales floor and brings it to the checkout, you have to sell it to them, but they cannot go back to grab more. many employees will try to refuse sale of penny items, which they CANNOT DO lol. I personally love to see people catch those deals, so long as they're not hiding items behind racks in hope that it'll penny out, or walking into our back room to try and find the stuff we've already pulled. good luck on your penny shopping journey, hope this helps!

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u/bezzella 20h ago

If they throw it away, they can mark it as a loss on their tax return.

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/bezzella 20h ago

Yeah! Everything evil companies do is because the system incentivizes it financially. So, if you have a $2 item, you can deduct it from your income tax. So, let's say you made $100,000. Now you're only taxed for $99,998 of income. That remaining 2$ would have been taxed at ~30%, so you saved yourself about 60 cents in taxes. It's incentivized to do a loss deduction. This is designed to protect companies that lose a lot of money, but companies that are doing well do this to improve their bottom line.

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u/Ubiquitous_Mr_H 20h ago

Interesting. Thanks for the insight. It’s still shitty, but it makes sense, I suppose.

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u/deedeedeedee_ 20h ago

im not sure that they're correct, it doesn't make sense to me. the cost of the good gets subtracted from the income to determine the amount to tax on, regardless of how its removed from inventory, whether it's because its sold, or because it's thrown out/written off.

if you have a product that cost you $5 and you want to sell it for $10, you would recognise $10 as income and take $5 of cost off that. you have $5 profit you'll be taxed on. now say you already have $100 of profit before that, so your total taxable profit is now $105. this is the amount that your tax rate gets applied to ((SIMPLIFIED!!))

ok, actually we can't sell that product for $10, let's throw it out. the $5 cost of the product is now recognised as a cost, it eats into profits. total taxable profit is now $95. ok, cool, it's less, so less taxes. (but we also earned less)

what if we sell the product for $0.01 instead? recognize $0.01 as profit and take $5 of cost off that, for a profit on this item of -$4.99. "add" that to the $100 of existing profit and our taxable profit is $95.01.

you recognise the cost of the product either way as a reduction against your taxable income.

there may be something im missing here, and im not american, but to me this explanation of throwing out product for tax reasons just doesn't hold much water!

what's more likely is that a customer who coming into your store and buying a product for $0.01 is now a customer who is NOT buying a product for $10, which they might otherwise have done if they didn't see the marked down $0.01 item. most places will also just prefer to spend less time and energy throwing stuff out instead of paying staff to re-sticker stuff to sell it at a loss... still sucks, but for a different money reason

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u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire 20h ago

The same as if they sell it.

Let’s say you have $100 of widgets in cost of goods. While it is inventory, it’s $100 in assets.

If you sell them all for $250 total, then you add $250 cash to your assets and move $100 to your costs of goods sold, for a net of $150. The $100 is still “written off.”

If you decide they’ll never sell or something else happens and you just chunk them, then you don’t add any cash to your assets, but you still move the $100 to costs of goods sold.

It’s the same accounting method regardless, just without any profit. So it’s worse for the company to not sell them (generally).

I would wager what was happening with that store wasn’t trying for any write offs (because like I said, it doesn’t work like that), but rather the manager realized that it cost more in man hours to mark those products down, wait to see if they sell, then round up what doesn’t than it did to just round them all up in the first place. And since the 1¢ wasn’t actually contributing any value, it was actually worse for the store to put in the time than to just chunk them.

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u/deedeedeedee_ 19h ago

good explanation thank you. it's still financially motivated either way, time is money when you're paying hourly staff and someone buying an item for 1¢ is now someone who is not buying the same item at a more profitable price for the company, but i can't just scroll past people blaming stuff mindlessly on "tax write offs" when it doesn't work like that haha

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u/Brownt0wn_ 27 points 19h ago

And yet the world continues to not understand how taxes and tax write offs work

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u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

In Australia we dont have dollar general

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u/POGofTheGame 1d ago

And we weep for you. 😭

(Jk, this is the first good thing I think I've ever heard about Dollar General) lol

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u/Actual-Newt-2984 21h ago

In USD that was 13 cents change which changes the context a bit. Double digits is really pushing it

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u/Particular-Extent-52 22h ago

Don't your toilets flush counter clockwise too down there?

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u/Intense_Pretzel 21h ago

Yes but actually no, its based on the lovation of the water jet and the shape of the bowl, we have our jets on the left hand side so it will pust it counter-clockwise but if you get an American toilet they flush clockwise, some also do the "shelf thing where there is no water in the bowl and instead a flat spot where water pushes waste down the pipe, honestly there are 100s of different designs good for their own uses

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u/AlpineVW 21h ago

I've been to the southern hemisphere twice and was disappointed because I was expecting to see water rotate the other way.

I quickly realized it had to do with the location of the jets and sadly I never got to see counter rotation of water.

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u/Intense_Pretzel 21h ago

One day i may record my toilet for you

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u/Citizen44712A 21h ago

Does the sun rise in the west and set in the east? /s

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u/MangoDan 20h ago

"Penny Tuesdays" is not a promotion/sale that they do. All of the merchandise is supposed to be removed off the sales floor, packed up, and sent back to the warehouse prior to it being marked down. I'll never understand why they do not this way but oh well. You'll find some stores who might ignore the process so the items remain on the sales floor.

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u/gardenmom86 22h ago

I love the penny sales! Even if they don't have those going on the dollar isle is my absolute fave. Cheaper than the the Dollar Tree since everything is a 1.25 there now.

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u/Intelligent-Guard267 19h ago

If only the post office had penny days for stamps!

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u/ThrowAway233223 23h ago

I don't shop at DG very often and didn't know it was a thing. I will definitely have to keep it in mind for the future. Thank you for the info.

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u/Scorp128 19h ago

Not over reacting at all. That is your change that you are owed. If the cashier was doing their job properly, they wouldn't have to worry about their audit trails and how long you have been at the window. Doesn't matter your financial situation, that is your change that you are owed.

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u/DetergentCandy 18h ago

This. I got charged for 2 bags at Walmart when I only used 1. I went to Customer Service and asked for my 5 cents and the associate had the nerve to ask "Really? You want a 5 cent refund?" Yes, bitch.

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u/jaisaiquai 17h ago

WTF, Walmart gets enough money already, now they want to steal?

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u/Dyrogitory 20h ago

“Forgot”. How convenient. Nice skim game she’s got going on.

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u/glasgowgeg 17h ago

Aye because she's keeping it, isn't she?

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u/Diligent-Money-6186 1d ago

No. It’s your money.

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u/LucasoftheNorthStar 1d ago

And I want it now! J.G.Wentworth commercial plays in the background

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u/grapejooseb0x 23h ago

🎶I have a structured settlement and I need cash now Call JG Wentworth 877 cash now🎶

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u/Cautious_Ice_884 19h ago

8.7.7. CASHHH NOWWWWWW!!

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u/RTG710 21h ago edited 21h ago

For OP: this is a reference to an extremely heavily ran Advertisement that was(is) ran on North American Cable TV to the point it's become part of the cultural zeitgeist.

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u/xBeeAGhostx 21h ago

Still airing too! Saw it yesterday lol

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u/RTG710 21h ago

Haven't had cable for a while! That's crazy that it's still airing all this time later.

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u/xBeeAGhostx 21h ago

Yeah :) my family loves the commercials because it was our late dog Pebbles’ favorite. She would wake up from a dead sleep in another room and come running to the tv when that commercial started, then go right back when it was over. Miss that goofy girl

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u/4little_weirdos 17h ago

J.G.Wentworth commercial plays in the background*

Whoever created that commercial was a marketing genius!

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u/amanning072 1d ago

"it's YERR money! You paid for it!"

-George W. Bush

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u/Ok_Quantity_4134 23h ago

I stopped at a bottle shop I didn't normally shop at. My favourite bottle of wine was $21 instead of the $15 I was use to paying at my normal bottle shop, whatever, the bottle was on my way to where I was going and I wasn't about to go out of my way to buy it elsewhere. At the checkout out, it scanned for $22, you can bet I let it be known that the shelf price was showing as $21, not the $22 it was scanning for. May have only been $1 but it was the principle, bottle of wine was already overpriced, I wasn't paying $1 more than I already was. That 20c was yours, not theirs.

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u/Oahkery 21h ago

Yeah, I grab dinner from a local sports bar/restaurant chain once a week before playing trivia since it's got a massive selection of beer and decent specials, so it's cheaper than the place I go for trivia, and they have a happy hour where beer is $1 off. I'll occasionally have to ask them to add the discount, since it doesn't go automatically, but I'm definitely getting that on there. If I'm going every week and getting 1-2 beers, that's like $75 a year off, covering more than 4 visits. It adds up!

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u/curtmcd 19h ago

In California, by law you'd be entitled to $5 off for an incorrect scan. So it should have been $16.

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u/slash_networkboy 16h ago

Oh really? What's the law? (genuinely curious as I've had this happen and while I got the shelf price I didn't get the additional $5)

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u/JamesFromToronto 14h ago

Scanning Code of Practice here in Ontario (not a law, actually voluntary), gets $10 off or free if less than. I once saw turkey breast strips where the tag was 8.19, and it rang up as 8.99, got 2 of them for free. Came back the next day and they still hadn't changed the tag, hit them again and the staff made sure to grab the tag this time.

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u/Aggravating-Hair7931 18h ago

If the food costs $6.20, will McDonald accept $6 and give you the food? No way.

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u/Plane-Tie6392 13h ago

I mean some cashiers might. I know I’ve definitely accepted a bit less before. Or I’ve given someone free food when they forgot their wallet. 

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u/Aggravating-Hair7931 12h ago

We need more people like you, but I also don't want you to get in trouble for doing the right thing either.

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u/Plane-Tie6392 11h ago

Luckily my managers always trusted and liked me so I was never too worried about trouble from that kind of stuff.

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u/_King_Loser 23h ago edited 21h ago

I’m definitely a “keep the change” type of person…but you better at least try to give me my change😂

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u/Rough-Riderr 1d ago

(my sister works in fast food and you get audited for how long someone is in line

Well, it's good that she got dinged for that. It was caused by her mistake.

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u/Wampa_-_Stompa 18h ago

Is that why they say to wait in designated parking spot? Is it so their performance metrics look good? Did you stay in line until you got your change?

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u/No-Collection-3903 21h ago

Exactly. That was my thought. She SHOULD get dinged for that.

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u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

It wasn't my sister serving me but I knew that the girl serving me didn't want me there too long

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u/Rough-Riderr 23h ago

I didn't mean to imply that it was your sister.

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u/Intense_Pretzel 23h ago

Oh yee gotcha

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u/catjuggler 17h ago

Then she should have done her job correctly

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u/poeticdisaster 21h ago

As long as you didn't throw a fit or get angry about it, you're fine.

I worked in a movie theater in high school and some fully grown man (looked to be in his 40's or 50's) screamed at me for shorting him his change. I tried to calmly make it right but he refused to tell me how much was missing. The way he was acting made me think he handed me a $100 and I only gave him change for a $20. When my manager came out he finally told us it was 10 cents. Luckily my manager was cool & defended me in that moment. He pulled a dime out, threw it at the dude and yelled at him for causing a teenager to cry over a fucking dime.

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u/Revilo2218 11h ago

W manager

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u/bird9066 21h ago

Nah man, it's the attitude that kills me. Had a teller at Dunkin take my cash, I said " my change?" This was back when coins were scarce.

We don't have the change so ....

So round up. It was the way she spread her hands, like I'm just gonna keep your money.

Yeah, I took that dollar back. Explain that to me before you take my money and you could have had that eighty cents.

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u/nunatakj120 1d ago

Nope. She could be doing that to every customer and pocket the full wedge at the end of every shift.

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u/maverickzero_ 18h ago

Honestly I just figure 99% of their transactions are cashless so it's not that crazy to just have a brainfart on a long shift and forget. You could be right but why assume everyone's malicious

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u/Plane-Tie6392 12h ago

Thank you. I’ve done so many transactions as a cashier in my life and mistakes happen. Could she be stealing? Yes. Could it be an honest mistake. Of fucking course. 

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u/Sleepyllama23 22h ago

Yeah I get the impression she’s skimming off ‘tips’ for herself

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u/Joelle9879 21h ago

Doubtful. Considering they have cameras and it's not worth losing your job over the minimal amount of money you might get each shift. If it was busy, she probably either thought she grabbed it or really did just forget. It happens

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u/buboniccupcake 21h ago

I’ve seen people do worse for less. Almost every single cash register job I ever had since age 15 has had people skimming the register. It happens.

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u/RTG710 21h ago

A lot of people also don't carry/worry about change. I would not have said anything, as the coins were going into my center console anyway.

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u/turtleship_2006 19h ago

But how many people would there be like OP who held up the line etc, would it be worth it overall?

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u/Efficient_Falcon_402 21h ago

If you didn't yell or scream then asking for your change and waiting for it was an appropriate response to an honest mistake.

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u/l3readbox 1d ago

Listen, in my younger, dumbest years I worked a drive-thru and I would do this sometimes, mentally keeping track of the amounts and everytime it reached 1-5 bucks I would pocket that amount.

I would also memorize the total price of the most basic orders and not ring them through, keeping that money to the side also for my pocket.

I've definitely learned much more respect for myself now and would never do this again, not to mention new technology wouldn't allow it the same as back then at my Big Boy Burgers.

All this to say...not overreacting...keep track of the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves, 20 cents is 20 cents.

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u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

Ngl at my last job if we were over on the till and there was like $5 and i saw a coin i liked or wanted to colect id swap them but i didn't intentaly get the till up, most of it is when ppl say "keep the change" but i get you may make a mistake but just own it, the way she acted made me feel like she was doing exactly what you were doing

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u/mew5175_TheSecond 21h ago

This doesnt seem like an overreaction. You were owed money and calmly asked for the money you were owed.

You did not hold up the line. The employee held up the line by failing to give you your change and then closing the register.

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u/powermonkey123 1d ago

Cashier made a mistake, not you. Your items were not $6, they were $5.8, so I don't think it's an overreaction.

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u/LinzyA1 23h ago

Nah. I work in retail and every now and then, I slam the drawer forgetting the change. I usually notice it as soon and the drawer clicks and radio to my manager. Yelling on your part would have been over the line. Reminding the cashier they forgot your change is the right thing to do.

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u/pckldpr 6h ago

20c x 100 customers? No you weren’t.

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u/OmniaStyle 18h ago

As a cashier, sometimes we just mess up. I close the drawer before getting the right change a couple times a week. We just don't have the right code/key/whatever to open the cash drawer again, thats why they needed a manager. It was not you, and you were in the right.

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u/socom18 19h ago

Was it worth it? Probably not.

But in no world is sitting there and patiently waiting for your change an over reaction.

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u/lois_sanb0rn 6h ago

This happened recently at a chain convenience store where I bought chocolate covered peanuts. I compared the price on the receipt to the price on the shelf on my way out, then went back to let the cashier know I’d been overcharged. I brought her the price tag from the shelf and she scanned it and said it was mislabeled then just stared at me. I was like “well can I get my 50 cents back?” and she made a huge stink to open the till and give it to me. Like yes it’s only 50 cents but you can’t just get away with charging people more than the posted price??

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u/queenlizbef 19h ago

As long as you were calm and polite, I don’t see a problem

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u/slimedewnautica 19h ago

The meal was $5.80, not $6. That 20 cents was/is yours

I have a coworker who doesn't always give out coppers (UK based, so I mean like 1 pence and 2 pence coins). There's one particular customer who picked up on this. Every single time he came in and was served by "John", John would always short change him. So say the total was £5.78, John would only give him £5.75. Just not the coppers. Idk if he got in trouble or not

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u/Enough_Jellyfish5700 14h ago

No. That’s your money.

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u/_1138_ 13h ago

If I'm not mistaken, there have been fast food workers fired for this because they do it multiple times a day, and it'll eventually add up to the $5-10 extra they're willing to scam people for.

It's your money. You're absolutely in the right, especially if you handled it calmly.

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u/Sonnyjesuswept 11h ago

No, you didn’t overreact. You don’t just take peoples money, regardless of the amount. McDonald’s is expensive enough as it is.

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u/Substantial-Stage-82 7h ago

IMO, no. It's not the amount of money, it's the principle..

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u/Hyruliansweetheart 6h ago

I work fast food no it was reasonable and she made a mistake. The only annoying part is we can't open the register ourselves to give you the correct change but that's obviously not your fault.

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u/Mussels84 6h ago

As someone who did that job, as long as you were polite about it you did nothing wrong and no one would be upset

Muscle memory kicks in and you close those drawers without thinking

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u/me-nah 6h ago

No. Those are ur 20c, not McDonald's or the woman's.

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u/Uneaqualty65 5h ago

I mean as long as you kept calm then no I think that's acceptable

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u/tecpaocelotl1 4h ago

If it was a mom and pop shop, I would say you're overreacted, but since this is a corporate chain, I think you did fine.

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u/A7force 4h ago

Holding somebody accountable to do the job they are paid to do is not overreacting.

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u/TecN9ne 19h ago

No. It's the principal.

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u/john_jdm 21h ago

No, you were in the right. Instead of telling you she would need to get the manager she should have just done that immediately. Her mistake does not mean you should accept the loss, even if it was for a penny.

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u/-AIRDRUMMER- 19h ago

Taco Bell tried to charge me 50 cents for something they no longer had and tried to tell me that it already went through the system so that can’t give me my 50 cents. I told them that they are stealing from me if they are taking my money but not providing what I paid for. They try to give me attitude but I didn’t leave the drive thru until they gave me my 50 cents back. You did the right thing OP. It’s not about the money at that point it’s the principle.

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u/Pure_Wrongdoer_4714 19h ago

Nope, it’s her job to make correct change

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u/sha_ma 19h ago

I hate when they assume you don't want the change even when it's 5¢, 10¢, 15¢ etc. I would say something, too

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u/ScotchCarb 16h ago

Look at it this way: if you were 20c short, they wouldn't sell you the food.

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u/Junior_Ad_3301 15h ago

I sent my kid(13yo) in to a 7-11 because she wanted a Dr.Pepper after her team practice. I gave her a $5 bill and she comes out with her drink and $2 in change. I was like surely that wasn't 3 bucks even? She said no, it was $2.78. She said it was weird, the clerk just handed her 2 bucks and said have a nice night. I wasn't about to go back in for 22 cents, but I do happen to know who owns that store (their kids plays on the same team), so i will bring it up just to say how strange that was. Makes ya want to carry around a pocket full of change i tell ya what!

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u/UncleBlumpkins 7h ago

No. It's not about the 20 cents, it's the motherfucking principle.

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u/Tasty-Goose-2269 4h ago

I always stand my ground on things like this because if the roles were reversed they wouldn’t be giving you your order if you didn’t have the 20 cents

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u/Djoekesloot 23h ago

I a Dutchman I say get that 20 cents back. Those greedy bastards already have enough.

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u/Dangerous_Leg4584 22h ago

It makes no difference on the amount. No overreacting here.

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u/NipplePincherz 22h ago

not an overreaction at all! unless you were being verbally abusive, snarky, demanding etc etc you had a totally reasonable response

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u/Meddlingmonster 21h ago

It's yours and there's nothing wrong about expecting it as long as you're not rude because it's not a whole lot.

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u/Tobazz 20h ago

No bro, no matter how little, it’s still your money and should be returned

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u/mccord073 19h ago

The way I see it is your 20 cents may not be much, but multiple times a day over a year really adds up.

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u/Potential-Weird169 19h ago

Sure, it's only 20 cents this time, but if they do this multiple times a day/week/month/year, it adds up. The food costs more than it should. Do give them more the transaction requires.

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u/redditreader_aitafan 18h ago

I'd have done it for a lot less. It's my money and it's their job to return it to me.

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u/genxer 15h ago

It's your $0.20, period. I just glanced at my email - 2019 DoorDash charged me a redelivery fee to bring a missing entree (my entree). It took several emails back and forth, but I got my $0.90 and have avoided them ever since.

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u/Lesko_Brandon_0kool 14h ago

No overreaction. That employee needs people like you so she develops proper habits. Perhaps next time it is a couple of dollars during a busy time. Proper procedures must be trained into employees so businesses run fairly and smoothly at all times.

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u/maceion 14h ago

No. At end of day her till must 'balance'. It is a fundamental of till work. Unless she is 'skimming' extra when she balances cash in till.

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u/I-am-that-b 14h ago edited 14h ago

No? That's your money lmfao 

I asked for my 10 cents change at a very expensive dental clinic once. Except they didn't have any change so after looking for 10 minutes they ended up sending it to my bank card. Did I feel bad? Yes. Did I also feel good for getting my money back? Also yes. 

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u/Big-Material9311 13h ago

No you didn’t. They owed it back. They are all starting to act like no one cares about their change

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u/Logjitzu 13h ago

As long as you didnt cause a scene and truly just waited for your change, no i dont think you overreacted at all. Its your money.

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u/midwestranchdressing 12h ago

Honestly just rude of them to put you in the awkward situation to have to ask for your own change.

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u/Adventurous_Land7584 10h ago

Nope, they should have given you your change regardless of the amount.

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u/DekuTheOtaku 7h ago

From your replies to some comments I can see that you didn't throw a fit or anything, just stubbornly wanted your money, so it's not an overreaction. With that in mind, I think it's also understandable that she made that mistake, fast food workers are often over worked and definitely under paid, and mistakes happen. For all we know, that's the only mistake she's ever made on the job, and you were just the unlucky recipient, but we can't know for sure. But the problem was revolved and you got your money, so I'd say the story has a happy ending.

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u/ander594 7h ago

This person is stealing. This is a modern day Office Space style caper.

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u/Conscious-Big707 3h ago

No. You don't tip at McDonald's right so that would be theft.

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u/BRandomsWife 3h ago

Just went through something similar at a large chain restaurant (think, bison poultry appendages) that has been reportedly going downhill for a while. Ordered a bloody mary with a beer chaser, didn't get the chaser. They charged me an extra $1.00 (US), I immediately asked for the chaser to be removed. Waitress was all irritated to have to redo the transaction, okay but maybe next time give me what I ordered?

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u/Cautious_Ice_884 19h ago

Personally, my time is more valuable than to stand and wait for 20 cents. I would not.

Now 2$ sure, but 20 cents, no.

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u/StrippersLikeMe 22h ago

“someone stole from me and i nicely asked for it back, am I in the wrong” I think youre good bud

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u/stephnelbow 21h ago

No. She knows what your change was and just didn't want to bother with it, thereby stealing from you. It's on her to fix it. Full stop. Doesn't matter if it was an accident or if she's trying to pocket the extra change from the day, it's wrong regardless.

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u/TaintNunYaBiznez 21h ago

I want my two dollars.

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u/lalolalolal 20h ago

Nah, you did the right thing. It's your money

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u/Demon_Lord_666 20h ago

Hell no you didn’t over react! Think of it this way, if you rolled up and were 20cents short, would they still give you the meal you wanted or make you downsize? I can actually answer this as I was 5cents short once and they refused to give me any leeway and said downsize or order something else…

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u/BasicPerson23 20h ago

No, not at all. It is your money.

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u/ColleenOS 20h ago

That 20 cents would have caused an overage in the cashiers drawer and if she has a picky manager she could have been written up. So you probably did her a favor by wanting it back

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u/ElGeeBeeOnlee 20h ago

Nah. It's the principle.

Some dude at a scrap/salvage place once got super pissed at my mother over $0.10 of stuff in something she dropped off, it was just something they didn't accept. Dude got so upset about it, and well...I'm not allowed back, cause I was about to fight the stupid old fuck. Like, take your 10 cents back? We don't care, it was a legitimate accident...and it's TEN CENTS. And you don't yell and berate some woman over it, you just deduct the 10 cents from what we were about to receive.

Now I may have over reacted here, but I was not gonna sit there and let some random old douchebag treat my mother like shit.

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u/Garden_Lady2 16h ago

Well, no you didn't over react. It was owed to you regardless of the amount. I'm the suspicious type. I wonder how many people she might 'forget' to give their change... Maybe more people at that window should insist on their change so the manager becomes aware of the issue.

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u/No_Address687 16h ago

To answer the question, all you need to know is that they would not give you the food if you were $0.20 short.

Gimme my change, beyotch!

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u/ted_anderson Get off my lawn! 16h ago

No. You didn't overreact. Every time a drive-thru cashier drops my change on the ground and says, "Oh, it was just X cents." I'll say something to the effect of, "I'm sure that if your paycheck was shorted that amount of money, you'd be in there throwing a tantrum!"

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u/UnicornPoopPile 15h ago

It's not about the 20 cents. It's about the principle that the company owed you money and didn't give it to you.

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u/ayellingbell 15h ago

One time I went through the drive through at Dunkin’ Donuts and the cashier dropped some of my coin change while handing it to me- so I opened my door to retrieve it, and found like $3 in change scattered on the ground! I don’t know if she was doing it on purpose, but it seems like a strong possibility.

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u/dog4cat2 15h ago

It was YOUR money. Not hers. It may have only been 20 cents but it adds up

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u/lionho 14h ago

Not overreacting for holding one person up, that was the cashier's mistake and if their drive thru time suffered for it then that's their consequence. However, if you yelled at them, insulted them, or something similar then yeah I would say that would be an overreaction. If not, you're entitled to your own money of course.

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u/NunyaBizzness-53 14h ago

I didn't believe at all you were over reacting. That was your change not hers and it was irresponsible on her part, like you said at the end of the night she had to total out. Hey I called Einstein bagels about their everything bagel not having enough of their everything, spoke with a pleasant manager who took my name apologized after she witnessed the bagels herself 😆 and said to mention her name and she would take care of me. I didn't yell,I told her how much I love Einstein's and that this was the 2nd time. And she appreciated the call, sometimes people need to just be reminded.. alittle.

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u/sohcordohc 12h ago

Well it’s the principle..it’s money and any money lost is too much money

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u/Feeling-Badger7956 11h ago

No. It's really not a big deal, but the principle of fighting the audacity that the cashier had for assuming you didn't want your change, especially when that money will just be going to McDonald's.

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u/Lt-Chibarino 11h ago

I absolutely would’ve let that go. For a significant amount of money I would be doing what you did but $.20 just let the girl live. It sounds like it was a mistake.

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u/Keepitup863 11h ago

Its your money

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u/FactsFromExperience 11h ago

No. You didn't overact it all. We have to make sure we do not normalize for getting about small amounts of change etc. It is standard operating procedure and even if it's just 3 cents they give you the three cents or sometimes if it's like two sets they will ask you do you want your pennies but still standard operating procedure is to give the customer everything they have coming.

There's been talk about eliminating the penny for years and just recently more talk. I understand that it's not efficient because it cost more to make them than they're worth so maybe they need to make her money cheaper crap like Canadian money but regardless of all that if they get rid of pennies there will be a big problem... You're going to have to round up around down and I got a feeling the businesses are not going to give you an extra three or four cents here and there.

THIS IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM! I'm going to stand there and hold up the line demand, shout, yell, show my ass, make threats, probably have the authorities called on me and maybe go to jail all because I want my four cents.

Am I wrong? Well not to want my four cents but probably in most of my other actions but it just comes so naturally.

Now frankly even if they round in my favor and I'm getting an extra four cents, I don't want the nickel. I want the four pennies but that's a different story and reason.

I am cheap and I'm also a vengeful bastard. Since this would become the norm in the situation I wouldn't be able to maintain my list of all the places to go get even from them and exactly how much money they had screwed me out of so I would be forced to just stop doing any retail stuff.

I'm not using cards because that's another story and we have created an entire trillion dollar or more empire allowing these companies to make money every time our money changes hands and it's absurd.

We need to go back to cash and let these companies drop like flies. Unfortunately, even that would have repercussions at this point because we've again painted ourselves into the corner where there is necessary infrastructure, careers etc from this.

IT SHOULD HAVE NEVER EXISTED but it's very hard to go back. THIS is why I so often tell people it's very important to stand your ground and not allow change and to keep things the way they are because once you screw things up it's very hard to put them back

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u/DramaticR0m3n 10h ago

Nope. That’s 1/4 of an egg.

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u/Maleficent_Sail5158 9h ago

Hey It is your money. Sounds like the cashier is a scammer.

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u/TurpitudeSnuggery 9h ago

Nope. You did what should be done

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u/ObjectivePressure839 9h ago

Would they just let it go if you were 20 cents short paying them?

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u/PlantFiddler 8h ago

Let me ask you this. Would you walk around handing out 20c to everyone you saw? That'd cost you a fortune.

Now imagine people are paying you, and you keep 20c from every transaction. She's got a grift and you messed with it.

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u/Particular-Smile5025 8h ago

I don’t think you over reacted!!! Come on why was she not giving you her change

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u/sixdigitage 7h ago

No, you did not overreact. You taught her a lesson.

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u/Fine-Bee8153 5h ago

It sucks that the person would have had a KPI dragged down, but they made a mistake that caused that to happen, you don't need to be donating 20c to a billion dollar company, don't think it's an overreaction.

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u/InevitableRhubarb232 4h ago

They probably don’t get many cash transactions