Waiting for Change

[johnny_t]

If you buy something in a shop and have a penny change coming to you, does it look tight to wait for it to be given, or does it look arrogant to walk off without wanting it.

I always thought the latter, but increasingly people are acting as if its the former.

What is the correct approach to this modern minefield ?

 

[Richardp]

If they have a charity box on the counter I shove it in that, If you don't see one, ask and that way you don't appear mean. .

how much would you stop to pick up off the street? we passed a 5p coin but decided that as we have bad backs it wasnt worth stopping for maybe 50p would have done it???

 

[angelboy]

I take it everytime and don't care if people think I'm a tightwad.

More often than not you'll find that people serving or waiting in a queue really don't give a damn. They're more interested in themselves!

Take it, it's yours!

 

[pickles]

If this worries you you're probably getting old.

Soon you will start getting particular about giving the right money in the first place. Once you would never have thought about it because you were too busy looking down the assistants blouse when she opened the till, now you do.

It's the beginning of the process that ends up with you bent double at the till reminiscing about the war while you scrabble at small change with cold nerveless fingers and the rest of the queue heaves and sighs behind you. You will be wearing your trousers under your armpits with the bottoms just below your knees and your ears will be sticking out from your head like mud flaps.

Shoot yourself now while you can still pull the trigger (and remember where you put the gun).

 

[masona]

If you buy something in a shop and have a penny change coming to you, does it look tight to wait for it to be given, or does it look arrogant to walk off without wanting it.

I always take the 1p change because I sick and tired of shopkeepers the way they priced it up, 99p, £1.99, £3.99 and so on. I keep all my coppers in jar then give it away to charity at the end of the year.

 

[poshman]

If you buy something in a shop and have a penny change coming to you, does it look tight to wait for it to be given, or does it look arrogant to walk off without wanting it.

I always take the 1p change because I sick and tired of shopkeepers the way they priced it up, 99p, £1.99, £3.99 and so on. I keep all my coppers in jar then give it away to charity at the end of the year.

I bet M & S dont give all their 1ps to charity, when they rounded everything up to the nearest £

 

[Steve]

You lot make me laugh.

15-24 year olds are worst for leaving up to 5p change. Though I once had someone leave 31p change. Kept it in my till, since the transaction was silent on their part - they didnt tell me to put it in the blind box. This makes up for the 15-24 year old gits who hand me a load of change, and by the time ive finished counting it and its not enough, they're out of the door.

After 25, people tend to wait for change more.

40+ people usually wait for change.

50+ people always wait for change. Even when none is due.

Though in rough / poor areas, people are even more carefree about their copper, which is strange given their lack of money to start with. I put this down to the fact that these people have an "i dont give a toss" attitude to everything, which is why these areas are so poor in the first place.

Men hate giving cashiers change. If their total is 48p, and they have a pocket full of change and a £10 note, they will choose the £10 note. Women prefer to rid themselves of the change. Older men are more likely to sort through their change though. No matter how long the queue.

Observations of a duty manager. Could be a best seller?

 

[johnny_t]

Men hate giving cashiers change. If their total is 48p, and they have a pocket full of change and a £10 note, they will choose the £10 note. Women prefer to rid themselves of the change. Older men are more likely to sort through their change though. No matter how long the queue.

Ooo.....I'd take issue with that. Maybe I'm not very manly, but I'll always do the change thing if possible. If I crack into a tenner to buy a pack of Salt & Vinegar Discos then I will mysteriously pss the rest up against a wall within the next couple of hours (especially if the change was all in coins), yet have no tangible extra assets or services at the far end. I even go inside at Barclays in York to use the cash machine there as it still has fivers in, just to minimise the opportunity for this to happen.

 

[Steve]

I even go inside at Barclays in York to use the cash machine there as it still has fivers in, just to minimise the opportunity for this to happen.

Now thats a rare thing. an ATM with £5's in it. I was once told by our CIT guys at work that they dont put £5's in nowadays because they are all in such bad shape and they clog the machines up. Its true i suppose.

 

[chilluk]

I'm a very young 32 and in Argos the other day I purchased something for £59.99. I handed over 3 £20 notes to the snotty pimple faced oik behind the counter who duly took it off me and filed it away in his cash drawer with a grunt.

I said "wheres my 1p then?" and he huffed and puffed and borrowed it out of the till next to his which was open.

It's not tightness - it's principle!!

 

[trotter]

I acted flash the other day - was due about 20p back from a fiver, walked off and said 'it's alright mate'.

Cashier said 'change' - I repeated 'it's alright'

Cashier said 'but you gave me a twenty' - I had thought it was a fiver for some reason, it was actually a twenty I had just withdrawn.

I was almost out of the door by this time but immediately turned back and got my change, despite the whole queue laughing at me

 

[Thermo]

all those pennies add up. In your copper jar it adds up over the year, might pay for a curry etc. Now if mr Tesco or mr M & S keeps all the coppers you leave behind what can he buy??? (you wouldnt give an extra penny to the taxman, so why give it to all those big shops?????)


Best story of tightness i heard was from a lottery winners wife. I met this couple in my old job, and they had one a lot of money (wouldnt tell us how much) but theyd bought a house in the country with a fishing lake etc. She wa telling me that when you win, you phone camelot, they confirm it and the same night they pick you up and take you to a luxury hotel in london, and give you a camelot credit card,to tide you over until the monday when they present the cheque. On the monday the women from camelot gave the cheque over to the winning couple. The husband gave it back and said its wrong. The camelot women said no its not thats what youve won on the jackpot. The husband replied i know exactly what i won on the jackpot, but i had a tenner on the next line as well. Apparantly the women couldnt believ he wanted the tenner as well!

 

[Igorian]

I was listending to a financial advice thing on the radio the other day and they were saying there is no obligation to provide change and that technically, legal tender is only considered so if the correct money is tendered.

 

[hermes]

I was listending to a financial advice thing on the radio the other day and they were saying there is no obligation to provide change and that technically, legal tender is only considered so if the correct money is tendered.

Yes I had already heard this, but how long would the shop that doesn't give change stay in business?

If I have a penny change coming I just ask them to put it in the charity box and then walk off.

I seem to get a lot of change sometimes and I used to put it into an old box on the top shelf of the wardrobe. After a couple of years or so I decided to count it and was surprised to find that there was only copper in there, when I used to put in anything under £1. It turned out that my wife had been using it to pay for school dinner-money and the milkman!

There is a machine in a local Sainsburys that you can chuck your change into and it will count it and give you a voucher to take to customer services for the cash in notes or whatever. After the machine had been in for a while it started to deduct 7.5% commission! I still see people using it though.

 

[securespark]

Yeah, Coinstar!

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole....

All the folk who use it can least afford to. I bet they don't realise it costs so much.

If they did, they'd go to the bank or B/S to get it counted for free!