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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Tick on October 23, 2017, 08:09:35 AM
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So many here know my infamous "Shorted a quarter 3 times in a row at McDonalds"
This is the next comical chapter in me being shorted money!
So Saturday night I go to the liquor store to return some bottles and pick up some beer.
I bring in 6 12 packs of bottles and lay them on the counter. I ring the bell for service and soon a male around the age of 35 comes in the room to help me.
He is a pleasant guy who greets me with a smile and a hello, how is your evening so far? I said great and he proceeds to calculate the amount of returns on the counter. As he intensely stares down at the 12 packs to figure out how much to write on my receipt he says to me...
"I took special classes in high school because I guess they felt I wasn't so bright but I was always great with numbers! People would be amazed how fast I figured stuff out and say, wow, how did you get that so fast! I always smiled and said, I don't know its just a gift I've always had!" (He went in to further detail on it but that's the gist)
I smiled at him and said, that's awesome!
He writes down the money amount I'll get off my purchase and hands it to me. He smiles and says, hey you have a great night!
I said you do the same!
I look at the paper in my hand and it says... $3.10
I chuckle inside knowing it was supposed to be $3.60
I didn't have the heart to look at him and say, umm, its off 50 cents. I just turned and walked into the store. How could I have ever embarrassed that man after his story just for 50 cents. No way could I ever be so cruel.
It did make for a funny story to tell my wife when I got home. She was cracking up when I told her what happened.
See, I'm not the meanest guy around after all! :biggrin:
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But he was always good with numbers. That's not why he took special classes.
I would've insisted on my 50 cents, just on principle, and wouldn't even have thought of myself as being "mean" for doing it. Just a customer not wanting to get stomped on.
On the other hand, you're now only 25 cents down overall in terms of universal money karma.
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But he was always good with numbers. That's not why he took special classes.
I would've insisted on my 50 cents, just on principle, and wouldn't even have thought of myself as being "mean" for doing it. Just a customer not wanting to get stomped on.
On the other hand, you're now only 25 cents down overall in terms of universal money karma.
I understand Tick’s decision though. Maybe this guy uses his “good with numbers” thing as a positive to help him cope with being learning impaired. Tick correcting him on his mistake could have messed him up. It may sound crazy but I was friends with an autistic kid in high school and my stepsister is slightly learning impaired. Part of the reason that they’re functional is because they have something that they’re good at that helps them cope. To rip that away from them would be cruel. 50 cents isn’t worth that.
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I would have also just shrugged it off :lol
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So Saturday night I go to the liquor store to return some bottles...
I've never heard of this practice. Oh wait, is this like what Kramer and Newman did when they used Kramer's mail truck to haul some bottles somewhere?
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But he was always good with numbers. That's not why he took special classes.
I would've insisted on my 50 cents, just on principle, and wouldn't even have thought of myself as being "mean" for doing it. Just a customer not wanting to get stomped on.
On the other hand, you're now only 25 cents down overall in terms of universal money karma.
I understand Tick’s decision though. Maybe this guy uses his “good with numbers” thing as a positive to help him cope with being learning impaired. Tick correcting him on his mistake could have messed him up. It may sound crazy but I was friends with an autistic kid in high school and my stepsister is slightly learning impaired. Part of the reason that they’re functional is because they have something that they’re good at that helps them cope. To rip that away from them would be cruel. 50 cents isn’t worth that.
Exactly my thinking 100%. He was a kind soul and I was not going to hurt his confidence for 50 cents. Nor did I want him to feel embarrassed after all he had just said. Simply not worth it to me.
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What if he'd been off by $5.00? Or $10.00? Is there a point where you draw the line, or is it all good because the guy has a learning disability? If it's all good, then okay; I'm mean and you're not. But if there's a point where you correct the guy, then you and I just draw the line at different places.
Both of my kids have disabilities as well, so it's not like I'm completely alien to this, but allowing them to make mistakes, especially when they think they're doing fine, does not help them. Confidence is good, but they need to know when they're wrong, too.
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I agree with Orbert. I would've said something because the guy deserves to know and be given the opportunity to correct the mistake before a really mean person comes along. Tick, I don't think you're mean, so you passed up a perfect opportunity to give the guy some positive reinforcement about a minor error. Nothing wrong with that.
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50 cents isn't worth the time. $5.00 on the other hand I would complain about.
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50 cents isn't worth the time. $5.00 on the other hand I would complain about.
This. If the guy was noticeably slow, I would save him the correction instead of the 50 cents. Just not worth it to make someone feel bad about themselves in that situation. Maybe I'd put my max at a dollar, other than that I probably would have cracked some jokes as I brought up how his counting was off "Oh I guess today was the day you finally after all these years made a mistake! Or maybe you need to teach me a lesson! Can we recount, I think something is off?"
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50 cents isn't worth the time. $5.00 on the other hand I would complain about.
This. If the guy was noticeably slow, I would save him the correction instead of the 50 cents. Just not worth it to make someone feel bad about themselves in that situation. Maybe I'd put my max at a dollar, other than that I probably would have cracked some jokes as I brought up how his counting was off "Oh I guess today was the day you finally after all these years made a mistake! Or maybe you need to teach me a lesson! Can we recount, I think something is off?"
My gut feeling is, correcting him would have a had a real negative impact. It just wasn't worth it for me. Now if we were to put a monetary value on when I would have corrected him I would say if it was upwards of a dollar or more I likely would have playfully corrected him with a smile. In this case I opted not to say anything and I don't regret it. Our conversation seemed to really make him happy, and right or wrong I let it slide.
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I don't know if there's a right or wrong here. You decided that someone's pride and happiness was worth more than 50 cents. That's cool. A lot of people would have done the same.
But I'm an asshole about stuff like this. The store made a decision to hire this person, and that's great, but as with anyone else -- be they disabled or just plain incompetent -- they also have assumed the risk in making that decision, therefore I will treat being shorted 50 cents the same way as I would if the cashier were a fully-functional person. I'm sorry if the person's feelings get hurt, and I will attempt to address the situation as sympathetically as possible, but the store does not get to keep my 50 cents. When they balance his register at the end of the shift, his till will be 50 cents over. The store will know that somewhere, there's a customer out there that got shorted 50 cents, and he might even face disciplinary action. I'm doing him a favor by keeping things on the up and up.
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I guess the other part of this story are bottle deposits, we don't have that here in NJ so the idea of getting some cash back already seems foreign to me, never the less getting shorted on that cash back and complaining about it. I mean, it's yours so I get it, but I'd take the 3 bucks and be happy considering I don't get anything for my bottles.
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50 cents isn't worth the time. $5.00 on the other hand I would complain about.
I don't think the amount is the issue here. A mistake was made and it should've been corrected. If someone has a learning disability, then they should be given every opportunity to learn. :biggrin:
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Exactly. I'm reminded of a joke (which is actually more relevant here than it might seem):
Elon Musk approaches a woman in a bar and asks "Would you sleep with me for 1 million dollars?"
The woman thinks for a minute, kinda looks him over, and says "Yes."
Elon then asks "Would you sleep with me for 20 dollars?"
The woman is stunned. "What do you take me for??"
Elon says "I thought that was obvious. Right now we're just negotiating the price."
It's not the amount. It's the principle.
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I guess the other part of this story are bottle deposits, we don't have that here in NJ so the idea of getting some cash back already seems foreign to me, never the less getting shorted on that cash back and complaining about it. I mean, it's yours so I get it, but I'd take the 3 bucks and be happy considering I don't get anything for my bottles.
The thing you need to understand you pay extra for deposit so if you don't return them you pay 1.20 per case of beer. So you are getting nothing for free.
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I guess the other part of this story are bottle deposits, we don't have that here in NJ so the idea of getting some cash back already seems foreign to me, never the less getting shorted on that cash back and complaining about it. I mean, it's yours so I get it, but I'd take the 3 bucks and be happy considering I don't get anything for my bottles.
The thing you need to understand you pay extra for deposit so if you don't return them you pay 1.20 per case of beer. So you are getting nothing for free.
Yea I understand it's not actually but it feels like its free since I dont get that return at all in my state.
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If you're from a state with deposits/returns, it's just a normal thing. Every week/month/whenever, you gather all the empty bottles and cans and take them to the store, or the return place. Most people have a spot in their house next to the garbage and/or recycling for empties.
It does kinda feel like free money, though, because the cost is factored in, but later you take back the empties and walk out of there with cash.
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If you're from a state with deposits/returns, it's just a normal thing. Every week/month/whenever, you gather all the empty bottles and cans and take them to the store, or the return place. Most people have a spot in their house next to the garbage and/or recycling for empties.
It does kinda feel like free money, though, because the cost is factored in, but later you take back the empties and walk out of there with cash.
I'd MUCH rather not pay deposit and not have to return old shitty bottles every month. Its a pain in the ass.
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Without a deposit/return system, you'd find broken bottles and empty cans all over the place, because there's no incentive for teenaged idiots not to just toss them. I never saw that when I lived in Michigan. Those suckers are worth 10 cents each. Bums go around collecting them just to cash them in. I live in Illinois now, which doesn't have deposit/return, and every Saturday and/or Sunday morning, drive by any park or other public area; there will be empty cans scattered around, from the idiots who went there to drink beer the night before and just tossed the cans.
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Without a deposit/return system, you'd find broken bottles and empty cans all over the place, because there's no incentive for teenaged idiots not to just toss them. I never saw that when I lived in Michigan. Those suckers are worth 10 cents each. Bums go around collecting them just to cash them in. I live in Illinois now, which doesn't have deposit/return, and every Saturday and/or Sunday morning, drive by any park or other public area; there will be empty cans scattered around, from the idiots who went there to drink beer the night before and just tossed the cans.
Great point. I can't disagree. We have plenty of people in Connecticut out looking for every nickel they can muster up.
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I collect them and return them (or I give them to the kids to return for gas money or whatnot). But at my wife's old house, if you just dump them in the recycle bin before trash day, they're GONE by the time the trash collector comes. There's a guy in the neighborhood, and the residents let it slide.
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I collect them and return them (or I give them to the kids to return for gas money or whatnot). But at my wife's old house, if you just dump them in the recycle bin before trash day, they're GONE by the time the trash collector comes. There's a guy in the neighborhood, and the residents let it slide.
They is a guy in every neighborhood who does that! It used to be easier when we had small bins. Now we have the big behemoth that gets picked up by the truck. (More jobs a person doesn't need to do anymore)