Thursday 25 August 2011

Damn it that was stupid

While I wait to hear back from my job interview I'll probably keep working at my part-time fast food job. I've been working here since high school and I don't mind it. My boss is great and is really flexible with scheduling, my coworkers (all the new ones anyways) are fun to work with and I enjoy getting free food.

But once in a while, you get stupid crap like this.

So. Mad.

So it basically went like this. We're about half an hour to close when this guy comes up and orders $2.50 worth of food and proceeds to pay with a $50. I give him $47.50 in change and he then asks for one of the $20s gets broken up into a one $10 and two $5s. So far so good.

Suddenly he asks for his $50 back and adds one $20, two $10s and four $5s and asks if I can give him five $20s back. I comply, he walks off with his food and $20s.

And when I count my till that night it's $50 short.

Replace that with a cash register and that's basically what I was doing.

Did you catch it? Did you see what he did? Fairly simple once you know how this trick works.

Suddenly he asks for his $50 back

I know some of you may be wondering how a trick like this works but it's simple:

  1. Small order is paid with a large bill. This causes a lot of change to be produced and as a result, more confusing. In my case the guy asked for one of the bills to be broken up even further.
  2. Upon receiving their change, the scammer will ask for his bill back, add some money to it and request the total back.
  3. Most people aren't aware of this trick, or trying to be compliant workers, not paying attention to the amounts being handed out and will do as the scammer says.
And we weren't the only place hit by this guy. My sister worked at the nearby Starbucks that night and remembers a similar looking man doing something similar. They were short $40. So I wouldn't be surprised if that guy just walked all around the area and got a bunch of free food and money.

This is for you buddy.

Something similar happened before and it didn't fool me so I'm kind of pissed that it tricked me a second time. My boss however wasn't angry at all, all he said was don't let it happen again. He even refused to let me pay back the $50 that we were short. (Little things like this are why I've stayed at this job for so long).

But yeah, for anyone working a cash register, watch for these little details so you don't get screwed over like I did. It's not fun.

70 comments:

  1. If I work at a cash register it's just at my voluntary job in a charity shop, our main customers are old women who are more likely more confused than I am lol. Still, I've messed up before, but not to this scale. It's cool your boss was okay with it though :) Next time you see that guy beat him to death with cheap fast food lol.

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  2. Oh man, i've worked fast food before, so i totally feel your pain. Never got grifted but I know what it feels like to be short on the till.

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  3. I saw a guy do this on Sci-Fi once, forget his name. Anyway I think he used a smaller bill and still managed to pull it off. It's mean, but in some cases people are desperate. These are hard times!

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  4. Yeah i used to work at Mcdonalds and people would try to pull that stunt all the time. Bastards.

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  5. Yeah, it's an old scam. I've even seen it in a few movies.

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  6. What a douche. Who needs $50 that frickin bad?

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  7. -.- I could never work at a cash register because I would always mess up.

    That guy is awful. I hope he gets explosive diarrhea.

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  8. what a punk ass... kinda funny though

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  9. did not know that. must be very careful

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  10. Oh wow, that's pretty sneaky. It took me a while to catch on, I finally know why stores have the "We do not accept bills above $20" sign.

    Sucks that it was you but lucky to have such a nice boss! Don't worry, Karma will give the correct change due to this scumbag.

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  11. Woah that's a pretty ingenuous scam, but it sucks you got hit up...next time you see the sap be sure to give him "special sauce" on his burger.

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  12. Yeah i saw what he did. Just... don't change peoples money man. If they ask for change either refuse or bring that calculator up.

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  13. sucks to hear this happened. at least your boss is cool

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  14. Wish my boss would be like, no don't pay. Where I work is expensive and if someone doesn't pay and skips out, their waiter has to pay the restaurant for everything. Bills are easily at least 20-40 a person.

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  15. Holy Crap! So glad I don't work a cash register anymore. I have to admit that is a pretty neat trick though.

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  16. I've got an interview today in a couple hours! I can't wait I really need a Job to pay for college expenses.

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  17. Going to have to read this Blog often since I'm going to uni soon. Interesting posts

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  18. I've ALWAYS been bad with counting money and trusted people not to cheat me... I think it's gonna be a money disaster when I start working at a pharmacy.

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  19. I hate those people. But I'm considering trying this in one or two restaurants who scammed me with crappy food.

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  20. i worked in a bookstore and got hit with the same scam! feared losing my job so replaced the lost money out of my own wallet. BAD DAY.

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  21. Glad you didn't have to pay the money back. That's a good thing. And hey, it happens. Just part of learning and life.

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  22. since I'm an idiot when it comes to maths and counting :) I'd be a perfect victim for such people :)

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  23. Wow, what a dick. I hope you didn't get in trouble for it.

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  24. damn, don't you have some security cameras to identify that a**hole? :o

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  25. I hate crafty people like this, at least your boss was cool about it though.

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  26. Dude, chcek this vid out:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTuy2MsevC8

    It's from The real hustle series and it explains in detail how this works. You got scammed. :S

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  27. Pretty old con. I used to do the "lets each put each put a 20 in this box, now ill sell you the box for 30 dollars, you make 10!" with my friend and amazing how it works on people. Always gave them the money back though.

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  28. that's pretty funny, but yeah that is a dick move. Hope he comes back again and you can call him on it.

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  29. That sucks dude, I hate people like that. Low-life's that steal because they can't get a real job.

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  30. lol tell him to get fucked. :D i would and i do on a regular basis. then if they get mad just be like "NO BULLSHIT!"
    :D

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  31. Don't hate player man, hate the game.

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  32. Oh man, too bad... Good news is, your boss is great. I've a friend working at Burger King, once he was like 50 bucks short, he had to pay it all.

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  33. I'm supprised that worked. I use to work at 7-11 and people always tried it and it always seemed obvioulsy a scam! Don't give people to much change!

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  34. The second someone starts requesting different bills, shut the draw.
    Sorry you this asshole did that.

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  35. I'm trying this!! LOL

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  36. That sucks ass. Gotta be more vigilant.

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  37. fast food joints should implement a policy that they dont take 50s unless the order is over $20. problem solved. sorry to hear this happened to you tho. f'ing scammers.

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  38. The same thing happen to me man. it sucks because it makes you feel stupid.

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  39. some people are just really bad! i can't believe how they find the courage to do it!

    jos xx

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  40. damn that's lame. gotta always be on your guard!

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  41. that happened to me too when i was working at rite-aid but i ended up only 10 dollars short at the end of the night.

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  42. I think you just created few more scammers :)

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  43. Wow...that's super tricky! What a crazy way to make a few bucks.

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  44. I have a friend who actually had to testify in court against one of these scammers :D

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  45. What a douche bag. That's terrible.

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  46. This stuff used to happen to me when I was working at an amusement park, but apparently I was the only one who would notice.

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  47. Things like that should start ringing a bell immediately man.

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  48. i seen this trick on a TV show . It's a good way to get fast money or free food like you said for scammers

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  49. well at least your boss isn't an asshole too!

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  50. tbh it seems hard to miss when reading it, but I guess when you're in the situation you lose track.

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  51. Sorry for you man. Used to work a cash register, and never had this happen. Glad you didn't get in trouble and you have a cool boss.

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  52. I wish cash would go away with credit/debit as the only option

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  53. damn that was unfortunate lol.

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  54. Nice. Wow. People are so awesome that way...

    Saw you commented on my blog and decided to check yours out. I like it!

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  55. Whaaat?? I would chase him and I would eventually found him and then I would torture him :P

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  56. This is a classic grift, and best pulled off by the elderly. I think Neil Gaiman used it in American Gods. Screw that guy for the headache.

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  57. Man what a loser that guy :(
    Sorry to hear you got scammed!
    I used to work at a fastfood restaurant aswell haha :P
    We didn't get free food tho, only 50% discount at the beginning and then a year later that even cut off so no benefits for the staff.

    xx

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  58. Someone tried to pull this at least once a year when I used to work at Best Buy.

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  59. I saw this trick done on a cancelled show called "Con", where a con man would go around conning people out of money, then giving it back and explaining how he got it.

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  60. What a bastard xD I start my job soon I hope this doesn't happen ;/

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  61. Oh that sucks! You got short changed! It's a classic and why most places don't accept $50's or $100's (besides the fact that you sometimes literally don't have enough in the drawer to make that type of change.) Take it as a learning experience I guess...

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  62. Wow got to learn that trick, kidding. That is so not cool to the stores and him knowing probably a young person may have their pay docked.

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  63. That really sucks man, I've always been interested in how people manage to get away with this sort of stuff. Liking the blog though, followed.

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  64. This happened to me at least twice before. First, I lost about 2 days worth of salary then 5 days worth for the second. I go to work for 1 week and I don't even get paid because of these damn scammers. Not to mention that it was just my first week at work.

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