Poll of the Day > Do some people not know how to count change nowadays?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I went to this gas station that I frequent and sometimes if I have loose change in my car Ill add some of it to my pump when I pay at the register.

So gave the person $25 and $1.17 in loose change. Four quarters, one dime, and seven pennies.

A new person is at the register that I havent seen before. Once I give them the money they tell me that they dont accept change there. I then tell them that the other employees have accepted my change before and then they said well I have a lot of work and Im kinda busy. I take a quick glance around the gas station and Im literally the only person there, so Im not holding up a line or anything, but I decided not to press further and just payed $25 instead.

The person seemed pretty annoyed too. Id understand it being annoying if I brought 117 pennies to count, but counting four quarters, a dime, and some pennies isnt that much to count is it?

or maybe Im just a bitch, what do you guys think?

Ive encountered a lot of people who dont know how to give change, especially if you try to make it easier for them by giving even more so that they can give you a round number back.

I've seen situations like that quite often, I'm like, how hard is it to count to 23? It's 2 dimes and 3 pennies, a 1st grader should be able to do this

That may be a matter of corporate policy to counteract the "I'll give you six dimes and you can give me three quarters back" sort of scam. While your particular example might not have been as deliberately obfuscated as those tend to be (which may be why other employees have just gone with it), it wouldn't surprise me if the official policy is to not accept more change than is necessary.

It could also have just been somebody that's bad at math.

Yeah we're just off the holiday season which are prime for quick change scams. Probably heightened further since people are probably less likely to deal with cash as much anymore. I'd say if you want to round up just do your change up front than throwing them whatever after the fact. Keeps everything accounted for on the register and the takes a little burden of the dude who probably blazed up before work and wasn't expecting a pop quiz.

if you ask for specific bills when the cashier is giving out change they will think you are a quick change artist.

I havent been to a fast food drive thru in a few years, but I used to see it there a lot. I started giving them perfect change every time I could, because they would constantly give me the wrong change back. One lady would just take a handful of coins and throw them at me

I think the "worried about a scam" explanation makes the most sense. A person with color blindness might be able to say if someone could be worried about mistaking dimes for pennies, surely that can't work with quarters, but I would agree with you that twelve coins is in no way like trying to pay with a bag of coins. Everybody can count the coins you wanted to pay with and it would take literally two or three seconds at most.

I'd only overpay and add in change if it's really, really simple, like $25 plus a quarter for a $20.25 purchase. Otherwise I just round up my change like once a year and go to the bank or something.

I'll just say that dealing with people who want to give exact change or overchange is really annoying. You got the people that dig in their little coin purse and hold up the line because they absolutely "need" to find the 32 cents, then you have to sift through the pile of coins and make sure they're all accounted for. And no, this doesn't make it easier for the cashier. It's just easier to take a whole bill and count out the change afterwards.

Also, I don't know what the intention of giving 1.17 is for when you only need to pay 25 dollars. Are you just trying to get rid of it? That seems like it'd be easy enough to just plop into the extra change holder that most convenience stores have. Otherwise, putting extra money in a register is going to throw off the total and that's extra paperwork they don't need to deal with.

Salrite posted...

Also, I don't know what the intention of giving 1.17 is for when you only need to pay 25 dollars.

I assumed the total was like $24.17, so he gave a $20, a $5, and the change so he'd just get two $1 bills back instead of more change.

this is the dumbest thing ive seen people do

just take your coins, stock em, cash em in later.

It makes some amount of sense. You get rid of mostly-useless money without having to go out of your way to do so, and in exchange you ensure that you get only useful money as change instead of getting even more useless money. I'd much rather get rid of a dime and seven pennies than hang onto them while also getting another three dimes and seven pennies to have to deal with later. Sure, it's not terribly hard to just chuck them in a jar and roll them every few years to take to the bank and make $10, but I can see the appeal in kicking that can further down the road.