Sad

[Kevin Johnson]

Samantha went with her Dad to a regular monthly dinner for a group of retired police and court officers.

One of the attendees was an older woman who paid her $29.xx check with a $100 banknote.

The young waitress brought back her change in a normal folder.

As is her usual practice, she opened the folder to count her change and there was five $1 notes and one $5 note and some coins.

The waitress was carefully watching and, when she saw that the woman was counting the change, immediately piped up and said that she had forgotten to put in the extra change, $60, which she was holding in her hand.

[Walter R. Malik]

Samantha went with her Dad to a regular monthly dinner for a group of retired police and court officers.

One of the attendees was an older woman who paid her $29.xx check with a $100 banknote.

The young waitress brought back her change in a normal folder.

As is her usual practice, she opened the folder to count her change and there was five $1 notes and one $5 note and some coins.

The waitress was carefully watching and, when she saw that the woman was counting the change, immediately piped up and said that she had forgotten to put in the extra change, $60, which she was holding in her hand.

I do wonder how often something like this happens ... it seems to be happening more often these days.
Or, people are just now beginning to realize it.

[Kevin Johnson]

Jim Browning (see below) reports that a group of tech-support scammers working against victims in the UK find out how old the targets are and only go after them if they are 50 years old and above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygbkmh8brvo

[dwilliams]

Around here the scam is, if your bill is $23 and you hand the server two twenties, you get to go looking for them, at which point they act surprised that you didn't intend to give them a $17 tip on a $23 check.

The other, usually done at the register, is "round change down to the nearest dollar." I bet that adds up on a busy day...

[hoodeng]

If i am paying with a large denomination note i always mention the notes value verbally and get the receiver to acknowledge the notes value at point of hand over, they can't wriggle about how much you gave them or what the change should be.

Cheers.

[GRTfast]

We were at the Daytona Supercross one year. The beer vendor comes by, and my cousin orders two beers, once for each of us. The total is $10 bucks. My cousin hands him a $20, and the guy stuffs it in his pouch and keeps walking. My cousin pipes up and asks about the change. The guy says "you gave me a 10", to which my cousin replies, "nah man, I gave you a twenty". The beer guy replies "well there's no way to know, and if you keep harassing me I will have you thrown out". I was beside myself.

[midnightbluS10]

Samantha went with her Dad to a regular monthly dinner for a group of retired police and court officers.

One of the attendees was an older woman who paid her $29.xx check with a $100 banknote.

The young waitress brought back her change in a normal folder.

As is her usual practice, she opened the folder to count her change and there was five $1 notes and one $5 note and some coins.

The waitress was carefully watching and, when she saw that the woman was counting the change, immediately piped up and said that she had forgotten to put in the extra change, $60, which she was holding in her hand.

What kind of person doesn't count their change when they get it back? Does that really happen?

[Kevin Johnson]

Samantha went with her Dad to a regular monthly dinner for a group of retired police and court officers.

One of the attendees was an older woman who paid her $29.xx check with a $100 banknote.

The young waitress brought back her change in a normal folder.

As is her usual practice, she opened the folder to count her change and there was five $1 notes and one $5 note and some coins.

The waitress was carefully watching and, when she saw that the woman was counting the change, immediately piped up and said that she had forgotten to put in the extra change, $60, which she was holding in her hand.

What kind of person doesn't count their change when they get it back? Does that really happen?

Many of the people in the group are in their 80s and 90s. If they are busy talking they might not check right away.

Yes, that really happens.

[midnightbluS10]

Even with your original post, that never crossed my mind. My mistake.

[enigma57]

We were at the Daytona Supercross one year. The beer vendor comes by, and my cousin orders two beers, once for each of us. The total is $10 bucks. My cousin hands him a $20, and the guy stuffs it in his pouch and keeps walking. My cousin pipes up and asks about the change. The guy says "you gave me a 10", to which my cousin replies, "nah man, I gave you a twenty". The beer guy replies "well there's no way to know, and if you keep harassing me I will have you thrown out". I was beside myself.

Compassion. The fellow who stole your $10 bucks may be hungry. You might want to feed him a knuckle sandwich.

Just sayin'......

Harry

[Kevin Johnson]

Samantha was out with her Father last week having lunch at Applebee's. The waitress pulled a "Carrabba." That's our code for when we gave a Carrabbas waiter large bill notes (currency) and waited for him to return with the change. And waited. And waited. Finally he came back when he saw we weren't going to leave him an absurd tip.

[enigma57]

I make it easy on them, Kevin. I always pay in cash and do the math in my head before I hand them the money. Allowing for the tip (which for good service I don't mind adding 15%, sometimes 20% if excellent)...... So I hand them the money including tip and if I don't have exact change, I tell them 'Just bring me $XXXX back. The rest is for you'.

One thing I admit to that drives my wife nuts sometimes...... I realize that in some places, the wait staff either work only for tips or if they are paid anything at all by way of salary, its very little. So if its a sit down restaurant I will tip them at least $3 per the number of people at our table even if we don't get much and the bill doesn't add up to all that much. My reasoning being they are having to put at least that much time and effort into taking care of us even if we didn't order all that much.

My wife is a Republican and I'm an independent. When we first met, she used to go nuts when I would do that and say something about minimum wage. Me..... I would just tell her 'Nope...... Minimum tip for good service. They earned it.' After all these years, she's getting used to it but sometimes I hear her teeth grinding as we leave the restaurant and wonder if we're going to end up with a dental bill.

Best regards,

Harry

[hoodeng]

How country's can vary!!!! when i have visited the USA i find myself very conscious of the tipping culture and try to get my head around the +15% baseline and how it applys,whether it is across the board or is it included in some places like fast food take away? either way its paid as i understand serving staff in the US may have a minimal wage and the tip is not a gratuity but a factored taxed component in their income, its the country's system that it, and when i visit i get onboard without question. I have found some places in Europe are similar.

Well,,,where i am, tipping is very much a conscious addition to the bill, restaurant employees are on fixed award wages, these rates can vary on weekends to double time and on public holidays anything up to triple time, to the point some restaurants and bars do not open on public holidays, so the idea of leaving any fat on the plate is not going to happen, as it is already incorporated in the bill at the employers expense.

[enigma57]

P.S. >>> Kevin, I attempted to edit my post above this morning to mention that most restaurants here do not take large bills (unless you know the manager). Nothing larger than $20.00 bills. So its not all that difficult to either make exact change or very close to it when paying the tab.

My apologies for taking so long to complete my edit. Got bumped off the forum this morning as I was about to post this and haven't been able to get back on until just now (there is an issue with the server here timing out) according to the message I receive when attempting to get on here.

Best regards,

Harry

[Kevin Johnson]

I make sure the ink is dry on my large bank notes. I know how annoying that is -- it gets all over everything and is difficult to wash off.