Unfiltered Story #196551

(Our store closes at 2am. It is about 1:30 am when this guy comes up with a better than $400 coinstar voucher. It should be noted that this is also the third time he’s come in with a voucher of $400+ but we didn’t know that until later. I get called over in the middle of the conversation as I’ve been there longer than the cashier and I’m used to difficult customers)

Cashier: “Hey [My Name], can I cash this out?” *hands me the coinstar voucher*

Me: *looks at it briefly before handing it back* “I don’t know, do you have the money in your till?”

Cashier: “No, but I could loan it out from the other registers.”

Me: “No. That’d leave the tills empty for the morning, assuming we even have that much there.” *To the customer* “I’m sorry, but we can’t cash this out at this time. Besides, it looks like it needs a manager’s signature and there is no manager here right now. I’m about as close as you’ll get and I know I don’ t have the authority to approve this.”

Customer: “You mean I can’t get my goddamn money?”

Me: “Not for this large amount this late at night, no. We try to keep our tills low to discourage robberies. Besides, we need a manager’s signature.”

Customer: “I’ve done this before at this store!”

Me: “Not this late at night. I’m sorry, but if you come back in around 7am a manager might be in by then, though I’d come in at 8am to be sure. [Manager] usually comes in then, rather than the earlier hour.”

(Besides, by then a bookkeeper would be in and be able to loan the money out if there was none, but I didn’t explain this)

Customer: “I can’t come in at that time, I have a plane to catch! Your manager has approved this before.”

Cashier: “I’m sorry, but [My Name] is right, we don’t have that money this late.”

(At this point, I step away to help a few customers who’ve come in line but had to wait while we talk with this guy. The exchange keeps going on between him insisting he’s come in before with amounts that large and our cashier saying we don’t have that money nor a signature to use. After I check out a few customers, I come back)

Me: “Look. Even if we had the money right now, we don’t have the ability to approve it. Nothing you say can change this fact, and all we’re doing is repeating ourselves.”

Customer: “That’s not my problem.”

Me: “It kind of is. You’re just complaining at a couple of people who have no means of helping you out right now at all. You can either come back later for your money or not get the money back at all.”

Customer: *Finally seems to get it and mutters a few more complaints before stuffing a FIST SIZED wad of dollar bills from his pocket and putting it in a bag with the voucher*

(No clue if the customer came back or not as I’d left shortly after 8am, but I did tell our manager and morning PIC about it to make sure our cashier didn’t get in trouble. That’s when we found out he’d been in at least two times before with as much as a $600 coin star voucher–mostly in silver half dollars)