They Need To Change Who They Are

I work in a high-volume place, and we’ve been told that when giving out large amounts of change we don’t need to count lots of coins if we’re busy and to just round up (we have a way to track this, so we don’t get penalized for being off on our till counts).

Me: “That will be $5.30, please.”

The customer hands me a ten and since I don’t have the coins, I attempt to give her $5 back.

Customer: *Not taking it.* “Where’s the rest of my change?”

Me: “I’ve actually given you more since I’m out of coins and—”

Customer: “I don’t care about your excuses! I want my exact change! Stop trying to short-change me!”

Me: “I’m not, ma’am. You gave me a ten and your total was $5.30. Your change should be $4.70 so I’m actually giving you thirty cents mo—”

Customer: “—Do I need to be calling your manager and letting them know you’re stealing from your customers?”

I take the five back and dig out the exact change from my apron and count it back to them – all in coins.

Me: “One, two, three, four… and seventy. Have a nice day.”

Customer: “Why did it go down? What just happened?”

Me: “As I was trying to explain, I rounded up in your favour for convenience, but since you insisted I spend the time to give you exact change, you’re getting the exact change.”

Customer: “Oh… okay I want it to go back to how it was before.”

Me: “No thank you. I was doing it to save time but now that’s out the window I will not be wasting any more time on this. You gave me a ten, change from $5.30 is $4.70. Have a nice day. Next customer, please!”

She still complained to my manager, but she stormed off when the manager said:

Manager: “So let me get this right… you’re angry that you asked for exact change, and you got exact change?”