Wrong Change Doesn’t Make A Change

(I pull up to the drive-thru of a popular fast food chain. It’s pretty busy with a large line of cars. After we order, the car in front of us drives off just before the pay window. My boyfriend is driving.)

Employee #1: “That will be [amount].”

(My boyfriend hands cash to the window person.)

Me: “Babe, that doesn’t sound right. Wait at this window when we get the receipt so I can check it.”

(My boyfriend decides instead to drive to the second window.)

Me: “Babe, they didn’t charge us for our meal; they aren’t going to give us what we ordered.”

Boyfriend: “We will just have them correct it when we get to the window.”

Me: “That’s going to take a year and a day! I bet those nim-nuts did this to everyone! It’s going to be a mess!”

Boyfriend: “It will be fine. They usually have someone keeping an eye on the cameras to catch that stuff.”

(We finally get to the second window.)

Boyfriend: “Hey, yeah, that’s not my order. You didn’t charge me right.”

Employee #2: “What? Didn’t you get [order of the guy who drove away]?”

Boyfriend: “Uh, no. We got, uh, um…”

Me: “Yeah, some jackwagon in front of us left right before reaching the pay window, and the pay person did not confirm our order, so I didn’t know the order was wrong until I got the receipt. We got [order], and you might want to check out the rest of your tickets.”

Employee #2: “Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Please give me a minute.”

(We wait, he brings us the right order, and we hand him our full change and receipt.)

Me: “I gave you guys a $20, and this is the change you gave me. Here’s the receipt so you can check. I figured it would make it a little easier on you guys.”

Employee #2: “Yeah, sorry about this, guys. It’s not just you; they just did this to everyone behind you, so we have about six receipts to fix.”

(Then, we wait longer for them to figure out how to give us change. I figure they need to redo the other sales. [Employee #2] looks a strange mixture of bored and frustrated, and I have a brilliant idea.)

Me: “Hey, window guy, for the inconvenience this has caused, would you throw me three chocolate chip cookies?”

Boyfriend: “Babe! That’s so rude! You can’t just ask for free stuff!”

Me: “Rude would be me cussing out the whole staff for not knowing how to confirm an order, or to glance at cameras every once in a while to make sure all of your cars in line stay in line. Asking for cookies is my right!”

Boyfriend: “How do you expect to get free cookies?”

Employee #2: “Here you are.” *hands me my cookies* “I am again sorry for the wait; we are just trying to get the registers correct.”

Boyfriend: “I can’t believe he really just brought you cookies.”

Me: “He’s lucky I didn’t ask for a free meal or jump through that window. I think I am being quite nice right now.”

Employee #2: “Here is your change, the receipt you paid for originally, and the receipt you should have gotten. If you would like, you can check your totals before you leave.”

Boyfriend: “Nah, we are cool.”

(He drives away, I look over our receipt, and I realize before we go around the building that something is off.)

Me: “Babe, why did you leave right away? They don’t know how to count; they didn’t give us the right amount of change.”

Boyfriend: “What do you mean? What were we supposed to get?”

Me: “$5 and something. They gave us $7 and something.”

Boyfriend: “So, they gave us cookies and an extra $2?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Boyfriend: “Where did they get that number from?”

Me: “I am assuming they had trouble doing math. Our original change was $12 something, and our meal was $14 something. It looks like they gave us the difference of our messed-up order change and our actual order, with the change we were supposed to get with our order.”

Boyfriend: “Too much math. We made $2 because they messed up. I am perfectly fine with that.”