Small change can lead to big headaches, especially when businesses try to nickel-and-dime their customers.

When one customer was displeased with their options for getting change, they decided to pay the inconvenience forward — one penny at a time.

Read on for this tale of malicious compliance!

I *have* to use coin star? Sure.

My grocery store used to consolidate change for people, as long as the total wasn’t over $40.

A few years before the story, however, they got a Coin Star machine.

Now for a short time, they would still consolidate change at the service desk, and the machine was announced as a way to exchange larger sums of money.

But this service soon went away too.

A new manager, however, decided that the service desk didn’t have time and that the machine should do all of it.

I had come in with about $27 in pennies and nickels, mostly pennies.

(They were rolled, I wasn’t a savage.)

Was told to use the Coin Star.

This customer wasn’t too keen on how Coin Star did things.

Coin Star counts your money, and takes 10% of the total for whoever runs the machine, then gives you a slip to give a cashier who cashes it out.

But at the time, a Coin Star only took 10% when the total was high enough, so if you put in less than 10 cents, you would get the full value on the slip.

So that’s exactly what this customer did.

I put them through one penny at a time.

Penny, slip, penny, slip.

So, finishing, I grabbed a soda from the drink cooler and headed for an express line.

I asked if it was ok for me to turn in a few Coin Star slips at the same time, and the cashier said “sure.”

So they were in for the long haul.

I had close to 1,800 of them.

Two hours later, I was on my way home again.

They may have got their change, but the store paid the real price.

Reddit is sure to get a kick out of this one.

Turns out there’s another handy workaround for getting your full amount back from these machines.

This change-seeker has decided to pursue other methods.

Certain banks offer certain perks too.

This user was really determined to get their money back, but it didn’t take long for managers to catch on.

The customer left with their soda, their cash, and the satisfaction of making every single cent count.

When policies get petty, hardworking customers get pettier.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.