When you work in retail, you have to help all sorts of people, some of whom are trying to scam you, and others who just get easily confused.

What would you do if an old man handed you money to pay for his order, but it was only $10 when he owed $20, and then he got irate when you explained it to him?

That is what happened to the worker in this story, and no matter how they tried to explain it, the customer just kept getting angry and even accused them of stealing his money.

Sir, I Didn’t Take Your Money

I only had a few minutes left on my shift when the store got slammed with people. My supervisor popped over originally to do an observation on me, but seeing how busy it got decided to help out instead.

Not everyone is comfortable with the self-checkout machines.

While she was working with one customer I had an older guy walk up with a bag of dirt in his cart. I greeted him and offered to help him, since he was looking at the self check machine like it was a bomb.

Guy: Ma’am, I….I don’t know how to use this. I don’t understand how these work.

Nice and easy.

Me: That’s alright sir, I can grab you right quick.

I scanned his bag of dirt, total came out to $20 roughly.

Guy: How much is it?

Me: $20, cash or card?

Well, then you need to give her $20.

Guy: Cash. -takes out his wallet and hands me a $10 bill-

At this point I assumed he was getting other bills out so I insert the $10 as we chat about technology. I tell him I can barely figure out my phone (this is very sad but true….) and he tells me about not being totally computer savvy. He still has his wallet out and is digging around in it before he closes it again.

Not until you finish paying.

Guy: Miss, could I have my receipt please?

Me: Sir, you still owe $10.

Guy: I gave you $20, that should’ve paid for it. Do you need change?

Hopefully it is just an honest mistake.

Me: No sir, you still owe money because you only gave me a ten.

Guy: -starts getting agitated- You entered it in wrong, I only have $20 bills!

Me: -trying to think of how to explain this- Sir, there’s no way for me to “enter” it in wrong. The machine scans the bill as I put it in, see? -indicates the screen that clearly shows $10 has been entered-

He is either scamming or getting old.

Guy: You took it, then! I only have $20 bills.

Me: Sir, I didn’t take your money. You handed me a ten dollar bill and I inserted it for you.

He may be embarrassed at this point.

Guy: -starts looking through his wallet again as he repeats that I took his money-

Me: -now I’m starting to get annoyed- If you don’t believe me, I can get security to look at the footage and confirm it if you like.

No need to get upset, sir.

Guy: -starts almost yelling at this point- I didn’t ask for that! Ma’am, I DIDN’T ask for that!!

Me: -at this point I just didn’t want to deal with him anymore- Sir, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you anymore. I didn’t take your money.

Honestly, I almost feel bad for the guy, assuming he is just getting old and senile.

At that point I walked away as my supervisor took over to talk to the guy. I helped a few other customers and then went to go clock out.

I could hear the guy still complaining and ranting over the supposed theft. He eventually left, but I saw him come back in and talking to one of my managers about what had taken place.

It is good that the manager has her back.

I didn’t get in trouble or anything, my supervisor assured me she’d watched the whole thing and wasn’t quite sure why the guy was so insistent I took his cash.

She watched him take the bill out of the wallet, hand it to me, and saw me insert it into the machine.

You never know what you’ll have to deal with when it comes to customers.

So….yeah, that’s it.

I mean unless the guy was pulling a very poor attempt at a bait and switch at the self checkout.

If the guy really was just old and confused, this is a sad story, but its not like you can just give him the $10 extra.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

You can never trust people with money.

This is a good idea.

Hey, it worked out in the end for this person.

People will try anything for money.

They tried their scam at the wrong time.

Dealing with customers like this would be the worst part of the job.

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.