It’s no secret that most people will save a few bucks, given the chance. I mean, there’s no harm and we all like to feel like we’re getting a good deal, right?

OP worked for a movie theater, and like most people who work customer-facing roles, they just want to do their jobs like they’ve been told and collect their paycheck.

So this happened about 10 years ago when I worked at the box office of a movie theatre (before automated machines were the norm). Adult tickets (14+) were $11.99, kids (3-13) were $9.50 and kids under 3 were free.

They always had to ask how old children were but would just take the parents’ word for it regardless of their opinion.

I had a woman come to my counter with two kids. Now, these kids looked to be about 15, though it can be hard to tell sometimes. As many kids don’t carry any kind of ID, the rule of thumb was to sell either a kids ticket or adult ticket based on how old the adult told us the kids were.

Many people would say kids were 13 to save a few bucks.

Typically, I didn’t care as I understood the prices were pretty high and this was a big chain so a few older kids getting cheaper tickets wasn’t a big deal.

So, when this woman claimed her kids were 13, OP was more than willing to sell the tickets at the child price.

What was different this time is that the woman was very rude throughout the whole transaction.

We have a series of questions we have to ask throughout the transaction (loyalty program etc.) and we would randomly get scored by mystery shoppers to ensure we were following the script.

This woman was annoyed and short with me throughout the whole transaction when I was being super friendly and just trying to do my job. When we got to the part about what kind of tickets she needed, it went something like this:

Me: How old are the kids?

Her: Why?

Me: So I know whether they need kids tickets or adult tickets.

Her: What is the difference?

Me: Adult tickets are for 14+ and are $11.99, kids tickets are for 3-13 and are $9.50.

Her: Oh, they’re 13.

Me: Okay, and which film would you like to go see today?

Her: [whatever film it was, I can’t remember anymore]

Me: Okay, no problem, for 2 kids and 1 adult that will be $30.99 total.

The issue was, they wanted to see a movie that children could not attend without an adult.

Her: Actually, I am not going with them, I am just dropping them off.

Me: Unfortunately, this movie is 14A, which means you have to be either 14 or accompanied by an adult to see it.

Her: Well, they’re 14.

Me: You just told me they’re 13.

Her: They’re actually 14, I just didn’t want to pay the price for adult tickets.

Me: Unfortunately you told me they’re 13. Unless you have ID that shows they are 14, I have to assume what you first told me was correct and cannot allow them to watch this movie unsupervised as it is 14A.

Her: This is ridiculous, so what are my options?

Me: They can either go to a different movie that is not 14A, or you will have to buy a ticket and accompany them to this one.

The woman ended up caught in one lie or another, but either way, OP made her buy her own ticket and go inside with them.

After a lot of back and forth about options, she finally decided to bite the bullet and buy an adult ticket to accompany them.

I like to think she spent the next 2 hours reflecting on how her attempt to save $5 ended up costing her $11.99 and 2 hours of her time.

She knew the woman probably never stayed, but it felt good all the same.

Realistically, she likely bought the ticket, accompanied them into the theatre, and then left them there to watch the movie while she went shopping.

Either way, it still cost her the extra $11.99 for her ticket!

Reddit is going to have a field day with this one, I just know it!

Maybe they ended up having a great time together!

It probably wasn’t as good as Shrek though.

Sometimes these things do work out for the best.

It is hard to tell with kids that age.

Some people have all the luck.

Y’all, this story is gold.

I want to be OP’s friends as teenagers so we could laugh and laugh about this.