My daughter and I had dinner in this little place in Ogunquit over the weekend. The bill came to $25. and some change. We both had a $20 bill so I gave the girl the $40. I planned on giving her $30 with the tip but had to wait for the change. She came back with $7 and said she owed me 58 cents. I told her something was wrong, that she owed me more money. She had to get the manager. He started asking what the bill was. I told him. He looked at me strangely and the girl got real nervous. What she did was mix up us and the people at the table next to us. So the manager asked him what his bill was. He took out the change the girl gave him. $17. and some change. He said his bill was $42.something and he gave her $50. The manager said that was right and again looked at me. I'm a writer not a mathemetician, but duh! You going to tell me the guy didn't know the girl gave him too much change in the first place? Of course he quickly pocketed it when the manager said it was right. The girl finally gave me the right change and apologized saying she mixed the two table up, but the other guy just kept the money.
Louisa

I heard how Home Depot treats their employees! I am a converted Lowes shopper! Even if it is out of my way!!!

HD screwed my order up & the man in charge told me it wouldn't have happened if I didn't change my order in the first place!!! They charged $100 to come measure my kitchen & got it wrong!!!!!!!!

To top it all off....we got the original order!!!
And then 2 weeks later the re-order!!! I wanted to go down there & strangle someone!!!!

It was a bad experience all around!!! For someone spending thousands of dollars--they treated us like dirt!!!

Oh yes, "ringing them up". That was when cashiers had to know how to count back the change.
Oh and I'm a Jersey Girl, too! Was born/raised there.

I miss it back then.

[ December 08, 2005, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: Di ]

We used to try to teach the kids in elementary school to count up to make change. None of them understood why they had to. They had never seen a store without scanners. I used to ask them what they would do if the computer went down, which I've seen happen. The young cashiers panic.

My first job was cashiering in a grocery store. I always counted my change back, because my mom (a former retail clerk) told me to if I didn't want to be in debt to the store. My register balanced and balanced and balanced, even when I worked express. The other clerks just took it for granted that they'd have to pay back shortages every night. Duh???

I can only imagine the insane situation stores today would have with these teens having to press buttons with pictures on them and then being given the right price to charge as well as the correct change to give back and some do that wrong, dah!!! Never happened when I was young and working a register, had to do it all in my head. Whats wrong with this picture?

[ December 10, 2005, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: chatty lady ]

Mall shopping the day after Thanksgiving, I was in Bath and Body Works.
Waited in the long line, the girl rings me up, & totals the amount. When I gave her the money she immediately keyed in the amount, counted the change to herself and put the money in my hand.
Something told me to count what she had given me back. She had actually gave me back $20. to much.
Asked her if she would like some back...she asked for the sales receipt so she could check for how much she needed...

Do they teach how to count back money, anymore?

Yes, they do. But obviously they don't do it very well. Part of the problem, as I said in an earlier post, is the kids' attitude of "Why bother to learn to do this when the machines do it for us?"

It always amazed me how the kids in elementary school would get real unhappy when we didn't let them use calculators. Also the number of first graders who couldn't read a standard clock cause all they'd ever seen was digital. What's wrong with this picture?

Oh wow. I never thought of the clock. That's amazing.

I heard that someday children will no longer know how to write. They will only use computers and never develop their own handwriting.

Believe it or not, handwriting is still a requirement that is taught every day in the elementary schools in our district. The kids use manuscript printing at first, then switch over to cursive in third grade.

My kids were taught this way, and both of them print almost exclusively now. Their cursive writing is awful! I've been told that's common for people who learned to print first.

I find when I spent a lot of time composing things at the computer, my handwriting deteriorates.

I think it will be a long time before computers make handwriting unnecessary. Most legal documents still require some sort of signature.