Convinced I was given the wrong change

micke

About 30 minutes ago I went to my local Aldi and bought a litre of milk, a half carton of milk and some biscuits. The total amounted to €2.67 and at the checkout I was sure I gave €10 to the cashier whose till was the only one open. He had thought I was paying by card and had set up a card payment and had to press the red button on the machine. The cashier quickly handed me €2.33 back in change and started scanning the next customer's shopping. I started to walk away I was surprised to see such a small amount of change. I told another store assistant who informed the guy at the till who said he would count the takings in the back after dealing with a couple of customers. He did this in due course and after a couple of minutes came out and told me I must have made a mistake as the till balanced up and there was no "fiver in the till". I didn't argue but am sure I gave a tenner as I had taken the money out of my wallet before and was thinking that I would have plenty of change out of the tenner that would last for another couple of days to buy bits and pieces. Also his comment about there being no fiver in the till is making me ponder the matter further. He was courteous to me and I didn't argue with him. I would appreciate anybody input on the matter.

Jim_Hodge

Nothing you can do. They went to the bother of balancing the till and found no extra fiver.

Seth Brundle

Was another customer (after you) possibly given a fiver?

I reckon you'll have to chalk this down to experience and count your change before leaving next time!

standardg60

Not sure what input anyone can give here, other than pay more attention to what you're handing over in the first place and challenge it immediately. It's happened to me a few times but was quickly rectified.

Apart from one time many moons ago when i joined some friends in a pub late one Paddy's Day. Buying my first pint (sober), the barman gave me change from a tenner rather than the twenty i'd given him. Immediately challenged, i've no doubt he was doing it to everyone cos they were pissed, he refused to acknowledge his mistake. Manager was called and i was given the 'check the till' at the end of the night, so i hounded them when the bar closed.

Lo and behold the till was over a tenner exactly, on Paddy's Day!, which the barman handed to me from his own pocket.

elperello

In circumstances like that you should stand your ground immediately the change is handed over and say "I gave you a tenner".

It's not a lot of money so don't lose any sleep over it and put it behind you.

micke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648431#Comment_120648431

I should have been quicker, he handed the change to me quickly and immediately started scanning the next customer's goods. There was only one till open at the time and there was a sizeable queue at the till. Ill be sharper in future.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648405#Comment_120648405

It does no matter if the other customer was given a fiver, the till balanced.

JoChervil

So, the tills are not monitored? I thought they are and everything can be checked on recordings. But maybe I live in a lalaland.

Jim2007

The time to challenge it was while you were at the checkout.

There are two places the likes of Aldi can loose money - shop lifting and at the tills and of the two the tills are the easiest to control and they are. It is very easy for them to tell at any given point in time exactly how much should be in the till and he had no qualms about doing the check. For all he knew you could have caused a big stink and a manager might have done the check instead…

I’d say it would be very difficult to make a case for getting the five Euros back now.

Allinall

What’s the difference between a litre and a half carton of milk?

Also, a litre of milk, plus a half carton of milk ( whatever that is), plus “some biscuits “, whatever that means, would cost a lot more than €2.67, even in Lidl.

I smell a rat.

micke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648563#Comment_120648563

It was Aldi not Lidl. The biscuits were a small pack of Chocolate chip cookies for 88 cent, the 1 litre of Clonbawn milk was 1.09 and the 500ml carton was 70 cent. Aldi is considerably cheaper than Tesco or Supervalu.

martingriff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648405#Comment_120648405

Would the till not still be over a €5 regardless unless the other got €5 extra

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648563#Comment_120648563

A litre and a half. It's not hard to comprehend. The money is about right. You mustn't shop there.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648585#Comment_120648585

Tills naturally don't always balance.

Anyhow, for the OP's benefit, get into the habit of saying what it is that you're handing over as it can help avoid issues in future.

I worked in a pub a long time ago. A customer ordered and was waving a £50 note around but handed me a tenner. One of the other barmen had been watching him and sussed him. The other barman took the tenner from the customer, said "ten pounds, thanks" and handed it to me. It taught me a valuable lesson that you should always let the other person know that you know how much is being handed over.

db

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648563#Comment_120648563

The amount of money is about right but shops always round up or down these days so he would have got 2.35 back, not 2.33.

Saudades

What I dislike about Aldi is their cashiers start scanning the next customers' products before you've collected your change or finished bagging. So if a mistake has been a made, they then have to go back and cancel the next customers' products.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649319#Comment_120649319

They rarely make mistakes at the Lidl/Aldi tills as they're very well trained. Aldi is particularly good because the tills doesn't show how much change is to be given back - cashiers count it back themselves using a backwards calculation method. It makes cashiers to be awake and that increases efficiency.

About the till balance. It doesn't matter if there were other customers after. It wouldn't affect the balance, if additional cash mistake isn't made. But again, they are good at accuracy.

About the bagging - ideally, customer should through all their items back into the trolley and bag at the window or pack at the pace cashiers are scanning the items. This drastically increases the overall efficiency and helps to keep the prices low.

A few times I visited M&S. Having known their price level, I was shocked and disgusted of how rude cashier was and how slow.

I think that Aldi are very good what they do for the price we pay.

10-10-20

A good trick is to call-out the value of the notes being handed over - "Fifty". That way you both know what was handed over and it eliminates part of the confusion if you get the incorrect change.

PeterWillis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120655592#Comment_120655592

I heard a lot about Nintendo Switch and tried it myself a couple of times, if you are a fan of simple games from Nintendo, then you will like it, but if you like real serious games, you better take a closer look at Steamdeck. I know that there is a very cool Zelda game on Nintendo Switch, if you have Nintendo you should definitely try it

ELM327

Shops are not legally required to give change, so you have no recourse beyond whatever best efforts they are willing to provide.