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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,487 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Given the number of times I've said "I work at a gas station" and "we accept nonstandard monies like $2 bills" on this forum, and also that I use my own job as a coin dump, I wanted to post some tips for anyone else who went "I like this idea". These are both things I do, and things I appreciate (or don't appreciate) in customers: --if you're dumping "odd money" like dollar coins or halves, it never hurts to ask before trying to pay with them in a large amount. I can take up to about $50 in dollar coins before I literally have no room for them in my drawer, and our safe does not accommodate dropping coin. If someone really had to give me eighty bucks in dollar coins I'd probably drop some of my bills and just go over to coins-only until I'd gotten down to a reasonable level, but some customers will not accept dollar coins in change and some clerks would not be able to come up with a solution (lots of college degrees at my store, not all of them belonging to people with common sense). --ROLL YOUR COIN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I have horror stories aplenty about getting five bucks in pennies, or twelve in dimes, or forty in quarters, all unrolled, and very often there's a line behind these fine folks. If you come in with unwrapped coin and are handed some wrappers, don't get bent out of shape--we WILL kick you out. Just wrap the coin. A corollary: if you must pay with lots of unwrapped coin, please: pay in large coins (quarters, halves, dollars), be able to count it out QUICKLY, and see the tip below. --find out what rush hour is before you go spending coin at a station (or grocery store, or whatever). I've cheerfully accepted even unrolled coin when the store is empty. When I have a line, not so much. And finally . . . . Please DO NOT just wander in with fifty bucks in coin and say "hey, got a fifty/a couple of twenties/can I get some bills?" At my store we are not allowed to open the drawer to make these exchanges without a purchase. Also, any gas station you go to that's following protocol will NOT have much change in their register--my store's protocol is no more than $50 during daylight hours and $35 after dark (because we're so busy we tend to run at $65/50, but we can also drop $20 at a moment's notice if someone seems shifty). Try to limit your dumps to $20 at a time or so. That's all! Now you can avoid CoinStar, angering your local bank branch, and massive piles of unusable coin stacking up in your home.  Obviously this is not so helpful for people who need to dump $500 at a time, but if you're just getting rid of a few bucks, go for it. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Obviously this is not so helpful for people who need to dump $500 at a time, but if you're just getting rid of a few bucks, go for it. People who need to unload that much should be considerate about it and spread it out to different places. But there was a lot of commom sense advise there which a lot of people lack. I would add if you are about to drop a lot of coins and theres 1 person standing in line behind you, unless theyre doing the same thing let that poor person go first and not have to wait for you to finish. I had to stand in line 1 time for 20 minutes because a guy was buying 150 in lottery tickets and scratching them off as he got them and didnt have the decency to let me go ahead before he had scratched and redeemed every last one of them |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1227 Posts |
Basebal, I would've kicked out the guy with the lotto tickets. If that happens in future, you are ABSOLUTELY entitled to say "excuse me, may I go ahead while you scratch?" If the guy is a jerk about it, the clerk should tell him to shove off. Losing your business is not worth the Twenty Cents' commission on the lotto. But as a general case, yes--if there are folks behind you, common courtesy is to offer to let them go ahead. (Oh, and--don't do this when you're in a hurry. Make your drop when you have the time to wait in line, let the clerk count if necessary, and, possibly, wait for change.) I'd like to add: don't be a jerk about your purchase. Nothing irks me more than people who dash up to the counter, demand to know if we break $100/50/20s/give cash back, and then go "good, what's the cheapest thing in the store?" Getting a 35-cent pack of gum when you're dropping $20 is not going to earn you the goodwill of the clerk ("overworked, underpaid, underappreciated" is not just a metaphor). Get a drink, a candy bar, an air freshener, WHATEVER. If you can't avoid being obvious, at least be gracious about it. |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Thats the sad part I did ask if I could go and he told me to wait his turn.
He ordered so many tickets that he was able to get enough scratched off by the time the employee had gotten all the tickets he would redeem just enough to be able to scratch more. I was annoyed though that the employee didnt tell him to scratch them all first then hed do his transaction. Had he started buying more tickets I would have walked about.
And agree with the be nice about it. If you need change its really not that hard to just get a bottle of water and call it a day. I could see asking if the drawer was still open and its a place you go to a lot as a favor every now and then. Some people are just natural dicks though and theres no way around it. No matter what you do they will always act like you are in their way. I had another story like that a couple years ago at the gym I was in the middle of a set and some guy told me to get up and get out of his way. I told him that had he asked politely I would have but since he felt the need to treat me that way I will work at my own pace and that if he was so important he couldnt wait two minutes they would have provided him with work out means so he didnt have to go to the gym in the first place.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
If I were on the other side of the counter, I would have addressed the clerk directly. It's actually illegal to scratch lotto while you're at the register! (Note for next time: call the manager. I don't like getting in trouble, but most good managers can sort "this person is a whiner" from "this is an actual problem" and will only address the clerk if it's an actual issue as opposed to someone being a special snowflake.)
Yup. My biggest rule is "don't be a dick, because you not only ruin it for yourself, you ruin it for others." That, incidentally, is the reason we are no longer allowed to open the drawer to make change at my job.
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Valued Member
United States
97 Posts |
Guess I'm lucky. I use TD Bank and the have a free coin counting machine that gives you a slip at the end of your depositing coins. I take the slip to the teller and have the money put right into my account. I buy rolls of nickels regularly and after I go through them, go back and do the machine thing. Easy and hassle-free. I've watched them unload the unit and believe they re-roll them in-house. Maybe I'll get a hit on a good nickel sooner or later. Thinking of adding dime rolls to my purchase. Forget halves. They don't have any. The dollars are few and far between. Besides, I live and Philly and go to thew mint and through paper in their machine to get fresh dollar coins.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Im not sure I had many options here as its a smaller gas station where theres usually only 1 guy working, for all I know hes the manager or owner.
But agreed the worst thing about people being dicks is they do ruin things for everyone else.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
I use TD Bank and the have a free coin counting machine that gives you a slip at the end of your depositing coins. Navy Federal has those too, at least the ones around me. |
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Valued Member
United States
97 Posts |
here's my Santa pix.  |
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Valued Member
United States
97 Posts |
The Santa pix? That's why I can play at banks. My tellers yell out Santa when I come in. They call me Santa everywhere, even the nursing home in m-in-law is residing.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1116 Posts |
I have had to pay with rolled quarters for gas on a number of occassions and a few times the clerk counted the coins before he would agree to the transactions and on a couple of times his miscounted and said that I was cheating him. I told him to count it again because I had no other money. He did and found his mistake and lamely said just "OH". $@%%^@ me off no end. I really don't like be called a cheat by someone who can't count accurately. The people behind me were upset with me until they realized that I was right and didn't care what their argument or complaints were. Fair is Fair after all.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Ghostrider, you picked up an anal-retentive clerk. I only open rolls if they seem suspiciously short or long (when you handle the stuff all day long, you get a feel for how long a roll should be--I'm actually lucky in that rolls line up perfectly with the length of my fingers/knuckles, so if something doesn't top out at the right place on my fingers, I know something's up). Other times I take it for the customer's word that the correct amount is in there, and so do the other clerks at my store.
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,487 |
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Posted 07/20/2012 9:21 pm
