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Eyo TL,
im like the lurkiest of the Forumlurkers but today happend something that i need to get off my chest.
i just returned home from work, as a little job i work in a video rental store near my university and im always trying to have the best mood and help people as much as possible with their search for good movies and such things. I have been working there for only a month and it already came back to bite me in the butt jsut today. A guy came in said he wanted to buy two cans of coke and handed me a 50 Euro Bill. Then replied "Ah nevermind i think i have some coins to pay it!" Took his bill back and looked into his purse then asked me to change his 50€ Bill into smaller banknotes
(now i know why my boss said afterwards that we should never ever change money for people ...which noone told me beforehand)
So i looked into another register since i just emptied the other one since my shift was almost over and handed him is change money. He then gave me one of the notes i gave him right back for the two cokes and left the shop kinda in a hurry but still friendly as hell. While all this was going on he was tlaking to me about so much random stuff that he is visiting someone here in this city and is looking for a good place to eat and go out tonight and such stuff.
And after he left it took me about 15 minutes to realize that he never gave me back the 50€ Bill i should change for him. i almost smashed my head on the desk when i realized it. Immediatly called my boss who could only say that this happens often that people try to do this and that she couldnt do anything and that i would have to replace the money which is missing now.
After that I immediatly grabbed my bike to drive to the diner i said would be pretty good to see if he was maybe there and he maybe just forgot to hand me his money back.
And this is the worst thing that happend so far within this month there were also little incidents where i got almost into trouble for trying to help people and being kind and trying to explain to people for example why this movie isnt for sale for the price that the false tag on it (with the wrong title which everyone could see maybe??) for which i got yelled at from the customer and accused of cheating on the customers and yadayadayada.
i know its my fault for getting myself dizy while preparing the end of my shift and losing the money by not paying much attention but im 100% sure he actually tried to accomplish that so im felling really ripped off and im really dremotivated to even go to work tomorrow without flipping every customer off which enters the store :/
Thanks for Reading guys <3
  
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Pretty sure it was a scam, but they can always claim that it was a mistake, even if the police picks them up.
If it wasn't he would have noticed later and brought the money back.
I read about people doing this kind of stuff, but usually by asking old people for change, they are more easy to distract. You learned your lesson I guess 
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Pretty Expensive but yea :L This whole place jsut tells you to do as little for the people as u can so u dont get f***ed with its kinda sad because i always tried to be as helpful as i can and that doesnt get credit and the boss only sees it if it leads to missing money and these things :D
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If you wanna help people you might need another job lol
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the best way to deal with people who try to quick-change like this is to keep their original bill and put it into the register (as if you are making change for them) while they are trying to quick-change you, and then "accidently" close the register and tell them you need to call your manager over.
it puts them out of their element and they lose all of the control they have over the situation- they don't have their original money, you (the cashier) are now at a heightened awareness, and there is a manager coming over that you will have to explain the situation too which should remove any possibility for them to finish the scam. on top of all this, a manager is going to see your face and recognize you as a scammer in the future.
the scammer's first reaction when anything starts to go bad is to get away. if its a minor incident usually they still feel pretty confident and will come back quickly afterward to try again, but the more uncomfortable of a situation you put them in (ie forcing them to stay and getting a manager over) the more likely they won't come back for a while. this was my basic philosophy when i worked at jcp for ~5 years, anytime anything felt funny i would just hold onto whatever the crux of their scam was (receipts in the case of receipt scams, bills for quick-changers etc) and get a manager over.
if you dont know what to look for, it takes a really supreme awareness in order to not get scammed, people can get pretty tricky. its a good experience (minus the fact that you have to pay for it, that seems stupid to me, you shouldn't have to do that) because now you are aware and it shouldn't really work on you again.
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Pretty common scam that you will see working in retail sadly. I am very surprised that you have to pay the money back though, at my work when something like that happens we basically chalk it up to poor cashier training and then educate them so it doesn't happen again and the store just takes the money hit.
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This is relatively a minor incident that you can learn and apply in order to prevent larger mistakes as you eventually take on higher positions with more responsibilities. At least you have more understanding of why monetary transaction/exchange can be very sensitive and strict. Be glad that in the end, all you lost is $50 Euro with some pride with it.
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This is a very common scam, your boss should have called the police and you most definitely should not have had to pay back the money.
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im overthinking this whole thing if i should talk with my boss ..i mean i feel like i was thrown under the bus with this whole job anyway so thats actually provoking mistakes :X
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Reminds me of Diablo 2 haha..
I thought it was going to at least turn out to be counterfeit money...
I think you don't need to become too cynical about this. Most people are not like this, but there are a lot of big warning bells that you'll now have better understand of from this experience. Especially anything related to money with people you don't know, you must be careful.
To put it another way, there is a difference between being nice to people and helping them out, and trying to help Nigerian Princes or refund massive cashiers cheques someone tries to pay you with. Even though this happened in person, there's warning signs like peculiarly large amounts of money for small services that you have to put your guard up for. Most people are fine, you just have to perk your ears when something is fishy.
Most likely this guy goes around stores looking for someone who looks kinda young / going to places where young people work and then trying to innocently pull off this routine. This guy is trash, but he made a point of looking for a person like you, it wasn't random. I think a lot of people unfortunately have experiences like this when they first start looking for paid work, and you are right that this should have been a part of your training / there should have been a clearer explanation about why you don't change money should have been given. It something that seems plain to anyone whose been around, but if you're not expecting it, it can totally catch you off guard.
tl;dr: sorry for your unhappy experience, just learn from it and continue to be nice to people who aren't making strange requests.
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I hate getting scammed. Don't worry though OP. People can be fags. You're not stupid for helping someone. I once believed one summer that someone would get me a job if I paid them for security training. How stupid I was.
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Aww poor OP T_T
You sounds like a really really nice guy  sucks that this happened to you. At least you're the wiser now for it. It's true in general, really, that people who try to be nice just get stepped on by those who are self-confident and full of shit. I hope stuff gets better for you dude!
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There are alot of shitty people living in this world. Don't let it get to you.
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op, your title makes me worry. you shouldn't restrain yourself from helping people. instead, you should help people in a smart way. staying totally aware of exactly what's going on. you can still help people, but you'll be able to differentiate between people who honestly deserve the help, and those who are trying to take advantage of a nice guy. take what happened as a learning experience. and really, it's not that bad. at least no one got hurt.
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Changing money can be tricky. There's a classic scam known as change raising.
For example:
They'll hand you a stack of bills saying they have ten $1 bills they want to change into one $10 bill.
They will wait for you to hand over the $10 dollar bill as they give you the stacks of ones.
However the stack consists of 9 $1 bills and at the very end one $10 bill, you will ofcourse as the nice guy you are point out the misstake.
"Oh, sorry, hmm I have another one in my pocket, maybe you could give me a $20 bill?" as he hands over another $1 dollar bill to make the total stack $20.
Sounds legit, you give him a $20 for ten $1 bills and one $10 bill, he walks off.
Problem is, you have already forgotten you gave him a $10 to start with when he gave you the stack to begin with,
This works suprisingly well especially at peak hours like around Christmas.
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You'd have to be pretty desperate to do something like that. And couldn't you ban him from the store and put up a picture from any footage? I mean it seems like there would be better ways of making money that wouldn't cause you to be marked for life and that's a pretty petty amount to never show your face again.
I think some places have policies they don't accept anything higher than a $20 without ID. It's not Euro but the idea's the same.
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I didn't want to comment in this thread because I've personally become embittered by other people getting ahead through scamming and cheating while I try to follow the "just" path full of integrity. I'm just going to tell you that the person you had an experience was not the norm. Most people will pay the money and not scam you. Have a talk with your manager and ask her if she can train you and not take the money out of your pay check. You are a good guy and I sympathize with you. You are a good person too, for wanting to go the extra mile when so many people just don't give a shit. Don't let this change you, you are a good person OP  .
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On May 05 2013 12:00 docvoc wrote:I didn't want to comment in this thread because I've personally become embittered by other people getting ahead through scamming and cheating while I try to follow the "just" path full of integrity. I'm just going to tell you that the person you had an experience was not the norm. Most people will pay the money and not scam you. Have a talk with your manager and ask her if she can train you and not take the money out of your pay check. You are a good guy and I sympathize with you. You are a good person too, for wanting to go the extra mile when so many people just don't give a shit. Don't let this change you, you are a good person OP .
Well I mean what do you do for a living. Yknow, besides club things.
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Thanks for being so nice u all
after sleeping a night over this i dont hate people in general as much as yesterday. Still though i cant understand people who feel the need to do this i mean this guy was at least thirty years old. Will have a talk with my boss eventhough i dont think i will get the money back i already had to bring back. Actually whats more annoying me is the fact that yesterday i only had to work cause i needed to fill in for on of my colleague who said that she needed to see a doctor cause of her back, while taking selfys on facebook and liking everything on it as well.
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EPT
