Dollarama change policy

Has anyone else experienced this?...

I was at the Dollarama at Burlington Mall. My total came to $4.52. I gave a $20 which he rung in. I then realized that I had 52 cents but was told he couldn't accept it. Its store policy that they can't accept money after an amount has been entered. I thought he was kidding, but he said its to prevent swindlers. Not sure if they had a problem, but personally I think it has more to do with the fact that many people today can't calculate change without a calculator. I've never encountered this at other locations or any other stores.

Weird, I think it the cashier was just lazy

This also has a lot to do with cash scammers.
They give you a large bill($100 for instance) to pay for a small transaction. Then once the till operator opens the cash drawer, the scammer will say 'oh, did you say 2.23, here I have different money.' Then they take the bill from your hand and give you different amount of money. Sometimes they do this a few times. Then at the end, right before the operator closes the drawer, the scammer will say 'you never have me my $100 bill back.'
But at this point so much money has been put in the till operators face , they don't even know if they gave it back or not. And most of the time they will just give the money to the scammer.

At my old job, we had one guy who hit up our store about 5 times a year doing this. Until I started recognizing him. He never got away with it.

I think that's incompetence. I agree it's more likely he was either too lazy, or unable to calculate the amount he owed you. I can't recall it ever happened to me, though.

I mention to a cashier that I'm giving change when trying to only get dollars back.

Even if it isn't policy, the cashier does not HAVE to accept different money from you. It could absolutely just be a personal thing, either that he didn't feel like recalculating the change, or he's been taken advantage of before. Some woman did that to me and then yelled at me saying I never gave her her $10 bill back. Yes, lady, I did, I watched you put it away.

Or, honestly, he could just be very bad at math. I am, and honestly after a long day of dealing with people in a fast-paced environment, some days I am just not able to do quick math. Other people are dyscalculic to some degree and know they'll mess it up. I know somebody will ask why they became CASHIERS then, but the simple fact is that the computer does all the work for you, and people need jobs. If I were a math whiz I wouldn't be bagging your cheesy puffs and softsoap right now, I'd be doing something that made me a lot more money than cashiering.

Either way, there's no reason the cashier HAS to do it for you. It is a courtesy, and if I know I only want bills back, I keep my change purse at the ready and have my ducks in a row when I get to the till, OR I ask the cashier to wait so I can get change that will give me an even amount back before handing them any money. Or at worst, stop them before they put in the amount that I've handed them and get the change.

It's somewhat hypocritical to say "the cashier's lazy, they won't do the math" when you, as the patron, are on the other side of the counter and could do math as well when you see your total come up and never HAVE to give the cashier more change afterwards.

i have heard of this, and have no problems with it.

IF the cashier was weak with math, it would be easy for them to be confused by someone handing them extra change after they have wrung the payment into the register.

if a mistake is made by the cashier or customer, or if someone purposely confuses the cashier then the store is out money. a few cents at a time may add up.

i am perfectly fine with these types of policies.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chantel

Either way, there's no reason the cashier HAS to do it for you. It is a courtesy...

It's somewhat hypocritical to say "the cashier's lazy, they won't do the math" when you, as the patron, are on the other side of the counter and could do math as well when you see your total come up and never HAVE to give the cashier more change afterwards.

---

But go further than that and it's the customer who keeps the store in business. It's up to the business to make the customer's experience as smooth as possible. If that includes making change to the customer's satisfaction, then the customer should be accommodated, period. On such a silly thing, there's no room to blame the customer. The business needs them more than the other way around.

you don't have to be a math wiz to count up from the change someone gives you.
It's basic math. And to be honest, if I had a business that would be one of the things I would make sure my cashiers knew how to do. If they couldn't, I would teach them.
why do people seem to rely so much on computers these days???

If the teacher couldn't do it, how would a boss? What if they are generally weak at math? They aren't allowed to get a basic job at a dollar store because of it?

I had a friend who worked in a chain dollar type store. She used to tell me how hard it was to do a void transaction-it had to be rung in separately and she had to get manager to come over to put in the code to allow it. There could be a lineup of other customers waiting while this activity was happening.
So cashier is basically taking the first money handed over and getting the transaction done.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kelzor

This also has a lot to do with cash scammers.
They give you a large bill($100 for instance) to pay for a small transaction. Then once the till operator opens the cash drawer, the scammer will say 'oh, did you say 2.23, here I have different money.' Then they take the bill from your hand and give you different amount of money. Sometimes they do this a few times. Then at the end, right before the operator closes the drawer, the scammer will say 'you never have me my $100 bill back.'
But at this point so much money has been put in the till operators face , they don't even know if they gave it back or not. And most of the time they will just give the money to the scammer.

At my old job, we had one guy who hit up our store about 5 times a year doing this. Until I started recognizing him. He never got away with it.

---

This is exactly why. Soo many scams done to cashiers by ppl saying "oh, I gave you a twenty" or whatever when they really gave a five. Some stores get really busy and when ppl in line get so impatient with the staff- scammers know they can pull it off

and what if, just what if, at the end of the day, this guys til was short and he's expected to take the money out of his own pocket to cover it? would that be fair to him, who probably only makes minimum wage? Nope, not at all....cuz we all know darn well if the cash is over, he'd never know about it.
There are probably reasons why he couldn't give you change from an amount after he tendered your sale, and when you are in a position to need a minimum wage, dollar-store job as cashier, no matter what your station in life was or will be, you need your paycheque, which also means following rules established by the company you work for.
Not all of us are math wizards.

The scam referenced above has been around for decades. I find it hard to blame a store when they are simply trying to protect themselves from fraud. And ..... when stores get scammed prices go up for all customers

Every cash handling job I've worked at warned us against this scam and I've had it tried on me a few times. When I worked at Dollarama we were always told to sit the bill on the top of the register until we gave the customer change rather than putting it in the till so it was obvious to us if we had returned it or not.

On the math issue the other thing to remember is that not everyone at a cash register was hired as a cashier. I was hired to do an aisle but would get pulled up to cash if it was busy or they needed someone to cover a break.