Time waster

By Anonymous - 19/11/2010 03:34 - United States

Today, I was just about done with my late-night shift at Ralph's. As I was about to put up my "Closed Lane" sign, an elderly women starts putting items on the conveyor belt. The cost was $14.79, and she paid with pennies. It took her ages to count them all, and I wasn't being paid overtime. FML
I agree, your life sucks 31 788
You deserved it 4 007

Same thing different taste

Top comments

I know 5 or 10 minutes here and there doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. Up until recently, people at my work didn't get paid to close up, which takes around 15 minutes if all goes well. Over 5 days, that's 1.25 hours - around $25. If you work 50 weeks a year, that's $1250 you're getting screwed out of. People need to learn to stop undervaluing their time. If you're working, you should be paid. It's that simple.

Comments

IphonFML 6

serious paid ALL in pennies? doubt it. and plus it shouldn't take more than 5 mins max to count them. and ur complaining, its ur job deal with it!

I really don't think she would be able to carry all those pennies. I am sorry but I have my doubts.

I agree with Skroal_stomper. She would have been hauling around approximately 10lbs of pennies.

I feel like you should all know that according to the US treasury, pennies are only legal tender up to 25 cents at a time. Also, you don't even have to accept legal tender. It's just smart to do so.

#121 - that's not entirely true. The concept of 'legal tender' is a payment which when offered will discharge an existing debt. In the USA, there is no limit to what denominations can be used to pay that debt (other countries are different and do have limits). If you want to pay your electricity bill in pennies, there's nothing to stop you. Sale of goods (such as in a supermarket) comes under a different concept called 'invitation to bargain, or invitation to treat', for which a seller can refuse certain denominations, as the debt has yet to be incurred, so the concept of legal tender doesn't apply. For that matter, they can refuse to sell you the goods entirely even if they were on display for sale, such as in the case of 'no shoes, no shirt, no service'.

gusgus36 5

oh gosh I hate when people do that. so stingy and just ridiculous. if you have spare change, put it in a CoinStar. the small percentage taken is worth it to not make some poor person count tons of coins!

ha what? can you explain how having coins make a person stingy

Because you have to pay a percentage to cash in coins at one of those Coinstar machines. Though usually banks do it for free if you have an account.

gusgus36 5

23 that's why I said the thing about coinstar... usually when someone pays me with a ton of coins they're like sorry but I got rid of em and I'm not gonna let one of those counting machines take some of my money! unless you have like hundreds of dollars in change, the charge is very minimal, but some people just won't do it. therefore, stingy. and generally there are banks that do it cheaper (mine is 3%) or even free.

bank of America will do it for free with or without an account.

Generally, "elderly" people are retired. It's normal to be stingy when you only have a small percentage of what you lived with coming in. Even if this lady isn't retired, there are plenty of reasons she might have to be frugal. Every penny counts when your budget is tight, I know I wouldn't give away my money for some machine to count it. On that note, the lady could have perhaps taken the tie to count and roll her change before going to the store...

Call me a stingy bastard, but I wouldn't pay a machine do something I can easily do for free. Even if it doesn't cost much, it's the principle of the thing. Of course, I'd also be polite and roll the damn change myself, so some poor schmuck doesn't have to do it.

starberries 0

#103, no matter how frugal she is, there's no reason she couldn't count and roll the change at home instead of being a selfish bitch. Old =/= stupid. She knew very well that would be a huge waste of time for everyone and she just didn't care.

#109. I pointed out that she could have taken the time to roll it. I failed at typing "time", but I did say that. I never said old people were generally stupid, so people don't put words in my comment.

Does anyone still count and roll their change these days? In Australia and here in Germany, you just take a huge bag of coins to your bank and they run it through their machine, and either credit your account or give you notes. I haven't had to separate coins in many many years.

Comment moderated for rule-breaking.

Show it anyway

Five minutes isn't such a big deal. But a lot of places don't pay OT except in intervals of 15 minutes. and if you hate your job...every minute sucks especially when you're officially off.

Surfer7456 7

pretty sure that's a negative-employers are required by law to pay you regardless if it falls under a "15 min window". if you work the hours, you get paid >.>

Where I work we only get paid if it's more than 15 minutes. I know a number of my friends with the same deal.

Even if you worked 14 minutes overtime, at $20 per hour, is it worth crying over $5? Which checkout operator receives $20/hr anyway... Talk about spilled milk...

Good point. I don't work as a cashier (that was years ago) and do currently make significantly more than that per hour. However...my original comment still stands. Every minute past the end of shift sucks when you hate the job.

Arsonnist 3

OP almost died of old age waiting for her to count the coins.

Though...after a smidgeon of thought on my part...I see your point. Not exactly a life ******. More inconvenienced.

bamagrl410 31

When I was moderating I clicked no on this one because I thought it was just stupid and whiny. I've had to work overtime plenty at my job and didn't always get paid. Big deal. Life goes on.

Dear moderator: I was in no way trying to say this is not an FML. That comment was aimed at justsomgirl, as we were discussing how much difference 15 minutes make. That is all. Thank you.

I saw your comment before it disappeared (obviously, I responded to it). I agree. you were not debating the validity of the FML. it was just a friendly a debate on the worth of 15 minutes.

Moderators are, oh so, brutal at times. :)

plenty of times I've worked at least half an hour over time, and even a few times and hour or more over, and my boss doesn't pay me. cause it's a small business though I hear her saying she can't afford to pay the longer hour people than myself, but I still worked to clean up her shit for over an hour into the night, no matter her financial state she should pay me,..

FYL but I have to do like an hour of overtime every night

mackmillydilly 0

Can't you refuse service to people? I guess that would be a somewhat good reason.

Yea, here in England you're allowed to refuse people service if they want to pay more than about a fiver in pennies

Legally in England you're not allowed to pay solely in bronze coins (1p or 2p coins) for anything exceeding 20p in value.

#77, it's not "illegal" to pay with over 25 cents in pennies in "Canada". First, the amount is different depending on the regulations of the province/territory. Second, as long as the clerk doesn't refuse, it's acceptable to pay any amount in pennies; in other words, it's legal for the clerk to refuse. On the customer's behalf it's only illegal to not pay at all or to underpay-- nobody can or will be sent to jail for attempting to pay with lots of pennies.

hairt 4

its ok op old ppl these days... smh

wanted4myeyez 7

can u say illegal. u better get that overtime

OT in California is paid for working longer than 8 paid hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, unless your employer has negotiated for more unusual hours, like four 10 hour days in a week. Since this person works retail, I doubt they were scheduled to work

DudeImBetter 0

you should've helped her count it if you wanted to leave faster?

PurplePigeon 0

19: you made that annoying insult to him in another FML. if you can't come up with something different, just stop.