[BenignDesign]

Ok, you guys, this is another one of my infamous personal experience threads... because this one was so crazy, I HAD to share.

So, anyway... this morning, I didn't have time for breakfast at home, so I decided to swing through the Burger King drive-thru. I ordered a sausage, egg, and cheese Croissan'Wich. My total was $2.54. I thought I had a $5 bill in my wallet, but it turns out I only had a $1 bill.

I pulled up to the window to pay. I handed the roughly 18-19 year old chickadee a $1 bill, 10 dimes, 2 quarters, and 4 pennies. She blinked a few times, looked at me, and said, "Um... I still need a dollar. Your total was $2.54."

"That's what I gave you. $2.54," I replied.

"No," she argued, "you gave one ONE dollar, 54 cents, and 10 dimes."

I almost did a literal facepalm. "Ten dimes equals one dollar," I said.

"How can it equal one dollar? There are only ten of them!"

"Count them," I demanded.

Placing her finger on the dimes, one at a time, she counted, "One... two... three... four... five..."

O.M.F.G. "Count them by tens!" I cried.

"Why would I count them by tens?" she asked. "You only GAVE me ten, if I count them by tens, there will be more than ten, and that's not right. I think you're trying to trick me."

At this point, I stepped out of the car so that I could reach the window ledge and show her how to count dimes. "How much is a dime worth?"

"Ten cents."

"Right. So, one dime is ten cents, two dimes make twenty cents..." I said while sliding the dimes to the side as I counted them. "...and ten dimes make one hundred cents."

She looked at me, confused. "See? It's one hundred cents, not one dollar."

"One hundred cents IS one dollar."

"No! It's a ONE DOLLAR bill, not a ONE HUNDRED CENT bill!"

"Can I speak with your manager?"

The manager came to the window and I explained the problem. She looked at me, standing in the window flabbergasted while my car burned gas in the drive-thru lane behind me. She looked at her employee, on the verge of tears because she was so convinced I was trying to cheat her out of a dollar. "She gave you $2.54, Ashley. Put it in the register."

"No she didn't! She gave me a dollar, fifty-four cents, and ten dimes!"

"Ten dimes is the same thing as one dollar," said the manager. "Now put it in your register."

"Do you two know each other? Because I think you're both messing with me," argued Ashley.

"PUT IT IN YOUR REGISTER!" yelled the manager before turning back to the window. "I'm so sorry. Can I get you something? A cup of coffee? An orange juice? A side of hashbrowns? On the house... to make up for ... well... this?"

I've had experiences before with younguns who can't make change, but this was a first. What kind of future does the human race have if we are cranking out high school graduates who can't count dimes?

[DarenR]

and now her future looks even bleaker since she can't even count money--- strip club here she comes

[BenignDesign]

Good idea. They'll give her one dollar bills. Makes the counting easy.

[Celerian]

DarenR, on 01 June 2012 - 08:40 AM, said:

and now her future looks even bleaker since she can't even count money--- strip club here she comes

At least she'll get paid in one dollar bills.


This sounds an awful lot like the $2 Dollar Bill incident at Taco Bell...

[modi123_1]

Ouch.. that traumatized my day.

Where are we going? Easy - to a simple and pure physical money-less society.

Thanks, in no part, to Milton Bradley's new "credit card monopoly".

[AdamSpeight2008]

Whoo there lady, you can't end the story there.

No! No! What did have on the house?


Me. I'd be tempted to say, "What about this order?"

[h4nnib4l]

It constantly depresses me that Idiocracy was the most prophetic movie in history...

[jon.kiparsky]

Couldn't you just use a debit card like everyone else?

[baavgai]

I've seen this. Not quite to your extreme. Maybe. Usually the stupid are smart enough to at least pretend they know what's going on...

I almost always have a one dollar coin on me. They serve three purposes: I like them, they're fun. Other people like them and getting them often makes someone's day. Idiots are completely lost when handed them. So, to mess with the morons, one dollar coins.

[AdamSpeight2008]

UK currency.

We have as legal tender.

In common usage the £2 pound with a silvery centre with a bronze outer ring, but there's a rarer £2 coin which has not silvery centre.
£5 pound can either be as the traditional five® pound note, or the rarer £5 pound coin.

Try handing over the rarer variants and the cashier's think you're handing over toy town money.


I like it that we still have the barter system, cos as I see it. If a vending machine considers what was inserted into the coin slot as currency the exchange is legal.

[WolfCoder]

This makes me want to carry more change again and pay using arbitrary coins.

[modi123_1]

Except at gas stations. I swear I will slap the a bastard who routinely pays for seven-ish dollars in gas with nothing but pennies, nickles, and dimes, and I will also slap the manager for not having another register open.

[Kilorn]

In an economy where so many people are without jobs, I wouldn't normally say this, but I really hope this person lost their job.

I think I'll start pay for things with random quantities of coins as well to see if I can catch an idiot like this by surprise.

[jon.kiparsky]

WolfCoder, on 01 June 2012 - 10:29 AM, said:

This makes me want to carry more change again and pay using arbitrary coins.

Right, 'cause that's what the girl behind the counter at the coffee shop needs. Be a sport, sport, and just pay up and go on your way without jerking people around.

[DarenR]

You should have paid with a susan b anthony dollar since they are the size of a quarter and look almost exactly like one. That would have made her head explode......Hey this thread might be related to your cannible thread....just saying