Save and Check your receipts

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Last week we went out for happy hour.  Got our tab, paid our bill for the 3 drinks, $20 + tax and tip, about $24 total.  The bill was paid on an iPad, with a Square, receipt went to email.  Got the receipt later that night and it was nearly $30.  When we printed it out, the only person at the table who paid cash had their drink added to our tab.  I KNOW when I checked the bill and put the tip on what the total was.  

My best guess is that the bartender pocketed the cash and put the other tab on our account and did something (the iPad produced a screen that I've never seen before when paying by Square, I mentioned it to the bartender and he said it was a glitch, he knew how to fix it) so that the bartender could modify it.  Granted, it was only $6 but who knows how many times it was done during the evening?

Luckily, we have the original receipt plus the one we received.  TD is really anal about this and found this.....me, not so much.

[dannylion]

This is why I prefer to pay with cash at restaurants and the like.  

[souldoubt]

Any time I use my credit card which is for about 95% of my purchases I save my copy of the receipt (physical or have it emailed to me) until it clears and posts online after which point I shred the physical receipts.  I'm OCD and always round up when I tip and the only times I've seen the posted amount differ is when it's off by so many cents most likely due to my writing.  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jan 28, 2020 13:54:54 GMT -5 souldoubt said:

Any time I use my credit card which is for about 95% of my purchases I save my copy of the receipt (physical or have it emailed to me) until it clears and posts online after which point I shred the physical receipts.  I'm OCD and always round up when I tip and the only times I've seen the posted amount differ is when it's off by so many cents most likely due to my writing.  

The only way we know (and have proof of) how much our original tab was that we grabbed the bill from the folder.  Normally, I'd leave it there.  The emailed receipt differed from the bill by much more than the tip.

[bookkeeper]

Jan 28, 2020 13:38:55 GMT -5 dannylion said:

This is why I prefer to pay with cash at restaurants and the like.  

I also vote for cash at restaurants and bars.  I prefer to tip in cash since servers often get stuck with credit card fees when tipping with the card.

Our credit card fraud also went to zero when we started paying for meals out with cash.

[MN-Investor]

And now we'll start hearing from the folks who pay cash at restaurants and have the server assume that the customer doesn't want any change back - e.g., you give a $20 bill for a $12.50 meal and the server assumes you are giving him a $7.50 tip.

[Tiny]

I check any receipt that's for more than 1 item before leaving the store... especially when I don't have a "guesstimate" total in my head before I get the bill (trying to see how close I can get to the total bill in my head). That gives me a chance to go to Customer Service so they can fix the bill.

I have terrible luck at the local groceries - I either don't get the sale price(s), or I get charged for more of an item then I purchased, or an item doesn't make it into a bag and into my cart.

I even had an issue at Best Buy back before Christmas... I didn't get the clearly marked sale price at the register. It was only a $10 off but still...

[dannylion]

Jan 28, 2020 17:42:29 GMT -5 MN-Investor said:

And now we'll start hearing from the folks who pay cash at restaurants and have the server assume that the customer doesn't want any change back - e.g., you give a $20 bill for a $12.50 meal and the server assumes you are giving him a $7.50 tip.

This is easily avoided by maintaining an adequate supply of smaller bills so that one is in control of the transaction by eliminating any option for needing change back after paying.   In my (admittedly not terribly wide) experience, problems like that described happen more often in places like bars, casinos, and "theme-y" type places, not so much in the local spots or even chain restaurants.  I am aware of the potential for this sort of problem to arise, so I try to plan ahead to prevent it.  

And now we will hear from folks who don't like to carry small bills or (horrors!) change for some reason that seems perfectly reasonable to them.  The potential for "yes, but …" is probably infinite.  

[Apple]

I just had to go fix an issue that happened at a Fred Meyer gas station.  I should have looked at a receipt closer when it was first given to me, but fortunately I had all I needed.

Sunday, I pull up, they put in my info, insert nozzle*.  She squeezed nozzle handle and walked away.  I was headed out of town, so took the opportunity to put something in my phone map app.  A minute later, she asked me if "7 gallons sounds right."  No, it did not, since I'd started with only about 3 gallons (less than a quarter tank on my 15.9 gallon capacity tank).  She squeezed the nozzle, nothing came out.  I told her I never heard it "chunk" like it does when it actually runs.  No receipt would print.  Turned on my car to verify whether or not any gas had been pumped.  Nope, showed "60 miles to E" and only two bars (so, still where it was before, under 1/4 tank).  So, she tried again, but my $1 off/gallon rewards had disappeared.  So, the manager had her fill it and then manually credited $1/gallon back to my card.  This time, it went to 12.? gallons, which was right.  The manager told me that the system had crashed 5 times already (it was before noon), so said they had been having rewards issues all day.

When the manager credited the rewards back to my card, he handed me two receipts-- a receipt showing the refund, and a second receipt, which I assumed was a duplicate of my original "at the pump" receipt.  Cool, I stuffed both receipts into my "deal with these receipts later" spot, and drove out of town.

Last night, I was putting everything into YNAB (old version) for the weekend (had left those receipts in the car, so was using my credit card site to get those balances).  I had three things show up for Fred Meyer Fuel-- the $35 fill up charge, the $12 refund (for my missing $1 rewards), and a $21 extra charge.  Went to get the receipts from my car, and the duplicate receipt I *thought* was my $35, 12 gallon fill up, was for the 7 gallons that never got put into my car.  On top of that, the receipt said that it used my $1 off/gallon rewards, but obviously didn't (7*$3 is $21, if it had taken off the rewards, it would be 7*$2 is $14, so glaring issue on just the receipt itself).  They couldn't fix it at the fuel station this morning because it was after 24 hours.  So I had to wait for FM customer service to open an hour later.  

I was lucky in that I had three receipts, have known the lady who pumped the gas as long as I can remember (she is a year or two older than me, and we grew up in the same church), so she would remember me starting my car to show her how much gas was in it (and it was not 7 gallons).  Also that there were known issues that day (found out that the system had failed 19 times between 9am and 2pm, they had a score board going!).  And, finally, that I had a car with a much smaller capacity than the two receipts combined, especially when you can trust that I started with around 3 gallons (my 15.9 gallon tank won't hold 3+7.?+12.? gallons).

It was still a mess, and customer service absolutely could have thought I was making it up (like I filled a different vehicle, or some gas cans, or...) if some of these factors were different.  

Next time I have to get an issue corrected, I'll make sure the duplicate receipt printed is the one that was actually mine.

But, I didn't have to dispute a $21 charge with my CC company, and they fixed the issue, so that was good.



*no self-serve