16 ms·

Has this ever turned up anything suspicious?

eadler 3y ago
I track almost all of my expenditures. At a restaurant I used to visit fairly regularly I noticed that my costs were often off by approximately ±25 cents. This was inconsistent and not always in one party's favour. Upon reporting and investigation it turned out that (a) I routinely wrote 'math' along with a total instead of a tip and (b) one of the waiters only approximated the math required. Nothing nefarious and I'm not even sure if I won or lost out of this - but it was interesting to catch.
- pdntspa 3y ago
  > I routinely wrote 'math' Why would you do this?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - dboreham 3y ago
    1+ bottle wine?
- topherclay 3y ago
  I had to reread this because it didn't make sense to me the first time because it's so insane.
- ska 3y ago
  Not surprising, right? I don't know what you expected implicitly asking them to do the arithmetic for you, but I would've assumed not much care would be taken.
- PKop 3y ago
  Catch what? Why would you do something so silly
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > I routinely wrote 'math' along with a total instead of a tip I, too, am dying to know why you do this. I assume that you didn't intend it to be punitive, but that's what it looks like to me.
- gurchik 3y ago
  I've heard that half the time a restarant's POS is configured to ask the waiter to enter the number written on the tip line, but the other half of the time, it's configured for the them to enter what's written on the total line. Meaning, in the first case, writing "math" means more work for the waiter, and in the latter case, you better be careful the amount you wrote on the total line is accurate.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Writing both the tip and total adds redundancy which helps to avoid data entry mistakes.
boilerupnc 3y ago
It actually did. At a wings place I noticed a total that wasn’t my usual last two digits. I called up the place and they confirmed they had an employee who had been altering tip amounts and also skimming cards. They advised me to call my credit card company and ask for a new card. It is now a well defined muscle memory for me. Therefore for very little effort I get a desirable side effect of easy detection. My teen son currently rolls his eyes when I fill out the receipt but I suspect he’ll adopt the habit in some form over time.
- bravura 3y ago
  What about routine credit card transactions that you don’t tip on? Isn’t that the bulk of purchases ?
  - SpaceNoodled 3y ago
    He's the guy that tips at grocery stores.
  - throwanem 3y ago
    Transactions that don't involve latency in knowing the final amount also don't offer the same opportunity for chicanery.

I track almost all of my expenditures. At a restaurant I used to visit fairly regularly I noticed that my costs were often off by approximately ±25 cents. This was inconsistent and not always in one party's favour. Upon reporting and investigation it turned out that (a) I routinely wrote 'math' along with a total instead of a tip and (b) one of the waiters only approximated the math required. Nothing nefarious and I'm not even sure if I won or lost out of this - but it was interesting to catch.

pdntspa 3y ago
> I routinely wrote 'math' Why would you do this?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- dboreham 3y ago
  1+ bottle wine?
topherclay 3y ago
I had to reread this because it didn't make sense to me the first time because it's so insane.
ska 3y ago
Not surprising, right? I don't know what you expected implicitly asking them to do the arithmetic for you, but I would've assumed not much care would be taken.
PKop 3y ago
Catch what? Why would you do something so silly
JohnFen 3y ago
> I routinely wrote 'math' along with a total instead of a tip I, too, am dying to know why you do this. I assume that you didn't intend it to be punitive, but that's what it looks like to me.
gurchik 3y ago
I've heard that half the time a restarant's POS is configured to ask the waiter to enter the number written on the tip line, but the other half of the time, it's configured for the them to enter what's written on the total line. Meaning, in the first case, writing "math" means more work for the waiter, and in the latter case, you better be careful the amount you wrote on the total line is accurate.
lxgr 3y ago
Writing both the tip and total adds redundancy which helps to avoid data entry mistakes.

boilerupnc 3y ago

It actually did. At a wings place I noticed a total that wasn’t my usual last two digits. I called up the place and they confirmed they had an employee who had been altering tip amounts and also skimming cards. They advised me to call my credit card company and ask for a new card. It is now a well defined muscle memory for me. Therefore for very little effort I get a desirable side effect of easy detection. My teen son currently rolls his eyes when I fill out the receipt but I suspect he’ll adopt the habit in some form over time.

bravura 3y ago
What about routine credit card transactions that you don’t tip on? Isn’t that the bulk of purchases ?
- SpaceNoodled 3y ago
  He's the guy that tips at grocery stores.
- throwanem 3y ago
  Transactions that don't involve latency in knowing the final amount also don't offer the same opportunity for chicanery.