So I dropped my wife off at the San Jose airport early this morning for her trip to Ohio and subsequent job interview. I decided to be frugal and take a handful of penny rolls that I recently rolled up from a jar of spare change to pay for the parking. I guesstimated that I would need five dollars or so to pay for the parking while I saw her onto the plane (or at least through the metal detectors, now that only passengers are allowed to enter the terminals).We did hit a snag or two, since we arrived two (yes, exactly two) minutes past the cutoff for boarding and they would not let her on the plane (major stress ensues!). After a moment of panicked terror, my wife called her company's travel broker and they arranged a different flight for her through another airline fee of charge (score one!). So I saw her onto her new flight and strolled out to the car, pennies in hand, ready to pay for parking.
I pull up to the parking window, and the guy says that it will be five dollars exactly (whew...since I only had those ten penny rolls). I start to hand him over the rolls, when he says to me, "You're gonna have to count those out for me."
"You must be joking," is my pseudo-calm reply. "Nope, I'm responsible for all the money that comes in here and you're gonna have to count them out," he says. "You're really joking, aren't you?" I reply, a little more desperately this time. "Nope," is his stoic answer. He then proceeds to have me count out ten entire rolls of pennies, ten pennies at a time, with an entire row of cars waiting behind me to flee the airport nonsense. The whole process probably took seven minutes or so, which struck me as a gigantic waste of everyone's time.
Several thoughts were going through my head at the time. For example: 1) "Who looks like a bigger ass-jack to the drivers in line behind mine? Me for bringing penny rolls or the parking guy for making me count them out?" 2) "Is he really required to have people count the coin rolls out to him, or is he just punishing me for paying with five dollars in pennies?"
I'm not sure there is a gigantic moral to this story, other than that I probably should have known better than to bring penny rolls for parking. I was just trying to save money so I wouldn't have to take out a whole $20 bill from an ATM. But, come on, did the guy really have to have me count them all out like that? They say a penny saved is a penny earned, but today I learned that ten penny rolls saved are a gigantic seven minutes wasted and a real mood-killer.
12 comments:
Ugh, geez, that's awful! I suppose a A penny saved is a Lesson learned in this case.
And I actually just ran into that lateness thing, except I got to the airport two minutes too late to check baggage.
You know, sometimes people who don't have a lot of say in their jobs get all power-trippy over the little things they *can* control. Now you know: don't use penny rolls for parking at the airport. At least you get a good story out of it. ;-)
If I knew the person in front took that long since he was trying to pay with 500 pennies, the driver would be the person I would be pissed off at. Hopefully no one has gone over their hour limits since that would really piss someone off.
The cashier should be the one counting it though. He has to be accountable for all the pennies, but you know there are 500 already. He is the one that needs to make sure, not you. If this was a bill, he is the one that needs to verify that they are real, not you since you gave it to him to pay.
All I can say is you've got a good story out of it.
-limeade
That's just too much! I think he was trying to call you out and, surprisingly, I'm sure, you responded back! But I'm glad you did count them in front of him just to make his day. In all fairness, clerks have been jipped by similar scams and the guy probably just didn't want to get fired.
And this is why I always just take my penny rolls to the bank! ;)
I probably would have taken a minute to write up a sign that said "This is the other guy's fault" and put it in my back window, where the other drivers could see it!
I saw your comment on my blog, so thanks. This is a great story and stephanie gets thumbs up for that perfect suggestion.
Let me know if you are interested in trading links.
Hah, that's funny. Sounds like something I would try to do. That's lame that he made you count it.
Being a engineer, I might have counted fifty, and then devised a makeshift balance that showed that the other rolls weighed the same. =Þ
This is why I take all my coins to coinstar machines and convert it to starbucks money.
That was YOU?!
Just kidding. That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while (probably not funny at the moment). Just imagine how much gas money went down the drain for each role of pennies!
Savvy Steward:
Would that be proof by induction for money counting?
So how did the interview go???
that is crazy he made you count all the pennies! I would've kept arguing and debating but that doesn't help does it?
I like your blog a lot, it's a fun read and informative! good luck with the job prospects.
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