The customer's sometimes right

When I lived in the UK, and this was over 10 years ago now, I was amazed at the, to me, antiquated banking systems they had over there. 

Yes, you could get an account balance from the ATM but it would only be as current as the last working day so if you took cash out on a Friday for the weekend you couldn't get an up to date balance until Tuesday morning.  Also you could use Eftpos but you couldn't use your PIN with it, meaning you had to sign for every transaction.  Coming from New Zealand where we use our cards as if they actually were money, this all seemed rather weird.  What strange, luddite-populated backwater had I come to, I wondered?  Oh, that's right...London.

The point is that I've become so used to being able to use my card for everything that I get quite annoyed when it's not an option. 

Once upon a time I would always make sure I had enough cash for a taxi fare home because taxis would pretty much only take cash.  However, in the last year or two I've found that most taxis I've taken, when asked, have had Eftpos facilities so when I ordered a taxi earlier in the week I didn't think to make sure that this was an option.  Turns out that was a bit of a dumb move on my part.

Long story short, we ended up taking a rather longer trip than I'd meant to in search of a cash machine so that I could pay for my fare.  But, aha, I'll make sure this isn't a problem for when I go home.  I'll get extra cash out so I'm covered.

Fast forward several hours, and one celebrity stalking later, and I want nothing more but than to go inside, unstrap myself from my now torturous party shoes, take off my makeup and crawl into my soft, inviting bed, but instead I end up having this conversation -

Taxi driver: That's eight dollars.

Me: Okay, here you go. (Handing over a twenty.)

Taxi driver: Oh, don't you have anything smaller?

Me: Umm, I don't think so. (Accompanied by a clumsy scrabbling around in my purse which produces some hairclips and about three coins not adding up to anything near the amount required.)

Taxi driver: It's just, I don't think I've got enough change.

Me: Right, well I don't have any...

(Uncomfortable pause while taxi driver expects me to come up with a way to fix this problem despite the fact that I'm the one who's had too much bubbly.)

Taxi driver: Harumph  (gives me a fistful of two dollar coins).  I think you've cleared me out for change now...

Me: Okay, well, goodnight.

The thing about this exchange was, he seemed to expect me to come up with a solution.  Me...the "tired and emotional" one.  I got the distinct impression he wanted me to make like someone in a movie and say "that's okay, you keep the change" or perhaps that look of expectation on his face was because he thought I could magic small denominations from thin air.  If I could do that, buddy, I wouldn't be conjuring up $5 notes to pay for my taxi.  They'd be hundies and I'd be buying a house with them. 

And since when did it become a hassle to break a twenty?  The whole thing left me feeling like when it comes to paying for a cab, I just couldn't catch a break.

Recently I've also had a couple of occasions where at a bar or restaurant they've been "running out" of the beer or wine that I've ordered and have suggested an alternative that I might like instead.  It's not until later that I have found myself wondering if "running out" means a) they actually have run out but for some reason don't want to say so or b) they're running low but would prefer to "save" the last of their product for someone more important or glamorous than me, like David Fane, say.

I feel as if the taxi incident and the "running out" are kind of similar.  In the second scenario I take a alternative product to the one I actually wanted to save the restaurant from "running out" (possibly, depending on what that actually means) whereas in the taxi scenario there was an undercurrent of "why don't you just do the reasonable thing and tip me 150 per cent?"

Look, I like to be helpful but the whole point of paying for a service is that the person you're paying actually treats you like you're more important than them, isn't it?  Or I am just being cynical? (It's been known to happen.)

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