Either she was very stupid or tried to commit fraud.Previous TopicNext Topic

Yes, I agree. That's why I think it was fraud.

One time when Ohio had a promotion to print a free QP when players bought 5 regular tickets, I bought 4 groups of 5 tickets and the clerk said she thought the free QPs belong to the store(herself) when I informed her that those tickets were mines and I wanted them.  She gave them to me but I wondered how many other players she pulled that on and got away with it. 

The next time I was in the store, I saw the owner and was going to asked her about the QPs deal when she informed me she had to fire that clerk because she was steeling pop and liquor.  I never told her she was steeling lottery tickets from her customers too.

Seriously If I was the person behind you in the line I would have been supporting your right to receive fair pay for fair play. You won it honestly and deserved the correct payment back.

I had the same thing happen with a clerk who has mastered confusion. I deliberately save up my weekly win. Tabulate them and place my final total on a sheet with a copy of the tickets. He argued for ten minutes that the machine is NOT wrong. So I showed him my COPY of each ticket the correct winnings each one had and the final totals. Finally he *laughed* nervously and said...OHHHH I forgot to clear out the last guy who bought Powerball tickets....Thats why the machine is giving you less. He gave no apology for the mishap but ended the conversation like he always does by saying...remember I get half if you win big! This time I said he can have half of my taxes that I am getting zapped with and we can call it even. :) He didnt seem to appreciate my humor...

" He argued for ten minutes that the machine is NOT wrong."

Of course the machine isn't wrong. The problem is with clerks who don't know that they've asked it the wrong question. I once had a clerk try to tell me a $1 ticket cost $2 because they hadn't cleared the machine before printing my ticket.

muah hahah like the air force. muah.  yes it sounds as if she was trying to take your money.  like others i also hope that you followed up with this.

I think of the many times things like this have happened to me here in SC and how I didn't follow up on it because I didn't want to get anyone in trouble or cause any trouble...but enough is enough.  Geez!!!

Like other comments on here I too verify the prize amount I won before handing it over to a clerk and I also seen the turnover rate of clerks pretty high in some places so I don't expect them to be experts on how to operate the lottery terminals.

With this in mind I have seen stupidity exercised the other way around by people buying non-scratch-off tickets. Almost without fail there is at least one person creating a fiasco and an ever increasing line because they refuse to fill out lottery slips ahead of time so the clerk just has to run them through the machine. Instead they insist on telling the clerk the numbers for each game they want and the convoluted combinations that want them in. Of course these "high rollers" always play the under a dollar games and they have to play a lot of them. The icing on the cake comes when it is clear that the clerk doesn't speak English as a first language. The cherry on top is when neither the clerk nor the person attempting to buy tickets speak English as a first language, or the customer is elderly and hard of hearing or has confusion setting in, and they start to argue with each other about how to carry out the transaction. That or these chaos customers feel they are doing everyone a favor by handing over a tatty strip of paper with illegible looking and often scratched out and re-written numbers scrawled all over it which is left for the clerk to decipher. Inevitably these customers have the nerve to get enraged because the clerk gets something wrong. Even when things are kept civil such customers end up having to stop and rethink about what it was they wanted in the first place and continue providing instructions. And these customers know they are causing a commotion because they do turn around and see the long line they are creating but they don't care because they have that look of self-importance and getting tailored customer service is paramount to them (even if it is in just a common supermarket or gas station). Additionally it is obvious that their daily lottery ritual is sacred and it will not be changed no matter how much it inconveniences everyone else around them.

Long ago, I often got my tickets at this particular store and knew the regular clerk very well, but she happen to be gone one of the days I went in. A younger woman I had never seen before was behind the counter. I ask her to run my cards that totaled $10 dollars. I handed her a ten and started to take my tickets from her other hand when she pulled them back and said, I'm sorry you didn't give me enough money. I said, what do you mean not enough money? She said you owe me $10.60. $10.60? What are you talking about? That's what it says on the register. I said, you have hit the wrong button, lottery tickets do no have taxes added to them. I owe you $10. I started to reach for my tickets again and she still refused to hand them over. She said, you owe me 10.60. I said, look I have to be at work in 10 minutes. You have made a mistake there are no taxes on lottery sales. I need to go. And she said, you can as soon as you pay the $10.60. I did not have time to get into the ordeal of trying to get a manager over there and explain it to them because I would have been late for work for sure. I ask her if the woman who was normally there would be there tomorrow and she said yes, but it wouldn't make any difference. I actually paid the $10.60 and got my tickets and said I would be back tomorrow for the reimbursement after she found out she was hitting the wrong button for lottery sales. She said something like, whatever. I did go back the next day and ask the regular clerk if the other girl had said anything about the situation, the regular clerk said no, what are you talking about? I explained it to her. She stood there with her mouth open and was opening the cash register as we spoke, she handed me .60 cents and apologized, I said, I wonder how many other people she had done that to throughout the day. I said, please show her what she was doing wrong and ask her to lose the attitude or it would probably cost them customers. She said, it would be taken care of. The following day I was told the girl was let go.

I don't trust convience store clerks at all! (Funny, but I've actually worked as a convience store clerk in my younger years)  I've been ripped off and screwed over too many times by convience store clerks.  There have been times when I've asked to buy quick pick tickets on the PowerBall, and I get quick pick tickets on the Arizona Pick Lottery instead.  There have been times when they have shortchanged me on my winnings.  Instead, I buy my tickets at the customer counter at the local gorcery store.  And I don't ask the clerk for quick picks on any lottery, but instead always give him/her a playslip that I've already filled out.  Through experience, I've found that this is the best way to do it. 

What they should do is have machines where you can check for winners with scratchers too, and not just number games.  In Michigan, there are machines where you can put a ticket under it to find out how much you won, but for scratchers, they only have them at the other side of the counter.  Having those machines could help to prevent fraud.  I wouldn't stop to report these clowns, even if it is just 10 dollars. 

And I never understood the big deal about minors buying lotto tickets.  What are they so afraid of?

I've had something like that happen to me when I asked for a fantasy five QP and ended up with another classic 47.  It was too late to go back and complain so I just bought the f5 somewhere else and kept the mistake ticket, hoping for a win (which I didn't).