People Hated Me Today

The company I work for has a size of about 50 people.
Since most of us have to work at the various customer´s places there is no canteen.

At my customer´s place, Volkswagen, there is a canteen.
We are declared "guests" there and pay an extra-charge of 50% (since 9 years!!! Guests, huh?). I very seldom go, once in a few moths, on a Tuesday for a mini-Currywurst - Volkswagen is famous for it´s own brand - including the Volkswagen-Ketchup :-)

Other I have boring bread I prepare the night before (add in "awwww").

The guys who work at my company´s place have a bigger choice of lunches, it´s in the city, and there is something we all get!

We all get Sodhexo-coupons (German) to make up for the "inconvenience".
Some restaurants like Mc Donald´s, Subway, Burger-King ... - and some Grocery Stores accept them.
Those coupons work like this: The price they´re worth is taken from the money that you get by contract, before the state gets it´s hands on it. Before the money for Health Insurance etc etc goes away, hence I pay only 2,50 €, about half of it´s actual worth.

One is worth 5,11 €.

Yes, 5, 11 € - that was once 10 German Mark.
8 years and they still didn´t manage to do something about the darn 11 cent!

So, since no restaurants etc are around the office-complex I work at, I run errands with that.

So I did today.
The cashout-"girl" was the dumbest cashout-woman I ever had to encounter. I call her D-COG, cogging (the way I know it!) isn´t far from this, anyways.

I had quite heaps, worth 64 something. I gave her 12 coupons since they aren´t allowed to give any money out.

"Oh, 5,11??? I only know 5 straight ones!"
- glad you know the system at all!
She started to calculate - in her head, and man... she was too dumb.

I said, you can use the register and add 5,11 each time, that´s how many of your colleagues do it.
Got a blank look and she seemed again to try to add it up in her mind. Mind... mind... mind you, can you finish this???

She then tried to scan a coupon. I told her this doesn´t work.
But I´m just a dumb customer, right?!
She tried again. And again Lady!!!! Listen to me, I told you how it works! Just like REAL MONEY!
She asked her colleague - by now I had many hateful looks on me, as you can guess!

Colleague said, use it like real money, just type it in.
She tried to scan it. Stared.


I´m not lying or exaggerating!

She tried to scan it. She tried to sca...

I add a funny pic here, to help me and also you getting over this:



Her colleague, I only call her COG, logically (you´ll see why), came over after closing her lane. She typed it in, hit a button ("cash", I suppose! Huh?!), said, see, like this! She stayed put to make sure D-COG is able to repeat this.
Took a sec, then D-COG took the second coupon. Typed 5,11, hit the button, tried to scan the darn thing.
COG: Don´t scan that!

One sec went by.
D-COG took the third, typed 5,11, hit the button... you guess it, huh? Tried to scan it. COG: "Don´t scan that!".
This happened FIVE times in a row!!!

People who witnessed this, shook their heads in disbelief, the rest by now hated me like very deeply.

After the 5th try and the 6th coupon (remember, COG showed her once - I counted to make sure all goes the way it should), D-COG finally really did pick it up and stopped trying to scan the darn thing.

I add a pic of some of the stuff I bought, to keep you from screaming or pulling your hair, k? The story STILL goes on!


(I´m on holiday now, maybe I try and cook with those.)

Finally - done! Ups! 2 coupons left, only 3-euro-something to go!!! WTH?

Now D-COG AND COG looked startled.

I said, did I miscount? I´m sorry. You´re not allowed to give out cash. Give me back those two and I give you money.

COG said, ummmm, what do we do now? I´m not sure if we may give out money... Hello???? Am I invisible/inhearable???

Guessing... (if looks could kill, all three of us would be dead by now).

COG picked up the phone to ask what to do, was told what I told her.

And got yet another guess!
Let´s recount!!!

12 coupons - see, I was right.
But, to make sure, D-COG repeated this twice with COG looking on. (I´m nearly dead for sure by now!!)

12 coupons. All right, all good. I hand over a 5-Euro-billet...

Hey, ya know... do you think there would´ve been a personal attack on me if I´d said, "oh, wait, I bet I have 3,48 (or such) on the cent, just let me look?"?
And then search, unsuccessfully and then...

I handed over the darn 5 euros, got some money back and left. Like a beaten dog.

And no! I wasn´t there the first time. I go there for about 9 damn years!!!!

Are coupons like that common in your place, too? Do you suffer or witness the same once in a while? I´m a graduated Engineer and I get this as a bonus. I AM working - people assume I´m not working and am getting these coupons as a substitute from the state - instead of money. You cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes with these, you know what that means...
Let me know if you can relate, gahhhhh...h