Innumeracy

[bryant.english]

Oh dear.
In the bank recently I paid in few thousand using $100 bills. The teller counted them, put them in a machine which checked the number of notes(fair enough) but then used a calculator to multiply the number of notes by their amount....

I had a pub in Oxford and at the end of the night after a busy day I could sometimes count the same pile of cash three or four times and get a different amount. Probably once a week I would just leave it until the morning! I really sympathise with those bank tellers, counting cash all day and the pressure, you simply cannot make a mistake.. With my pub, the cash was mine and I only had to do it once a day!!

[Football16]

Not sure the examples of the counting machine are that good. They use the machines to count the bills to ensure they are right no doubt and make sure bosses don't deduct losses from their pay. Secondly they want to show the customer it is right to avoid hassles from customers claiming short change.

When I go to Cantonese only businesses they show the number I owe them on the calculator. Not sure gweilos can claim numerical supremacy on these examples.

[TheBrit]

Satay Sues example of the bank was not criticising the use of the machine - she explicitly said that. Not sure why both you guys needed to jump on her.

She was surprised that - after having used the machine to count say 16 $100 banknotes that the clerk used a calculator to multiple 16 by $100 to come up with $1600.

[100LL]

Happens to me all the time. I something buy for $85 and give $100. They use the calculator to figure out that they owe me $15. Not sure if its just a habit, they want to show me how and why, company policy, or they simply failed at math at school and/or are not very confident in there own abilities... I'll probably never understand why. And I am almost certain it never happened to me before coming to HK.