Have you ever experienced a situation where a store or restaurant gave you the wrong change (shorted you) and what did you do about it?

Yesterday I went to lunch with a neighbor and my daughter. It was a crepe place and we had some great food and were both impressed with the food and the place. It was casual, they had crepes, soup, salads and coffees and smoothies. I was paying. The bill came to $30.61. I handed the man (who I assume was the Manager) two twenties with one hand and the bill in the folder in another. He came back with 4 dollars and change. I said to him “I gave you two twenties.” He said “You gave me a twenty and a ten.” Then he said “let me to ask the girl. I’ll be right back.” He came back with the proper change and he said the girl told him she thought I gave a twenty, a ten and a five.

In the future, I will say “Out of forty” which is what I might normally do but I wasn’t thinking. Sometimes I’ve been places where I’d say something like “out of forty” and they seem annoyed.

Even though we had a good lunch and were impressed, and even though it’s very possible this was an innocent mistake, it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I was lucky they came back with the right change but obviously, since the man and the girl had two different ideas about what I gave them, I’d be shit out of luck if they decided to stick with the original thinking that I gave a twenty, a ten and a five.

Have you ever had something like this happen? What remedies, if any, do you have to try to ensure that things like that won’t happen to you?