Valid Complaint?

[Rip]

Depend on if the location has a "pay first" policy and how they handle it.

Ideally, you'd still run your card through at the pump, but they wouldn't charge until a transaction is completed inside, or you failed to pay inside.

Never really needed to do it, so I'm not sure how they do it these days.

Honestly, I've never seen any place that does that now. You either pay at the pump (and it charges you), or you go inside with either a card or cash.

 

[jayandstacey]

What would some of those country clubs,etc.,do if I was eating at their establishments and was the person paying for the meal and I only had cash. Say the bill came to me at the end of the meal. I put down my $100 bill and the server said to me,"I'm sorry,we don't take cash,". If I said,"Sorry,this is the only money I have-I don't use credit cards or checks-I am a cash only person." I would bet that they would find a way to take my money,as I have already eaten my food.

One possibility - the server would take the $100, and charge the meal on his own card. The only complication would be to get change from somewhere

I agree that they'd make arrangements - in fact a more likely scenario is that they say "OK, please take the check with you and pay us later, either when you have access to a card, or exact change."

I've left a place or two having eaten but having no way to pay. I've made them whole in every case once they trusted me to walk out.

 

[eeyoresnr]

ok silly question I know, but I'm gonna ask it anyways....(at Disney)can we refuse the dollar coins as change and tell the cashier we prefer paper money????

 

[NikitaZee]

Hilarious, perhaps; however, the country club was used to illustrate a point relating to currency. Had you read the pages in between 1 and 13, you likely would have been able to make the leap more easily, certainly with more understanding.

I've been in on the whole thread, and the country club leap is as ridiculous as the argument that people pointing out reasonable situations to a manager are 'whining' and 'traumatized'.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

ok silly question I know, but I'm gonna ask it anyways....(at Disney)can we refuse the dollar coins as change and tell the cashier we prefer paper money????

Yes, as long as they have it you can do it everywhere.

 

[Microcell]

If your join date is Feb. 2005, how can you possibly be surprised this has gone to 11 pages?

Mine is Mar 2004 and I am kinda surprised.. that it hasn't gone poof yet! 14 pages over coins (that yes, the cashiers should have known about).

I still think it is funny though that my best friend got written up at McDonalds when she worked there for taking too many Canadian coins! We lived in Detroit so she really shoulda known the difference! At that time that was a bad thing.. now I bet no one says a word!

My DH is a retail manager and he said he would want to know if one of his cashiers didn't know.. so he could educate them.. all forms of American currency are taken where he works!

 

[eastcarolinafan]

I've been in on the whole thread, and the country club leap is as ridiculous as the argument that people pointing out reasonable situations to a manager are 'whining' and 'traumatized'.

Following the whole thread, are you? Okie dokie. How long have you been holding in your anger about when I said the guy should have just moved along? That really seems to have stuck with you through what, 10 pages of comments?

It is whiney. At least that's how I think of it. At this point, you will think what you want and I could not imagine caring any less about it. Some people just get contrary just because they like to be contrary.

Be well.

 

[eastcarolinafan]

Mine is Mar 2004 and I am kinda surprised.. that it hasn't gone poof yet! 14 pages over coins (that yes, the cashiers should have known about).

I still think it is funny though that my best friend got written up at McDonalds when she worked there for taking too many Canadian coins! We lived in Detroit so she really shoulda known the difference! At that time that was a bad thing.. now I bet no one says a word!

My DH is a retail manager and he said he would want to know if one of his cashiers didn't know.. so he could educate them.. all forms of American currency are taken where he works!

Well of course as a manager he would want to educate his employees about currency. That is absolutely reasonable. What is not reasonable is for a cashier to listen to a CUSTOMER try to explain what is and is not acceptable currency while a line forms behind them. That is not the customer's place. It is not the customer's job. What is the customer's job is to pay in currency acceptable to the cashier (especially when that particular customer happens to have that money on him) and move along so others can go about their day.

Then, of course, when he returns to his room or his home, or wherever, that customer is free to author a 50-page essay to the manager about the cashier's woeful lack of knowledge when it comes to money. That employee can be properly dealt with (by the manager, not the customer) and everybody will be happy after that. That's what should have happened. This man should not have taken it upon himself to "educate" the cashier. He should have taken it upon himself to move along.

He didn't like what the cashier had to say. Happens all the time.

This thread has dragged on far too long now. I am going now to my favorite drinking establishment and drink 14 dirty martinis. I will try to pay for all of them at one time using pennies. I am more than positive they will simply have to accept payment because it is legal tender, after all.

Salud!

 

[MAH4546]

Even though they were produced for a time and are in fact legal tender - but for years before it was a standard joke that something was "as fake as a $2 bill"...

It didn't help that they made it look so different that it looked like play money...

$2 bills are still printed. In 2005 alone, $122M in $2 bills were printed and put into circulation. You can ask for them at just about any bank.

 

[doconeill]

$2 bills are still printed. In 2005 alone, $122M in $2 bills were printed and put into circulation. You can ask for them at just about any bank.

Yes, 'tis true...but it is still the rarest of the bill denominations, and thus falls into the same issues as we are discussing for $1 coins...

 

[bumbershoot]

Well of course as a manager he would want to educate his employees about currency. That is absolutely reasonable. What is not reasonable is for a cashier to listen to a CUSTOMER try to explain what is and is not acceptable currency while a line forms behind them. That is not the customer's place. It is not the customer's job. What is the customer's job is to pay in currency acceptable to the cashier (especially when that particular customer happens to have that money on him) and move along so others can go about their day.

Is *this* the issue you've had with this? The concern that the customer would hold up the line while talking to a manager? Since that's the scenario that has bothered you so much, it seems, my own scenario is that the person would either pay or cancel the order, ask for the manager to meet them over on the side, and go wait there. Or if they've paid, ask for the manager to come to their table.

Either one is as likely as the other, but my version doesn't make me stressed about it.

The manager would never know that the CM doesn't know, unless s/he watches the transaction, or if someone tells the manager.

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

I'm not going to lie, I think this complaint is beyond silly.

$1 coins aren't common and she may geniunely have no idea it's real. To her, you could have made that coin and then why would she accept it?

Not only that, you got the $100 broken which is always a good thing in my book and it's not like you were greatly inconvienced.

You have to be kidding!! The OP silly? How ignorant, I mean stupid, does a person have to be, come on it is American money. It is a shame the person didn't recognize it as such!! What a statement and reflection on the education system in this country. I am older (54) and I recognize American money, all you have to do is look at it and read. I think OP has a valid point!! We are raising up a generation of ignorant and arrogant (plain stupid) citizens. What a shame.

 

[JillianLeigh]

You have to be kidding!! The OP silly? How ignorant, I mean stupid, does a person have to be, come on it is American money. It is a shame the person didn't recognize it as such!! What a statement and reflection on the education system in this country. I am older (54) and I recognize American money, all you have to do is look at it and read. I think OP has a valid point!! We are raising up a generation of ignorant and arrogant (plain stupid) citizens. What a shame.

Ouch. I didn't realize that when someone makes a mistake they're automatically stupid. I must be really stupid because I make mistakes all the time.

 

[jayandstacey]

You have to be kidding!! The OP silly? How ignorant, I mean stupid, does a person have to be, come on it is American money. It is a shame the person didn't recognize it as such!! What a statement and reflection on the education system in this country. I am older (54) and I recognize American money, all you have to do is look at it and read. I think OP has a valid point!! We are raising up a generation of ignorant and arrogant (plain stupid) citizens. What a shame.

Well...as someone else pointed out...the CM may not have been a citizen. And it isn't Disney's job to raise them, only to give them just enough tools and info to be effective at their job.

And remember that the OP didn't do anything but offer alternate currency then ask here if that was the right approach. Some say he should have escalated the issue, others say he was right to simply deal and walk on.

And thus the legend of the $1 coin was born.

 

[jayandstacey]

ok silly question I know, but I'm gonna ask it anyways....(at Disney)can we refuse the dollar coins as change and tell the cashier we prefer paper money????

I like the question! You can certainly say this and most merchants would acquiesce.

But legally, they would have to. The merchant sets the terms of the transaction, within some regulatory and contractual constraits as we've discussed. Making change falls under that set of terms. Disneys terms are that us currency may be given as change, including $1 coins.

This typically becomes more of an issue with return policies, where for instance cash may be given back on what was a credit card purchase....leaving the consumer with the responsibility to get the cash back to the credit card (Costco does this - saves them the transaction fees). But normally there aren't too many issues with acceptance of the change.

 

[jayandstacey]

I meant to say that legally the merchant would NOT have to grant the request.

"Edit" not working right...

 

[Oz-kateer]

In Australia we've had $1 coins in circulation since 1984 - so a long time. I'm in my 40's so I recall $1 bills very well.

We've also had $2 coins replacing $2 bills since 1988.

When it was decided to phase out $1 and $2 bills, on both occasions there was a public education program that let us all know what was happening and when. We were all very aware the coins existed, and what they looked like.

But more to the point we were told WHY. It was cost. The paper notes were used so much they had to be withdrawn from circulation and replaced over and over again as they became damaged and worn. As time went on and the "real" value of the dollar decreased, production costs went up, and it was headed towards unsustainability to keep on producing $1 bills.

Coins, on the other hand, last much longer. A single coin can be in circulation for decades.

By way of example - if it costs 5c to produce a $1 bill that has to be replaced every year because it gets worn out, after 20 years that's a cost of $1 for $1 to stay in circulation. But if you have a coin that costs 20c to mint, and it lasts for 30 years - well, you can see where it's going.

I'm amazed that if the US government introduced new currency that your general public wasn't informed.

But I can't see the sense in having bills and coins in circulation together - are they phasing bills out? It took about a year for all the bills to come out of circulation here - which is the average lifespan of a bill.

 

[jayandstacey]

I've been in on the whole thread, and the country club leap is as ridiculous as the argument that people pointing out reasonable situations to a manager are 'whining' and 'traumatized'.

What leap? And what is rediculous about it?

The country club was given as an example of a place that won't take cash - there are plenty of others - heck, I owned a retail business for about 5 years, did maybe $2 million in sales and never saw a single bill or coin.

Those examples showed that the merchant has the right to name the terms of the transaction, and that there's no law that says currency must be accepted.

So what is rediculous about it?

 

[jayandstacey]

In Australia we've had $1 coins in circulation since 1984 - so a long time. I'm in my 40's so I recall $1 bills very well.

We've also had $2 coins replacing $2 bills since 1988.

When it was decided to phase out $1 and $2 bills, on both occasions there was a public education program that let us all know what was happening and when. We were all very aware the coins existed, and what they looked like.

But more to the point we were told WHY. It was cost. The paper notes were used so much they had to be withdrawn from circulation and replaced over and over again as they became damaged and worn. As time went on and the "real" value of the dollar decreased, production costs went up, and it was headed towards unsustainability to keep on producing $1 bills.

Coins, on the other hand, last much longer. A single coin can be in circulation for decades.

By way of example - if it costs 5c to produce a $1 bill that has to be replaced every year because it gets worn out, after 20 years that's a cost of $1 for $1 to stay in circulation. But if you have a coin that costs 20c to mint, and it lasts for 30 years - well, you can see where it's going.

I'm amazed that if the US government introduced new currency that your general public wasn't informed.

But I can't see the sense in having bills and coins in circulation together - are they phasing bills out? It took about a year for all the bills to come out of circulation here - which is the average lifespan of a bill.

No, no indication of a phase out. The long-term plan may be to phase out bills once the coins are widely accepted - but that isn't exactly going too well, is it?

To compare the relative value of Aussie dollars - can I ask what a typical loaf of sliced sandwich bread costs down under? (In your own currency of course). Ours is about 2 dollars.

 

[kymom99]

Which is PRECISELY why I refuse to buy more (or put back my) stuff when a clerk tells me there's a $5 minimum and I only want $2.50 worth of stuff.

A merchant has many obligations. Lease agreements, supplier terms, etc. Most don't really affect me directly - but I KNOW they are supposed to treat credit cards the same as their 'normal' purchases. And when they don't, they break the promise the cards made to me, and they certainly inconvenience me. I walk into a store that sports a credit card sign, with a valid card in my pocket, and expect equal treatment.

Now - you might say "what about gas stations that offer 5 cents per gallon off if you pay cash" - that's a little different - there, cash is segregated from other forms of payment, whatever is normally accepted, and treated differently. This isn't just semantics - it means that my credit card is still equal to a check, a fleet agreement or whatever other payment terms the gas station accepts. And that is contractually OK by the credit card terms.

When they tell me I can't buy my chips and soda when I'm attempting to buy them with a card they accept - that's a problem. Which makes it a customer service issue, which is why I've not returned to those places. I'm not hung up on it, but I'd suggest to other merchants to not do try this ploy.

I thought about you yesterday. I went to my local Speedway and bought a fountaqin drink and pretzels. total: $2.15. I had no cash so I used my card. No problem! I thought about this thread as I made the transaction.