Coin Guy

[Teefies2]

This isn't really SC behavior, but so so so damn annoying!!

Guy came in yesterday to buy a $100 Green Dot card. Okay, no problem, you know you have to pay cash right? "Yep" he says.

Card is loaded with $100. He pays .... like this:

$3 in gold coins
$17 in half-dollar coins
$20 in rolled quarters
$20 in rolled dimes
$40 in rolled nickels


ARRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had to take it

[Evannah]

o___0 Is there no way you could have refused?

When I worked in Land of Quid, some guy paid for £1 of stuff in pennies. The customer after him decided that it was my fault that the queue was being held up and not my customer and took his frustrations out on me, causing me to miscount as I was a quarter of my way through the pile. Then, little by little, everyone else started to chime in. My customer? Totally innocent according to them. I should learn to count quicker etc etc.

I WOULD IF PEOPLE DIDN'T KEEP YELLING AT ME.

[EricKei]

In some (I think most) states, you can refuse bulk coin entirely; in some, either you cannot refuse to accept them, or there is a maximum limit you are required to accept.

This is why most stores have CoinStar machines, these days (I know they charge 8% or so, but most of the ones I've seen eliminate the fee if you get the money back as a voucher for use exclusively in-store).

[taxguykarl]

All that change sounds like someone was saved a trip to the bank. At least it wasn't all pennies.

[prjkt]

I think in Aus the "legal tender"'of silver (5/10/20/50c coins) is $5. Anything over that we don't have to accept.

[Teefies2]

I don't know what the law is here on accepting coins, but I do know that my employer requires me to accept any "legal" tender. It was just so damn annoying!!!

[Josh]

In some (I think most) states, you can refuse bulk coin entirely; in some, either you cannot refuse to accept them, or there is a maximum limit you are required to accept.

This is why most stores have CoinStar machines, these days (I know they charge 8% or so, but most of the ones I've seen eliminate the fee if you get the money back as a voucher for use exclusively in-store).

coin policy or even type of acceptable tender is dictated by individual company/owner discretion. There is no minimum or maximum limit you are legally required to accept. Heck you can even specify that no real money is accepted, only day old banana peels and it would be perfectly legal.

[EricKei]

True; the *store* decides what to accept for payment. I'd also heard that only "paper" money was considered legal tender per se, but I take that one with a grain of salt.

[Mytical]

If coins should be excepted or not is a moot point, and probably best left for Fratching. Now as for horror stories about coins..well I do have a story about that.. but it is not for the faint of heart. Especially if you happen to have the name Rip Van Winkle..cause he could probably have gotten his nap out by the time I counted that change. If pressed.. I might be willing to share, but I warn you.. make sure to have a wall nearby that you can hit your head on a couple of times.

[MelindaJoy77]

At least the coins were rolled....I often get people with ziploc baggies full of coins paying for $10, $20, even $30 worth of stuff! One lady paid me $30 in quarters - I was afraid the cash drawer was going to break!

[Dreamstalker]

We/I get the ziplock bag crowd a lot. Doesn't make much of a difference on SCO though; some custys with a lot of change will specifically use SCO because there's no cashier to annoy.

One or two of the cash drawers are warped so they don't close/open properly all the time, and I suspect excessive change had something to do with it. This reminds me, I should ask SM if there's any official policy on unrolled coins.

[ComputerNecromancer]

At least the coins were rolled....I often get people with ziploc baggies full of coins paying for $10, $20, even $30 worth of stuff! One lady paid me $30 in quarters - I was afraid the cash drawer was going to break!

But you have to open and count the rolls too. Unless you get a roll of coins straight from the bank, there could be *anything* in there.

And don't think scammers won't do it.

Come to think of it, I've gotten canadian quarters in change from SCO that have their "change" bins filled from bank rolls, so even that isn't a guarantee.

[drjonah]

When I worked at Awful-mart, our store policy was the person paying with it had to wait while we got the money scale out and weighed the coins on it. If a roll came up 'suspect', we would NOT take it.

[morgana]

Okay, Myt, with that buildup you HAVE to tell it!

[bbbr]

I usually send all my loose coin thru a self scan late in the evening rather than pay coinstar their 11% fee. Rarely do I have enough to avoid the fee and get a gift card to amazon so why not cut out the middle man and get my groceries with the change directly? For s & g's (s**** and giggles) I will occasionally send a penny through the coinstar machine. I'll get my penny back and the damnedest look from the cashier (always an old coworker who knows/gets my sense of humor) as they realize what they just cashed in.

As far as buying loose or rolled coin when i was a p/t front end manager, i would always run it through the coinscale to ensure the correct value was entered and that there weren't any slugs in it (happened on more than one occasion). Then it would get bagged, sold to the podium till and a note left as to why there was $30 in loose coin. There was never any formal policy on buying it so I tended to go with caution or send them to the customer service desk.