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We can't take starter checks!

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  • We can't take starter checks!

    A customer came in the other day to pay up and get her cell phone service restored. She’d defaulted on another account, they transferred that balance to her current account, she didn’t pay that. So, service interrupted. She and her mother? Older relative? Came to the kiosk. She had $120 in cash and would write a check for the balance. Okay, she’s never given us a bad check, so we’re fine.

    I rang up the cash part, started the check portion on the same receipt. Asked for the check number, which we’re required to enter.

    C: Customer
    Me: Obvious
    R: Customer’s relative

    C: 95
    Me: (sensing trouble) Is that a starter check?
    C: Yes, it is.

    I’d glanced briefly at the check as she was writing it out about six feet away from me on the counter with her hand obscuring part of it, name and address appeared to be on it. I now looked closer – they very neatly and in an artistic almost typeset hand had written the information. Very easy to mistake.

    Me: I’m sorry, we can’t take starter checks.
    C: Oh, I’m sorry.
    R: What do you mean, you don’t take starter checks?
    Me: Sorry, it’s company policy. We can’t take starter checks.
    R: Well, she needs to have her phone turned back on.
    Me: Sorry, we can’t take starter checks.
    (Some brief discussion between C and R ensues about cashing the check at the bank.)
    C: (to R) Can you write a check and then I’ll write one to you?
    R: I don’t have any checks with me. They should take this check.
    C: Maybe we can cross out the company name, I can initial it and we can cash it.
    R: Yes, we can do that, but then we have to go to the bank and come back here. (Turns to me.) Do you have any white-out?
    Me: (Huh?)
    R: (escalating volume) We need white-out. Now I have to go to the bank to cash the check.
    (Lady, it’s Saturday, 6 p.m., the banks are closed. And white-out ain’t gonna cut it at any bank I know of.)
    R: You should have told her you didn’t take starter checks before she wrote the check. WHY didn’t you TELL her before she started WRITING it? It’s the only check she has with her, now we have to go all the way home to get another check and go to the bank to cash it.
    (Why, yes, I believe you do.)
    R: I can’t believe this! How can she get her service turned back on if you won’t take a check? She NEEDS her phone. We have to go home and then to the bank and back here. I think this is ridiculous. I want you to tell me how you justify making us go home and to the bank and back here.
    Me: Well, at first glance the check looked okay, but when I looked closer….(then, having had enough) I’m sorry, we can’t take starter checks. It’s company policy.
    C: (to R, and obviously embarrassed) They can’t take starter checks. Let’s just put the cash on the account, go back and sort this out. It’s okay. They can’t take starter checks.
    (Thank you!!!!)
    R: Okay, but this is b******t. I’m glad I don’t use this company’s service.
    (So am I…..)

  • #2
    White out is not allowed to be used on checks. If the check writer makes a mistake, "VOID" is to be written on the check and put in a safe spot, like the check writer's wallet.
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    • #3
      Everybody, repeat after me:

      "Bad. Planning. On. Your. Part. Does. Not. Constitute. An. Emergency. On. My. Part."


      And to the relative who wanted to know how you could justify making the customer go all the way home, to the bank, blah blah blah...hey, you don't NEED to justify that. You are following company policy, and since you didn't make said policy, you don't have any obligation to justify it. Especially to a waste of skin like that.

      "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
      Still A Customer."

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      • #4
        Mistakes can also be stricken through (not scribbed out), and initialed. The original mistake must still be visible for verification purposes.
        Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

        http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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        • #5
          ok um whats a starter cheque? is it those sheets of cheques the banks give you when you open an account? or is it the first cheque in a book....

          im so confused.... im only up to cheque 005 in my book and everyone has taken them... maybe thats because my name and address are on them?
          I wasnt put on this earth to make you feel like a man ~ Mary Bertone

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          • #6
            starter cheques are ones that the bank gives out when a chequing account is first opened, or as a hold-over if someone runs out. They are completely blank except for the bank name. No account numbers, name, or address information is preprinted, basically leaving a store no way to verify the cheque is not stolen, or is valid, or anything else.
            Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

            http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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            • #7
              Isn’t the whole point of starter checks that they can be used to pay bills and for essential services before the person in question gets her checks?
              You're not doing me a favor by eating here. I'm doing you a favor by feeding you.

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              • #8
                We do not take starter checks either..but in my city I have noticed that almost every establishment will refuse starter checks. They are pretty much useless. I remember when I did have an account I had to get starter checks because I ran out..(this was back when most places took them) I could go to my bank and give them my account number and they would just print them out..with the account number on them..they DID NOT ask for ID at least twice when I went to get them. I don't have an account now..it is strictly cash or credit card!!

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                • #9
                  Quoth Sofar View Post
                  Isn’t the whole point of starter checks that they can be used to pay bills and for essential services before the person in question gets her checks?
                  Amazingly enough, cell phones are not life-or-death "essential services". People did fine for millenia before they were invented.
                  "Crazy may always be open for business, but on the full moon, it has buy one get one free specials." - WishfulSpirit

                  "Sometimes customers remind me of zombies, but I'm pretty sure that zombies are smarter." - MelindaJoy77

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Sofar View Post
                    Isn’t the whole point of starter checks that they can be used to pay bills and for essential services before the person in question gets her checks?
                    From what I was told by the bank, starters are for essential services and bills that need mailed off. That way, they have to take the check, since it's something of a pain to return them. Typically, a place you walk into and stand at the counter, won't take them since they're so easy to counterfiet.
                    Learn wisdom by the follies of others.

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                    • #11
                      So she shows up this morning, same relative in tow, to pay her bill. I saw her coming, found something Really Important that I had to attend to and let the other rep take the money and reconnect her service. The customer was pleasant, the relative kept flashing me ugly looks. (Fine, it all worked out and you're still mad at me. YOU are not my customer, so LALALALALALA, I can't heeeear yoooouu! )

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