Why are you counting my money!? (Semi-long).

[Mr Hero]

What a strange coincidence. Yesterday I read this thread and then when I got to work later that day, I had something similar happen. A woman needed $8.50 worth of quarters. She exchanged it all in dimes. Since she was patient and understanding that I had to count all that, the change was spot on.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Am I evil for thinking that when he needed change for the $10 I would have given back his pennies as part of the change ?

"Here's your change! There's $5 in there, I swear!"

This could be incorrect, but the store manager at the bagel shop I worked at in college told me that no one is required to accept more than 25 cents in pennies.

Technically, they don't have to accept anything they don't want to. Plenty of stores won't accept large bills, and by the same token, they don't have to accept bags of loose change (or even rolled).

Mostly when I got huge amounts of coins it was from little kids paying with their ziploc bag of money, and mommy was so proud of them for being able to count it all out for me. I'm all for teaching your kids how to handle money and figure out change etc., but seriously, take them to the bank or count it out at home and give them bills. I don't need a ton of change in my drawer and I don't need to spend 10 minutes on one transaction (especially when there is a line of people behind you) so you can have a teaching moment.

[Plaidman]

This could be incorrect, but the store manager at the bagel shop I worked at in college told me that no one is required to accept more than 25 cents in pennies.

I know. We use to refuse. But corporate is so hard on for any type of business, they don't care if its in change, or if they pay for a 100 dollar bill for a quarter item, even if that means clearing us out of money, and having to tell other customers they gotta way until manager gets there to open the safe to get more money out. (I would do it, but no way in hell I'm opening that safe alone at 3 in the morning).


I guess he came in yesterday morning to complain. Manager told him he was lucky I took as I should have refused. (Manager was lying, but hated all those pennies).

[TheComputerError]

Technically, they don't have to accept anything they don't want to. Plenty of stores won't accept large bills, and by the same token, they don't have to accept bags of loose change (or even rolled).

According to information taught to me in an economics class, you do not have to accept coinage for payment as it does not bear the words "legal tender for all debts, public and private", while all bills do. That being said, you cannot refuse a bill unless there is signage posted in a conspicuous place indicating this. In addition, it is illegal in some states to place a minimum on debit or credit transactions.

That being said, I'd have made the douchebag count the pennies in front of me. After all, I'm not the one who hoarded those pennies.

[KabeRinnaul]

Oh, BTW, I also use Coinstar (tm) on occasion (too much change at home) and I never, ever mix foreign money into it, but I swear the machine spews out coins I could never have had in the first place... mostly from Poland (we have a lot of Polish customers in the neighborhood). Something wrong with the machine's ethics.

There's a magnet inside to catch things that might jam up the counter, and a lot of foreign coins have steel inside and will catch on it (particularly Canadian coins aside from pennies). Then you put yours through and some might get knocked loose and come out with your returned change.

I'm generally the person who fixes ours when it jams because it's right behind SCO, and I'm usually running that area. So I get to learn a lot about how the things work.

[Geek King]

According to information taught to me in an economics class, you do not have to accept coinage for payment as it does not bear the words "legal tender for all debts, public and private", while all bills do.

That really only goes for government debts--in the USA, at least. If a private business wants to only take payment in the form of Sham-WOW! towels, they are perfectly in their rights to do so. No one will do that, of course, because it is much easier to take cash and trade it for percieved value to someone else.

[aurelemsrealm]

I once had two girls try to prepay for gas with a gallon Ziplog baggie full of mixed change. They said it was $37, but I refused it and told them about the Coinstar at a nearby Kroger. For one thing, I was training a new clerk on that particular day. For another thing, something that ridiculous is not happening on my shift, period. I'm just not having it, especially not during the evening rush. They then started whining about almost being on empty. I told them I would do $2 or $3 in change just to get them some gas, and that was it. One of the girls started digging for pennies. So, I stopped her there, and told her I wasn't counting a bunch of pennies, either since I was essentially running two registers with my register and training the new clerk. She finally just took out a handful of change and slammed it on the counter. I counted it, and set a gas pump for an even amount close to what they gave me, and away they went.

Then, there was the one jerk who got pissy when I opened a roll of quarters he wanted to use to prepay for gas. He wanted $6 in gas, and started ranting about how I should just trust him when I opened the roll. The president of the bank where the store did its banking happened to be standing in line behind him. She stepped forward to face him, and informed him that counting all rolled change was also policy at her bank. She also made it clear that she would personally inform my manager the next day about the remarkable job I was doing in handling difficult customers in case he got any ideas of complaining. After I counted all of the change and set the gas pump, he then informs me he needs $4 in quarters. I had the $6 I needed already separated, so I just shoved the rest of his quarters back toward it. I then gave him a snarky smile, and told him it should be $4, but could count it if he wanted to be sure it was right because such things don't bother me. He just raked it off the counter into his hand and stomped off. I made sure to comment to the bank president about the stupidity of some customers before he got completely out the door, hoping he would hear. She just grinned sympathetically, and told me I handled him very professionally. I graciously thanked her, and we went on from there. It was one of those moments you have to love.

[Shalom]

That really only goes for government debts--in the USA, at least. If a private business wants to only take payment in the form of Sham-WOW! towels, they are perfectly in their rights to do so. No one will do that, of course, because it is much easier to take cash and trade it for percieved value to someone else.

I vaguely remember a case some years ago where an electronics retailer, probably some clone of Crazy Eddie's, had an ad with a pitchman dressed in a gorilla costume, who declared on the air that you could buy a certain TV for 299 bananas. So of course some genius showed up at the store with a truckload of bananas and demanded his television. I don't recall the outcome of the court case that followed...

update: I just checked snopes, and they say it's true... I was a little fuzzy on the details. They wound up collecting 11,000 bananas from a total of 32 customers, but no court cases ensued. The bananas wound up donated to the local zoo and food banks.

[Anthony K. S.]

If a private business wants to only take payment in the form of Sham-WOW! towels, they are perfectly in their rights to do so.

Geek King is correct.


I have seen it happen that a customer will try to pay for something with a $100 bill in a business that doesn't accept bills larger than $20. (The policy is sometimes posted, sometimes not.) When the cashier tells the customer the policy, the customer will point to the bill and say, "See right there, it says 'Legal tender for all debts, public and private.' That means you have to take it."

To borrow a line from the Gord, "Oh, yay, guess who took the $5 law class instead of the $10 one."

So the phrase "Legal tender for all debts, public and private" means that businesses are required to accept the bill?

Gee, I didn't know that . . . and, apparently, neither does the U.S. Treasury Department :

http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/c...l-tender.shtml

Question : I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

Answer : The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

A particular state might, indeed, have a law requiring businesses to accept paper currency or coins, but the phrase "Legal tender for all debts" does not impose any such requirement.

The bookstore I work in right now will accept just about anything, so it isn't an issue for me . . . but at various times, I've known people who worked in stores that did have restrictions on what forms of currency they will accept.

I've always advised them to print out that page from the Treasury Department's website and keep it next to their cash registers, just in case a customer ever tried to pull that argument with them.

Never actually happened to anybody I know, but I still think it's a good idea.

[Evil Queen]

The rolls of quarters I get from the bank for work always come up short. Don't teller's count them when they return to circulation?

[Fufu487]

I would never take a bag of pennies. But that's just me. and you're absolutely right, it's usually the tricky ones that are making a big fuss over something that should be expected.

btw, I've seen people short on coin rolls aswell. Sometimes they'll short each roll by one or two coins, if they have alot of rolls, it adds up. Its the bigger coins that are more profitable, if it's dollar coins for instance.

[Byronthebanker]

The rolls of quarters I get from the bank for work always come up short. Don't teller's count them when they return to circulation?

Actually, due to the large quantities of cash that come through the bank, there is a tolerance for error without anyone getting in trouble.

In the case of coins, they are placed and stored in racks that are sized to the standard size of a roll. It is possible however for a few rolls to be one or a couple of coins short and a couple to be a couple over, which is well within tolerance. More than 1 or 2 coins should be easily recognized by the teller and corrected.

In general, if your company has a good relationship with the bank, they can ask for "fed rolls" or "machine rolls" that are prepared by either the federal reserve, or by machines and are usually more accurate. Depends on the bank / day / how busy everyone is as to whether those are available.

[Zoom]

...you could buy a certain TV for 299 bananas... I just checked snopes, and they say it's true... They wound up collecting 11,000 bananas from a total of 32 customers

32 x 299 = 9568, so they overcharged by 1432 bananas unless they added banana tax.

[NateTheChops]

I totally agree, and I use to refuse. However, one of the refused called our corporate number. .

That's the other kick in the nuts right there.

These corporate people who never have to deal with the customers except for on the phone make things even more difficult for you and oddly enough, the good customers.

It was like this advertising campaign that went on at Rank Aid.

If the pharmacist forgets to ask you to transfer your perscription to us, you get a free soda.

This of course attracted every single homeless customer into the store to get a free soda, whether they went to the pharmacy or not. Did corporate think of this before coming up with the idea? Hell no.

[Anthony K. S.]

32 x 299 = 9568, so they overcharged by 1432 bananas unless they added banana tax.

Do you think that the government insisted on getting their cut, even on these transactions?

1432 / 9568 . . . That's almost 15%, which seems high for sales tax.

Hmmmm . . .