Is that Canadian?

[Desk clerk knows all]

I live about 20 miles from the Canadian border so we get a lot of Canadians checking into the hotel. Tonight a guy calls to ask about the rate on a room and I quote him the rate and he says "is that Canadian?" I'm thinking this is a business located in the US why would I quote another countries rate?

[PepperElf]

cos he's hoping it's in CAN so it'll be cheaper for him... since $CAN < $USD

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Actually, the Canadian dollar has been really close to even with the US dollar for the last few weeks... it's even been a cent or two above the US...

Anyways, any savings would be fractions of a cent per dollar.

EDIT: I guess we're so used to asking because we (Canadians) are more accustomed to having the exchange rate lower. It used to float around the 85 cent level, although I remember it being around 65 cents for a while.

[bhskittykatt]

What I love is when I am checking them in, and I give them the total and ask cash or credit. They say "cash", and then start counting out Canadian bills. (1) We don't accept Canadian currency (even though I'm apparently in the same town as the OP), and (2) What makes you think it's going to be the same total after the exchange rate anyway? (Yeah, they're close now, but they're still not the same!)

[Pixilated]

I've never understood why people visiting a different country don't ask whether the cash from their home country is accepted rather than just going on autopilot and starting to count it out.

[mikoyan29]

I also live fairly close to the Canadian border and there are quite a few places that accept Canadian currency....but those are much much closer to the border.

[earl colby pottinger]

Then there are the people who don't ask which currency is going to be used, they just assume.

I got in an argument with an American where I pointed out his conclusion were wrong because he did not track any of the fine details.

Note: He knew I was Canadian, he had my full contact address.
He knew he was American, he boasted of it every other post.

I made a bet that if he could prove me wrong that I would pay him one thousand dollars.

He of-course took the bet.

Does anyone notice the missing detail?

If I lost the bet (I did not) I was fully planning to pay him one thousand Jamaican dollars.

PS. At the time $1CDN = $0.74USD

I would had asked if I was in his place.

[AmethystSquirrel]

I feel your pain. When I lived in Buffalo I would get that crap ALL the time.

[Slayer]

lol, I get the reverse.

I'm Canadian living near Montreal and I'm always getting Americans trying to pay with American money.

And then they're surprised when I tell them I can't accept it *rolls eyes*.

I've had an argument with two of them over the years. One of them even told me that I can just go to the bank the next day to get Canadian money back from the American money they wanted to use. Seriously? No thanks. I don't want your business.

[brucetiki]

The best one I had was when I was selling insurance. Someone wanted to insure some jewellery, which required a valuation in Australian dollars. So he sends us a valuation in US dollars, telling us it's perfectly acceptable because they're pretty much the same thing. Didn't matter how many times we tried to explain to him it wasn't acceptable, he kept insisting it was ok.

We never accepted the valuation.

[Dreamstalker]

My mom counts collection money part-time for her church, and recently someone's been putting Euros/pounds sterling in the basket. Their bank charges for conversion (not really worth the time unless the end amount is over $50) and it's almost too much hassle as only someone whose name is specifically on the account can do it. It also takes an extra few entries in the spreadsheet.

The office staff knows that mom goes to Ireland on occasion, so she's been given the okay to 'buy' it from the basket (although how it usually works is she's told to just take it and pay whatever she can--nobody there wants to deal with foreign currency).

[mariamousie1]

It works the other way too, unfortunately. We always get people from the US who bitch and yell when we give them their change in Canadian coins.

[Jay 2K Winger]

When I worked at the wholesale club, I would periodically help train the new cashiers, and give them the explanation of which buttons on the register they had to worry about, and told them, "This one, labeled 'Canadian Currency?' We don't accept Canadian money, so just ignore it--"

Them: "So why is it there?"
J2K: "I don't know. Maybe our stores closer to the border with Canada take Canadian currency. Or maybe <store> used to accept Canadian money once upon a time, but we only accept American money here."

Fortunately, we didn't ever get someone trying to pay in non-American money-- apart from the odd Canadian penny or nickel ending up in someone's coinage.

[Jester]

A while back I had two Canadian couples at my bar. The two guys were just hanging out, drinking their drinks, but the women were....well, talkers.

And the one kept saying "Well, in Canada, we..." and "Up in Canada, we..." and "but in Canada, we..." to just about everything I said and every answer I gave to their questions.

Finally, fed up with this nonsense, I leaned over to the bar and got right up close to the womens' faces. And I pointed over them towards our huge sliding glass door-style windows that show pretty much everything out the front of our bar. "Ladies, let me ask you something," I said, pointing to the view through the windows that showed a nice slice of our tropical island, including several palm trees and stunningly perfect weather. "Does THAT look like Canada to you?"

The guys laughed their asses off.

The women opened their mouths, but not another sound other than "no" came out.