Had a business refuse coin payment today.

If he didn't he'd (well the business would) have a lawsuit on his hands, since you'd have every right under the law to leave, he'd be holding you there against your will. Big $$$ lawsuit

 

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No. The difference is plain. Who pays for the shipping, basically is the issue. Us, as taxpayers, or the non-productive individual taking the trip?

Talk about splitting hairs, you continue on the 'what if' tangent when if there truly was a reason for his laziness, or i will concede it could also be an ego trip (even more irritating to me as it implies a concerted effort in a negative direction) and not simply laziness, he should have provided it when he was asked by the OP why he would not take coin.

For the record I hate dollar coins. But after the govt spent money on advertising to encourage the use of the dollar coin, people better take them as payment. We aren't talking about a sack of cents here.

The only thing better would be to hear from the OP that there was a cash register involved and it was a govt funded place i.e. a National Historical Landmark or Building, for instance.

 

HAHA, my girlfriend (also a twenty something) works for Lowes and is a head cashier and every few days has to inform a cashier that something is real money and they are allowed to take it. The other day she had a customer tell her she was given a fake twenty dollar bill. Turns out the bill was from the '70s and the customer just couldn't accept the fact that not all bills had security strips and other security features they have now. Customer got upset, said she worked at a bank and was going to get my girlfriend in trouble when she proved it was fake, then left never to return.

 

Yes, I tried to pay to ride the San Francisco Cable car with quarters for a one-way ride (I think it was 6.00).... They told me to go change it to bills at some store or place because they accepted NO coins for the fares at all.

 

Saving change for a Vegas trip? Not any more.
There is no longer a coin slot.
Paper money or ticket in, ticket out.

 

It's the same kind of mentality as when I went into a gas station to get gas (you have to pay before you pump in California). I gave him a ten dollar bill which had a small portion torn off the corner area. He gave it back to me and said he couldn't accept it because it wasn't complete. I told him that turning it into the bank they would give him another one, and that it was still legal tender as it had more than 1/2 of it still there. He still wouldn't accept it. I gave him a different bill and later took that ten to the bank and exchanged it for a fresh ten. No problem except as an inconvenience.

People are not aware that you can do that. They think it is no longer legal tender if portions fall off with use.

 

I deposited some rolls of Susan B. Anthony dollars recently and watched all the employees in the bank huddle up to decide if they were going to take them or not. Then when I was walking away after they decided to take them, I saw an older supervisor-type come over and seem to be questioning it, and I was afraid they were going to call me back over. Because of things like that, I don't try to use dollar coins in public because I don't like confrontations and misunderstandings and I think it's too likely when you use obscure money to pay for stuff.

 

We have a thread somewhere here dedicated to the reactions we get spending $2's and halves and whatnot. Really funny stories in there.. I say teach em all a lesson; everybody benefits from it in the long run.

 

All of the cashiers in my post Were born stateside and no older than mid twenties, other than all being female. They were of assorted heritages, the local Home Despot never seems to have males working the registers. If any body watches the new whether it is local or cable news channels. You will notice that the only two important things that they sart off leading the news casts are SPORTS and ENTERTAINMENT. Unless there is blood and gore or what ever cause the news station is championing this week.
Having worked for 33 years in an large urban based educational system, I have watched the steady decline of the education that are given children in this country. Were again sports and the entertainment industry are more important than reading writing and basic ability to do anything else.
As with everything else there are good, bad and great teachers. But going against the establishment is futile!

Being outside of Detroit, I can add to the attendant at a coin/bill machine. He might be there to keep somebody from ripping off the money and machine, then trying to sell the machine for scrap! had somebody try that with a couple ATM's they stole and broke open a couple years ago.

When the exchange rates were in the US favor a number of years ago. the gas stations/party stores mostly owned by non U.S. Natives. would go across the US/Canadian border with a couple thousand dollars to exchange it for the Canadian coinage. This is when it was $125.00CD for $100.00 USD.

They would slip one or two coins in change on each transactions. Of course prominently displayed at their registrars were sign stating NO Canadian coins ACCEPTED! It got so bad that some of the Banks in Windsor wanted ID and wouldn't give large amounts of coinage to people from Detroit/Michigan.
People will work any angle to increase the bottom line.

 

If they kicked everyone out of the country who doesn't recognize a dollar coin, how many would be left?

 

I would've told him that all I had were the coins and if he still refused to accept them I would've told him he was breaking the law by keeping me there and either let me go, ask to speak to his manager, or I'd make a call to the police.

 

To answer a couple of the questions here:

Yes, he had a till with a drawer.
I wasn't going to take much issue because I was with the family.
I have used this garage 4 or 5 times before but don't remember if I used coins before, I think I have.
I'm not making a larger immigration comment, just describing the situation and why the issue may have occurred.

I was annoying though.

 

Not sure about the US, but in most of Europe you pay your parking ticket at a machine. At the exit, you insert the paid ticket and can leave the garage or parking lot. Now would such a machine accept "oddball" denominations such as 1 cent or penny pieces? Most probably not. Would it accept special collector coins? No.

From what I can tell, anything above the quarter is an "oddball" coin in the US. The golden $1 pieces may work with machines, but those huge half dollar coins won't. Sure, everybody can pay with whatever money s/he has, but I don't find it that surprising that not every coin is universally accepted ...

Christian

 

Christian

 

He would probably say, "The Manager will be here on Monday. You can come back Monday and speak with him...but your car stays here until you pay...with bills." :apu:

 

Interesting, considering that San Francisco has a great big building in the city that MINTS coins!

 

No. That's akin to theft. He's not a reposessor. He's at best no good at his job, at the lesser of two evils, l-a-z-y, at worst on some stupid power trip.

The law says that if legal tender money is offered, but not accepted for whatever policy at any given business, the person cannot be penalized in any way as if they hadn't HAD the money to pay.

Nor is the debt erased. It only protects the patron from being charged with theft or incurring interest as long as the debt is paid in a reasonable timeframe.

The most amiable solution would be to have had you sign a simple form with your plate numbers and drivers license # or make a copy of the license. In that situation where they Do Not Accept Coins I think that is appropriate.

But of course, if its just a LAZY person who doesn't want to count change how could they ever be expected to make a copy of a drivers license? :rolling:

 

FYI: There is no law that a U.S. business MUST accept U.S. currency of any kind for payment of your debt. What the law says is: It CAN be used for the payment of private and public debt. Go check out the site http:// www.unitedstatestreasury.gov and enter that question under search.

 

The parking garages at the Baltimore Inner Harbor won't let you park unless you pay in advance. On Hanover St., it's $10 for as long as you want to park on a weekend (per day)...but the garage closes from 1 AM to 5 AM.

I was at a Raven's game with some friends a couple of years ago. It was a late game and the Raven's won in Overtime. We hit the bars after and were having a great time until I noticed it was 12:55 AM. We got to the parking garage at 1:05 AM, but the chain gate was already pulled down and locked. I could see my car and the attendant was still in his booth.

I pleaded with him to let me in to get my car, but he said "NO! ...come back at 5 AM!". Once I offered him $20, the gate opened right up and we drove off.

OK...so that doesn't have anything do do with paying with coins. The point is, you can be right all you want, you can demand all you want...and you may even win the argument with the Manager on Monday, but the inconvenience and additional expense is unavoidable.

Do you really think that...if you could find a Policeman, he's going to stop what he's doing, follow you back to the parking garage, and somehow "force" the garage attendant to accept your coins? ...when you have a wad of bills in your pocket? ...ain't happening! ...not in Baltimore, anyway.

So, your choice is to cough up the bills, or leave your car there until the Manager shows up. You can take your family home in a taxi and pay the extra parking fees...but you'll be in the right!

 

Your assumptions are ridiculous and full of resentment—toward someone you've never met, involving a situation you have the barest of information about. The only qualities you allow this individual are laziness or egomania. What if the guy simply were poorly trained (and new on the job and had never seen those coins before)? Wouldn't this suggest culpability (perhaps in the form of laziness) on the part of the manager, not the employee? What if he were mum to the OP's question because he felt embarrassed about not knowing what do to?

Have you ever spent time in a big city? People, often foreigners, are hired all the time to perform tasks for which they're not properly trained. They are forced to learn by the seat of their pants.

And spare me your "better than thou" sob story about how you bust your butt every day and how your forefathers suffered. Its sounds whiny.