A CompUSA cashier summoned her manager and a security guard when Bud tried to pay for his purchases with cash. The promise of 40% discounts drew Bud to the Boisie, Idaho store, but he settled for a 10% discount on an iMac and several accessories.
I start counting out hundred dollar bills and the clerk goes nuts! “Sir, we don’t accept cash for this kind of purchase! You must use a credit card!” she says at the top of her lungs. (I see her also hit a button on the phone at the same time.)Instantly a man shows up, clearly the manager from his nametag and the rent-a-cop security guy. Both tell me the same thing, “NO CASH! You have to pay with a credit card!”
CompUSA’s corporate office defended the manager, saying that each store is free to set its own policies.
The manager’s actions are legal. 31 U.S.C. 5103 says that cash is legal tender for all debts, public and private. Creditors can’t refuse cash. CompUSA can.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they should.
I got a call back from a guy at CompUSA corporate, apologizing for what happened. He said that he would make sure that I was taken care of properly and that cash would be no problem. I told him I would think about it and call him back.So I called the store to see if the items I wanted were in stock, after I asked the guy about them he said, “I know who you are, your the guy that wanted to pay cash. My district manager & corporate called me and read me the riot act over this. Thanks for getting me in trouble!”
He then hung up on me!
And you wondered why they were going out of business.
No Cash At Compusa????? [Sprint Users]
Legal Tender Status [Department of the Treasury]
(Photo: Tyler Durden’s Imaginary Friend)
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@BugMeNot2: Or he had the cash on-hand just for that purchase. I did the exact same thing in ’95 when I bought my very first computer and had no credit or debit cards.
@weave: Most areas that aren’t LA, New York, Miami, Dallas, etc. I’ve never been at a gas station that required payment first.
HE THEN HUNG UP?! Yeah its too bad he doesnt care at all because hes already out of a job. But i would still call back to corporate and make sure i could go back in and purchase what i wanted. Cash should be accepted every public place that deals with money. I hate that counterfeiting has made it so difficult for anyone to beleive you honestly just want to pay with cash, and not get charged the interest.
Are they going to use that $2 marker to tell if the $100 bills are real?
I can understand people not accepting coins (paying in pennies, 5$ isnt a big deal for a 5 year old, But for anyone over 10, its just rude and annoying) Too bad coinstar charges so damn much. I seriously think that cash should be manditory to accept, many people dont have credit cards, they shouldn’t be unable to purchase certain items because they only have CASH.
Fucking ridiculous.
All of you people saying “oh it might be counterfit” are retarded. Also the “money pen” poster you are retarded as well.
What the hell was the point of this new money with all of the security features, when most of the public is too stupid to use them! What the hell do you need a counterfeit detection pen for?!?
Hold the fucking bill up to the light and make sure you look at both sides of the bill and it should be damn impossible to mistake a counterfeit bill as genuine.
And poster waiting for the cashless society, you can keep on waiting because I only use cash, and will never use ANY kind of credit.
@ivealwaysgotmail10: Furthermore, no using stores to break your $20, $50, or $100 bills on a 2 dollar item. Especially if they’re a small retailer and you’ve got a bunch of smaller bills with you.
CompUSA put itself out of business with crappy customer service policies.
* ever try to get anyone on the phone at one of those stores? NOT possible.
* purchasing as a business? You would wait 45+ minutes plus at their service desk and it almost always required a manager to get involved. It was completely consistent. Didn’t matter whether you were in Florida, Massachusetts, California, Minnesota – it wasn’t a store-level issue.
* this assumed that your business account was even open for acceptance in the eyes of their A/R department. Terms were net 30, we paid around 18 days afterwards… I’d go to our accountant and ask if the account was paid off before going to the store to burn 45+ minutes to buy whatever it was. Usually around 20 minutes into the process you’d find out if the account was on “credit hold.”
* have a question about an item? Once you FIND a staff member to help you they will come and read you the bullet points on the shelf tag (Best Buy and Circuit City also offer this experience).
* I completely believe that someone had a problem with cash. CompUSA probably let their contract with an armored car service lapse at that location. Besides, the media tells us we should “fear” cash because it could be one of those so-called North Korean supernotes.
* The two dollar markers, I don’t know that I believe those… but an ultraviolet light will authenticate security features of newer cash and credit cards.
(Off topic… McClatchy newspapers did an investigation into supernotes. The supernotes kept up with all 19 expensive changes made by the us treasury and not enough of them went into circulation EVER to cover the huge cost of the printing/paper/design operation. The Swiss national police are discrediting the American claim that the supernotes originated in North Korea because there was no profit in printing them.)
This is crazy! The manager was concerned about ‘being in trouble’? Trouble for what??? His presence at the unemployment line is guaranteed once his store closes. What a dork.
Why the hell would anyone pay cash for a big ticket item like a computer, particularly at a place that’s going out of business?
Incidentally, I was in my favorite CompUSA store just last night, intending to buy a big flat panel monitor if they had woken up from all the bad press and actually started offering some real discounts. Guess what — NOT. And they were stocked to the gills…they’re not selling much; I predict that either they will panic at the last moment or will end up making some closeout buyer’s year when they have to ditch the stuff they couldn’t sell at the inflated prices. Or…let’s see how long this takes before they get in legal trouble over this…they have decided to become one of those perennially “going out of business” places. I don’t know about other states, but Texas puts a time limit on how long a business can do that, and fines the heck out of or shuts down violators.
I got my big flat panel…Office Max to the rescue! An impressively nice off-brand for a very low price after an instant (at the cash register) rebate. No dead pixels, no problems installing. BTW, I used two strategies I honed from Consumerist…the first unit I looked at was an open box, and I insisted they set it up so I could verify it worked…haha, it didn’t! Then I made them open the box on the new unit to prove there was a real product inside. There was, and the guys who were helping me apparently knew exactly what I was talking about when I said why I wanted them to do that. We are making a difference in the level of awareness with what we post here!
)
“…”I know who you are, your the guy that wanted to pay cash. My district manager & corporate called me and read me the riot act over this. Thanks for getting me in trouble!”
He then hung up on me!”
I’d report this to head office as well, even if his pride is hurt he should act like a mature adult and deal with you as a customer.
Also: Good for you for reporting your concerns, most people (as you know) don’t.
Sigh….When will this excuse of a retailer finally die?
@smarty: “Hundreds? Go back for what you want with $20′s or $10′s! Make them work for what they did.”
Better yet, this guy should have a friend go into the store first to confirm that the same manager is there and then he should go in and remind him that in his phone call to him he was told: “I know who you are, your the guy that wanted to pay cash. My district manager & corporate called me and read me the riot act over this. Thanks for getting me in trouble!”
He should then tell the store the manager that he will be calling his corporate office to report the content of this response and that the manager hung up on him.
Then he could proceed to go and pay the hundreds of dollars for his item with several bags of un-rolled pennies.
@KarmaChameleon:
That’s my thought – this would be a time when I’d DEFINITELY want credit card protection!
Yet another reason for nice, happy people to get a credit card and enter the horrible realm of endless, high-interest, debt. This will really get our country out of this “credit crunch” we’re going through.
On another note, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of something like this. p I paid in $20s for a $180urchase once and the cashier actually thought it was funny.
I would call back the corporate office and report what the guy said. To HomerJay, who asked what they are going to do, fire him? Yes, they can still fire him. Sure, they may be going out of business, but the manager is still going to have to get a job somewhere else. He can start looking sooner, and have that onus of “I got fired from a store that was already closing anyway” on his head.
I love reading all these posts railing at we poor S.O.B.s that work in retail. Yes I am intelligent enough to attempt to get a better job than retail, but I do not bother out of sheer apathy for the world. This “customer service is dead” crap is a moebius strip. The REASON most retail employee’s don’t give good customer service is because customers, as a general rule of thumb, are assholes. And customers, act like assholes because the retail employee’s “give them the run-around”.
Lately, I sigh inwardly anytime someone asks me about the GD Wii, DS, or PSP (I work in video game retail). The ignorance of America is astonishing, we are becoming dumber as a nation every year.
They don’t accept cash? Fine, don’t do business with them. Most managers/low-level employee’s really don’t care anymore if they get your business. It’s only the fat-cat’s up top that rake in all the profits that care, but they’re too busy living the high life to pay much attention to their “precious Customer Service”.
Having worked in retail, I make damn sure I want something before I buy it. They don’t have it, I leave, they give me trouble, I leave. This is America, you can pretty much find whatever you want wherever you want to. Unless you live 100 miles from a major city, in which case, it sucks to be you.
I go to buy a simple pack of soda from the God-forsaken local mega-store (Wal-mart), I see the lines are 10 people deep, the self-checkout’s are all off with only one lit-up (and yes it was malfunctioning). I placed the soda on a nearby display, and left, didn’t need to drink any soda that night anyway. A luxury item. Now if a store doesn’t accept cash for bread and water so you can eat and SURVIVE, then come cry a river.
Commence flaming the lowly retail associate…I hate my job anyway…
@Arrngrim: I’m not going to flame you, I worked retail too and I know your pain. The lady who screamed at me and spat on my counter because I “Ruined her son’s birthday!” by not having the pokeman cards she “NEEDED!”
Or the Dad who threw the comics his son bought at our store and said “Why would you sell my son this shit!” The manager who dealt drugs out the back, the kids who shoplifted. Retail…sucks. And hearing people whine about not getting their discounted item with a blowjob and a smile gets under my skin too.
But that doesn’t mean this counter person didn’t overreact. She escalated the situation from anthill to mountain. If she’d said “Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t accept cash for purchases over blah-blah dollars. It’s our policy, what with the closeout and all.” rather than yelling or getting security (an…odd step) on the guy. She would have remained in control of the situation, instead she gave that control away by losing her cool.
It’s retail, you pick your battles day to day and minute to minute. Losing your shit on a guy over petty crap like this is just not worth it.
People who think that ‘no cash’ policies are reasonable are short-sighted fools.
There should always be ways to buy things anonymously, even if your only motivation is to make sure a purchase remains a surprise to a spouse who has access to your CC records.
There are far more important arguments for these methods to exist, but most Americans don’t give a fuck about freedom, so they’re not worth arguing.
@KarmaChameleon: An iMac is a relatively modest purchase, with a short expected lifetime, and excellent manufacturer suport available for the entire life of the product.
The idea that the purchaser should be insulted for not using a credit card here is absurd. But you’re pretty much always a bullheaded idiot, so I’m unsurprised at your reaction.
They have counterfeit bill detectors at every register, actually there’s a higher chance of getting hosed by someone with a fake/stolen credit card. Since they are closing anyway it’s not as big a deal. Still, it’s a lesson how one peon can bring an avalanche of national exposure so a company they didn’t want. AND he blames his idiotic act on the customer, he didn’t get himself in trouble, the customer did it to him by trying to pay cash…
It’s like the age of personal irresponsibility these days.
@Arrngrim:
You’ve got that right. Customers are, on the whole, idiots. I actually consciously don’t bother retail workers simply because I have been on that side of things and know what a bunch of morons most people are. My wife recently worked retail and the stories she told me only prove that people are getting worse. And why SHOULD companies care about customer service if screwing people over still results in their shopping there anyway? It’s cheaper and easier to screw over your employees AND the customers if there are no consequences to it, and that’s the situation we find ourselves in today.
I know that credit cards offer additional protections for purchases, but I still pay cash for everything. My only debt is my car. I only buy what I can afford and I still have everything I want. I’m not rich by any means, I’m a public servant. But hasn’t “living beyond your means” created a huge problem? Cash should always be an option!
I also worked retail in a clothing store and I am always very nice to clerks. I once had a lady throw her fitting room number at my head because I had to count the number of items she had on her way out.
“At the top of her lungs?” I doubt that. Why can’t people just tell a story, without trying to make it sound like a scene out of an action movie?
Maybe because there are procedures for handling cash that they are no longer set up for. Counting, documenting it, counting drawers, register tills, taking it to the bank, depositing it, locking it in a safe during business hours, keeping security on staff to make sure you don’t get robbed, etc. If you are going out of business, you might be cutting back on a lot of expenses. Maybe the proper procedures for handling cash cost a lot of money to impliment, and they want to eliminate that. They will sell everything in the store whether one guy buys it or the next guy does. Now they are looking for somebody to come in, buy a lot of stuff with a credit card, and liquidating everything. I think they are past the point of caring about “loyal customers” anyway.
P.S.: Oh, and wow. CompUSA is on its last breath now, and the irate Consumerists are still here, kicking it when it’s down. I’ve had money of my own to spend for about the last 12 years now, and I’ve never believed that the people in a retail store are there to help me learn about what they sell. They are there to make sure I don’t steal, to tell me in a general way what part of the store something is in and to point me to the bathroom. I can tell by their habit of reading the back of the package before they answer my question that they haven’t got a clue about what they sell. And I don’t really expect them to. If they had “experts” in a retail store, I know I could expect to pay a lot more for electronics than what I do. Experts invest time in research and education. And paying salesmen to do research and to get an education about the products they sell costs money. And costs like that are tacked on to the cost of what a store sells. You can’t have dirt cheap prices, the instant gratification of buying something off the shelf now and have experts in the store to explain the products to you.
It’s funny seeing all of the people on here gripe about CompUSA. Yet for some strange reason, the stores are getting people in them anyways.
As far as the customer service aspects goes, well try being told that you aren’t going to have a job soon. The simple fact of the matter is…How many times a day do I have to say “No returns, No exchanges, No we can’t mark it down more, No I don’t have any Wii’s, No we don’t have any more shipments, etc…. Yes I do work for CUSA.
It amazes me when someone asks me if they can bring it back or try to exchange this or that…There’s a massive amount of yellow signs that all say ALL SALES FINAL NO RETURNS….We’re doing all we can to hold it together with…
a)Not knowing when we will be let go because we can’t seem to get a final date
b)What we are going to do for jobs
c)How we are going to support OUR families
And yet at the same time we are supposed to bend over backwards for the jerk who wants to yell at me because we don’t have any Wii’s.
Who cares and whatever right?
Well we did and we don’t anymore. There were people at these stores who did know something other than the bullet points and tried to help and we all got it in the end. Thanks guys. Now I’ve vented and it doesn’t change a damn thing.
The Wal-Marting of America continues. Service and quality don’t matter, only the price.
One post above reminded me of something. I purchased some shoes about 2 months ago and paid with twenties. The employee actually took out that conterfeit pen and marked all the twenties one by one. Sorry to say but I was offended. As I thought more about it I could understand…I may have gotten a fake jackson from another merchant. I worked at a theme park when I was a teen and when we marked the 20′s we were warned to not let the customers see us do that out of fear we would offend the customer and in case it was fake it might cause the offender to run off. We would accept the fake 20 and alert security who would track the suspect thru the park.
But what are my rights if it IS a fake 20? Don’t merchants need to keep that on the down-low?
The liquadation vendor is trying to accurately track the iventory… and the money spent for the inventory. Cash payments could allow an employee to easily siphon a portion of the funds collected by altering sales tickets to show a bigger discount. As there is insufficient time to perform an audit during the liquidation to catch the employee fraud it is imperative to implement other security actions.
This is actually quite common with large scale liquidations.
i prefer to pay in stamps…
@ihateauditions: I must have made an impression on you in the, I don’t know, week and a half I’ve been posting here. Sorry, but I’m taken.
I wasn’t insulting anyone, I was questioning the logic. Anything over 1k constitutes “big ticket” to me, and automatically goes on a card. I have credit and I use it responsibly. I have the cash and thensome in my checking account for the 42″ Sharp Aquos TV I bought today, but I put it on my AmEx and will pay it in full tomorrow. Extended warranty without paying a red cent for some BS store plan, and the ability to chargeback if needed is worth it to me.
I don’t feel one way or the other about no cash policies because everything goes on my cards and gets paid off at the end of the month (I’m one of those dreaded “deadbeats”), but if I had an issue with a no cash policy, I’d let corporate know–and then take my business elsewhere. It seems to me that we as consumers wouldn’t be dealing with half the shit companies throw at us if we weren’t so willing to bend over even after we’ve been fucked once.
WTF? I’d be calling him back and saying ‘B*tch please, you’re lucky your sorry ass ain’t fired!’. And commence to making that a truth, not a threat.
@Keter: yay! If we show the stores that we’re informed customers and won’t take this sort of crap lying down anymore, they will be forced to change.
And I hate the whole idea of a cashless society. There is just no way to ensure proper oversight of such personal, sensitive information. Modernization isn’t always best. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Thats what CompUSA gets for messing up their acquisition of CompIRAQ.
There are a few points I take issue with here.
1. I’m pretty sure there is a law that lets anyone refuse more than 100 pennies.
2. Counterfeit pens are a joke!
All they do is react to starch in wood pulp paper!
You’ll find fake money made by idiot teenagers with a scanner & color printer.
Genuine US money is made with 100% cotton rag pulp, with that flat polyester tape in the paper that has the bill’s denomination printed on it!
That’s the best test for a genuine bill.
4. The North Korean supernotes are impossible to prove or disprove.
However, North Korea did purchase the color shifting ink color that’s almost the same as the one the US bought from the Swiss company that invented it.
The cost to the North Koreans is minuscule as they will be using slave labor for much of the work. Most of the supernotes were probably passed in Europe, Africa & Asia.
I think you should crop the picture a little more to remove the ‘C’ in ‘CLOSING’. The hassles forming from these closings is only serving to make them lose more money from people not buying the stuff when the discounts are lower, making the closing process a big bowl of lose in and of itself.
The CompUSAs here are glad to take cash; I’ve seen many $100 bills being used when I go. The shelves are getting pretty empty, and the TVs are about gone, since they’re 25% off. That still isn’t too great, unless you find a model that was already discontinued, and that puts it below cost.
BTW, one pizza place here is going to no cash, but because it was robbed last year and two 16-year-old employees were shot to death.
@weave: There’s a place here (Harrison, AR) that does – but I work across the street, so they know me.
Are all CompUsa stores screwed up? Years ago I went into a store, opened a book to see inside because it seemed interesting but I put it back on the shelf. Within 2-3 minutes a manager came up to me and said that I was not allowed to open any software and that I should leave. It was a book, I told him that and he said it was on camera. I wanted to tell him to shove it but I didn’t a walked out, the store is closed now.
@Arrngrim: “The REASON most retail employee’s don’t give good customer service is because customers, as a general rule of thumb, are assholes. And customers, act like assholes because the retail employee’s “give them the run-around”.
I suspect that the “asshole customers” that Arrngrim refers to actually represents a minority of all customers.
Retail clerks that believe otherwise, often respond by projecting a negative attitude that is a self perpetuating, Catch 22 loop, which will continue to rotate as long as they take your money with that attitude.
Ask them, in all seriousness, if they will accept gold bullion at a rate of 875 dollars per ounce. If they balk, tell them you’re doing them a favor at that rate.
@rubberkeyhole: Who there would give a shit? Did we forget they’re gong out of business and have zero incentive to be helpful? I hope Tiger Direct got a good deal…
Good riddance to CompUSA. It’s customer service like this convinced me to stop shopping there years ago. They deserve to go out of business.
It is funny, however, that the person was angry about getting in trouble. Did he not get the memo that he’s out of a job in a couple weeks…
Several Replies:
“@sleepydumbdude: Hmm, interesting. Once you pump the gas into your tank, does that automatically turn into a debt you owe? Then, they are required to accept cash.”
THIS is a tricky one. it could ACTUALLY be considered THEFT and you could in theory be arrested and charged for it. In a motorhome at these prices even potentially a Felony
!!!
You see a debt has to be voluntarily incurred. Voluntary inplies INTENT. If the giving of the debt was “accidental” it may not count as a debt IE theft.
Imagine “eating” a meal and then saying wait you don’t accept my credit card? How do you give it back? (the meal) or How do you give back the gas. IE there is no way to “undo” the transaction.
The laws differ from location to location but many times they are required to POST this “no cash” at csh stations or “no bills over” on the pumps. If there is NO sign outside and your permitted to pump first USUALLY you will be ok. But if there is a sign it could get ugly if the gas station wants to be a prick about it.
“hey have not started the policy of having to break up your transactions into $50 increments on a card either.”
I have encountered this a few times (very confusing at first) the limit I hit 4 or 5 times was $75 I had to end tx wait reset and pay again.
The reason is this. When you slide your credit card into the machine it has NO WAY of knowing how much “you have” in your account of left in your limit. Usually it will just do a $1 “auth charge” to verify its a valid account BUT if you say have $20 in the account this auth charge WILL succeed and there is NOTHING to stop you from putting $40 in the tank. It will then off course “fail” when it tries to run this $40 charge at the end of the transaction. You can see where this might be an issue
so most places have a “pre auth” cap on how much gas you can get to minimize there risk of loss in these situations.
Most people will NEVER KNOW. they will just assume thats all the gas it took to fill the tank and never be the wiser.
I track my mileage meticulously especially on long trips so I know in advance how many gallons I should need usually to withing half a gallon if I wanted to but “brain wise” withing 2 gallons. I have a 35gallon tank so you an see how I can easily spend $100+ to fill it up
so when I hit $75 and “knew” it should take another $18 or $19 worth or gas I said something. I also noticed it STOPPED at an even number and refused to let me “pump” any more not even a penny this I found odd (many would just yank it and leave never noticing this) I was then told they limit each CC auth to $75 just socket the pump rerun the card and pump till full.
Befrugalnotcheap
“But what are my rights if it IS a fake 20?”
You have no rights in this regard as far as I know. At least with BANKS you do not. (vendors not so sure but I think its the same)
They keep if You do NOT get it back and you DO NOT get any credit for it. IE you “eat it”
thats why when I get paid in cash I refuse to accept 50 and 100bills and insist on “well used” bills if possible and I meticulously check each and every bill if its larger than a $5. I tear test ie rip the bill where the poly strip is. it will be pretty clear if its fake REAL fast and also READ the denomination ON the poly stripe. If its good enough to fool those tests its good enough to to fool the bank teller too.
ONE MORE THING. be VERY CAREFUL with “bank cards” ie if you have $20 in your account and you pump $40 it will almost always GO THROUGH. you see the bank will FORWARD to you against you will “credit” to cover this “over drawn amount” (its in your TOS so its voluntary legally) and off course will charge you a $35 fee for this conveniene. to further the ANAL RAPE they are allowed to “change” the order in which transaction POST to your account. SO lets say you buy 10 things all under $5 and there is enough money in your account. You pump the gas and there is NOT enough for that. EVEN if its say $1 off. say you got $19 left and you pump $20.
They will REORDER those transactions at many banks from LARGEST TO SMALLEST. SO now instead of 10 proper purchases in the black and ONE gs purchase in the RED you could in theory end up with the GAS PURCHASE FIRST causing an over draft and a $35 fee and NOW those other 10 purchases in there “new speak order” also now “over draft” and you get NO KIDDING 10 more $35 fee’s
I had the bank do this to me. I goofed and bought a power strip (hahaha now that I think about it that was FROM comp USA !! hehehe
the Philly one in franklin mills during the first round of closings)
Well I was off by $12. so that night I sw the $12 overage and $35 fee. by the time they literally “REWROTE HISTORY” of the last 10 days and they did it in “chunks” to enhance the damage I had $350+ dollars in overage fees. JUST for overdrawing my account by $12 !!!
Needless to say I did NOT pay this and told them where they could shove it.
DO NOT do business with Wachovia.
This is by DEFINITION a “racket” and by Definition FRAUD and EMBEZZLEMENT yet they insist ITS IN THE TOS so its OK.
Fraud is when you cheat to make money. Embezzlement is when you in control of someone elses money ALTER the records to allow you to siphon off there cash (altering my transaction history going back 10 days for a $12 overdraw to result in insane fees)
A racket is when you CREATE the conditions under which your “FEE based” solution is needed.
IE protection money. Protection from who? ME so pay me or I beat you up. Thats a Racket.
Extending you Credit without consent and then rewriting history to EXTEND the likely hood of needing this “credit” and then providing the FEE based solution (over draft protection) IS by definition a Racket.
You see it used to be if you overdrew your account by few cents or dollars the bank just COVERED IT and sent you a friendly notice hey customer you did not have enough money but thats ok we paid it anyway just make a deposit soon ok. NO MORE.
It used to be that overdraft from your own savings account was FREE and they did it efficiently in fixed amounts. IE say $50. so if any more tx’s came in you were ok.
NOW they OD the PRECISE amount only. WHY? because they can charge the $8 to $15 fee PER TRANSACTION.
It used to be I used Debit Cards as CC exclusively. It was great. I SUCK at tracking that kind of stuff. When the card stopped working I was out of money. SIMPLE EASY.
Then one day “it worked” and when I logged in I had an overdraft fee. needless I was a bit confused I complained to the bank and they said OH we now extend you “credit” as a convenience to avoid embarrassments etc..
I was FUMING. I said thats not a convenience thats a INSANELY HARSH penalty and Embarrassed ? whos more fool the guy who gets a declined message buying his slurpy leaves without the slurpy without a care or the buy who pid $37 for a $3 slurpy because he has 13 cents to little money to pay for it.
They refunded it and then TURNED THAT DAMNED feature off. 6 months later “it was back” I screamed and yelled again they turned it off again. This continued happening again and again every 4-6 months till after 2 years they said “no” I said what the hell do you mean no its not a request. Turn it off or I am gone. End of Discussion. Manager came over said confused you would close your account over this? I said You want to charge me a $35 “convenience” (said with attitude) fee for what amounts to a calculation error on my part of LESS than the value of this (slammed a quarter on the counter rather hard) ?? ARE YOU NUTS !!
He said he was sorry but the bank policy could not be altered. The “millions of a % APR “credit line” was not COMPULSORY. I closed my account and then said I will be back tommorrow to close my dad’s account. (also on the screen since it was a joint account) this was a Business account I actually say the bank manager turn white just a bit when he read the numbers on the screen) but he was still adamate. The COMPULSORY embezzlement was non negotiable.
This happened over days I knew almost ALL banks did this now but at this point it was a matter of principle because I had been with this bank for well over a decade (originally First Union)
I do not take kindly to being KNOWINGLY anal raped.
I guess they are truly able to RAPE tht much out of people that such a policy is more important than keeping customers ESPECIALLY since now they are all doing it so they have nothing to lose. I churn from them to someone else someone else churns from them to this bank etc..
From the Star Tribune
Using a database of 8,500 overdrafts from banks and credit unions as well as reports filed with federal financial institutions, the group found that customers paid a record $17.5 billion in overdraft loan fees in 2006. That accounts for nearly 40 percent of income banks and credit unions collected from fees, up from 27 percent in 2004.
Common banking practices, such as processing the largest check or debit card transaction first and holding deposits for as many as 11 days, unfairly stack the deck, the report charged.
@gokor: No, you’ve got it 100% wrong. The cashier is a store employee — who is getting PAID to WORK and do their job. Their job is customer service and collecting payments. Customer service #1, collecting payment #2. The majoirty of problems in retail stem from poor management, quite often from the top on down to the store level.
@turingtest: You’ve got it. Many consumers have become whores — price, price, price, regardless of what they have to go through to get that price. Whether it be rebates, long lines, useless salesholes, CSRs who could care less, dirty stores, receipt-checking rent-a-cops. I vote with my own dollars by refusing to shop at such places. May these type of places (and their workers with inappropriate attitudes) wither away and die. Customers are a business’ life blood, not the shareholders. Until they realize that I see no reason to help them stay in business with a misguided business model.
How much cash are we talking about here? $10,000, i could understand. But any reasonable amount would seem ok. Maybe they have had a lot of forgeries go down in that store.
I worked in retail as an operations manager at a now-closed retail chain. When the store went tits-up, the policy was no checks, no credit cards, just cash! This was in 1978, of course.