Realcent.org

Time to rant, as I'm angry. So I'm from a conservative midwest state and I'm in Commie-fornia (CA), East Bay area temporarily on business.

Situation #1 (one week ago). I wanted to test the local area, so I've been intentionally dumping just a few rolls of sorted coins everywhere to get a feel for the local area, the banks, supermarkets, gas stations etc to see how people react. I went to the Customer Service desk at Safeway and tried to turn in about $15.00 in rolled coins ($10 in dimes, $5 in pennies). The girl actually looked at me strange and had to consult her manager in the back to see if she could take them. She said her manager wouldn't take them, as they didn't want to be responsible for any loss if the coins were short; even though I had a Safeway card, they still wouldn't take it. So I say no problem and cash them in at the in-house US Bank inside the store. I inform the teller that I don't have an account, but will they cash these in for me please since I'm shopping here? They accept the one time, since I'm not a US Bank customer.

Situation #2 (today/now). I decided to go pick up some butter/sour Cream for baked potatoes for part of tonight's dinner etc. I only had some rolled coins on me and no FRN's, but heck, I'm only spending maybe 8 bucks, so I should be OK, right? Anyway, the cashier (Safeway again) scans my two items and the total is $7.28 . I hand her 1 roll of dimes, 4 rolls of pennies and a 50 cent JFK piece...I even stated out loud as I handed the (forty year old) cashier the money, " five, six dollars, seven dollars, seven-fifty. " . So she looks at the rolls and handles them like they are some kind of foreign unknown object. She actually waived over her supervisor for approval, who looks at the rolls and then proceeds to inform the cashier, "It's up to you if you want to take them" , implying that it's her responsibility and as if she's going to lose her job or something if they are even off by one cent. I politely say "That's all I have with me" and that I counted them myself and then showed her that the penny rolls are exactly all the same width, so they won't be short on money. The cashier is unclear on what to do and thinks for a few seconds. By this time, the lady behind me is starting to get upset, even though the whole thing has only been a 30-45 second delay. Sheesh. Are CA people that impatient?? I then say, "Look, they are legal tender and hey, you have to spend the coins SOMEWHERE, right? Whether you spend them at a supermarket, a gas station, Wally-World or wherever, you HAVE to spend them somehow!" She finally takes them and I leave with my purchases. Keep in mind that I looked professional and was wearing business attire, nice italian leather shoes, clean-shaven etc, while being polite/calm etc.

So WTF??? Are all CA supermarkets like this or is it just Safeway? Or have we just dumbed down our society or perhaps stores don't trust their customers? What happened to good old-fashioned trust? I felt like I was in a foreign country or the Twilight Zone or something. I've tried Trader Joe's market (they are great) with no issue there and on more than once occasion. Also, gas stations here are no problem (tried two different ones). I didn't try Lucky's supermarket yet.

Thanks for letting me rant. And if you got this far and actually read the whole thing, then congratulations (sorry, no prize available).

I will write separately on my coin findings in CA while sorting (now there's some interesting stories to tell!)

I would lay heavy bets on the dumb and dumber.

I felt like I was in a foreign country or the Twilight Zone or something.

I can relate to that, i`ve got the same reaction here in Canada.

Wal-mart self checkout in my town has coin slots that look like small urinal. You just dump your coin in and it counts it out.

It credits it toward your purchase.

It's very cool.

California is great, in the rear view mirror. It sucks here in AZ!. So Californians please stay in California, It really is bad in AZ.

(Tic) Aww man, you ain't frum rounhere is u? Bidnez attire, Eyetaleeyan leather, wachoo mean?

You should have told the cashier you were from NYC and the old lady you knocked off only had this loose change, but you needed the condiments in a hurry cuz Guido was back at the place roasting the OL's dog and if you think da sweet mama behind me is impatient...you oughta see Guido.
Ahhhhhh what I mean is you DON'T want to see Guido.

Thogey wrote:
California is great, in the rear view mirror. It sucks here in AZ!. So Californians please stay in California, It really is bad in AZ.

Son spent year an a half at Tech school in Phoenix He said the Only reason that Calif did not slip into the Ocean is that Phoenix Sucks

I got one from today too... But I'm in SC... and even here in the good ol' south people are... amazing!

OK... I went to the bank today to cash two checks (totaling 173 and some change). The teller was in her mid 40's to 50's I'd say. I asked her if I could have whatever halves they had (which was 15 bucks exactly). I asked her for three rolls of quarters and whatever pennies I could get.. which was 15 bucks worth. SO... that made an even 60 bucks in change. I said pay me the rest in cash. EVEN WITH A DANG calculator she could NOT figure out that she owed me 113 dollars in cash! It took her about 5 minutes (seriously) to get it right. She had to write it down... do it on a calculator... do it on a computer... and STILL screwed it up 3 times! I had to tell her THREE TIMES she was wrong and that she owed me 113 in cash with all the change! I was just about to either say just give me the cash and leave or call her manager over there! Only reason I didn't is because that's my pickup bank for halves right now (and yes... they were low. I'm not into ordering yet like you guys are. They usually have about $100 or so on hand.)

It just AMAZES me how people look at you like your a communist or a snake handler or something when it comes to ANYTHING over a dollar in change... and MANY people can't even get that right!

Everyone is going towards electronic payment where they don't have to think.

Look at how we order at McDonald's #3, #11, etc. Our society has made everyone into sheeple.

This thread makes me want to go back down to the bank and get another bag of copper!!

I like to pay with odd coins with the express intention of causing panic attacks. Plus, I like to see them back in circulation, if only for a short while.

$3.47 for coffee & donut? 1 Ike, 1 SBA, 2 Presidential dollars. That's usually good for three minutes.

The cashier picked up the Eisenhower, put it down and stepped back, like it was radioactive. I had to explain to her about the eagle landing on the moon. Which ultimately was easier than explaining who Eisenhower was.

On a positive note, the local 7-11 has become a minor zinc dump for me lately. I trade a Folgers can with $10.00 loose for a pack of cigars and a couple lotto tickets. The owner likes that he doesn't have to buy them at the bank.

In reply to the original post...almost no place in CT I know of will take rolled coin. And that includes my bank, unless you write your account number on every wrapper.

OK.. OK.. I probably messed it up for you. I am in CA.. in the East Bay. I buy stuff with rolled coins at Safeway all the time. I think it must have been the shoes. OJ wore those kind of shoes. I never wear my Bruno Maglis when cashing in rolls of coin at Safeway, Lucky's the Gas Station or anywhere else.

I am curious what kinds of finds you made here.. right under my nose.

I tried to pay the coffee fund at work with one the new gold colored dollars, and had a 5 minute conversation with my co-worker, he wanted to make sure if I really wanted to pay with my gold coin, gold is up and it could be worth a lot of money.......

Morsecode...I laughed several times while reading your post; simply genius that you combined all of those coins. And, it probably educated the cashier too! I mean, an Eisenhower and a SBA and Pres dollars? Awesome, man. Just awesome. Hmmmm ( )....I'm going to have to be real creative and come up with something good then.

HoardCopperByTheTon: Whoah...an answer from one of the great Masters! I am humbled by your presence (bowing). I am your your student; teach me all you know!!! Hahaha. Anyway...check the Member's Only threads, as I posted something in there that you may be interested in. Ah yes, the East Bay. Great weather, but too much traffic! I find that most people are nice and very friendly here, but clueless and/or uneducated (on various things, not just PM's and history of money). I will have to PM you sometime, so we can exchange info and make sure we are not obtaining/dumping coin at the same banks etc. Regarding my CA finds since I have been here (just over a month). I am the aggressive hunter type and seek out many types of coin possibilities, as well as unknown banks, other sources, plus am sorting/dumping every day, even in small amounts. I am very creative. Perhaps we can meet up sometime and trade stories/ideas etc. Also, the CA finds are so interesting; I plan to write up a new thread in the coming days regarding my opinions on California sorting. It's definitely a completely different ballgame and I can say that I'm very pleased.

HPMBTT wrote:So WTF??? Are all CA supermarkets like this or is it just Safeway? Or have we just dumbed down our society or perhaps stores don't trust their customers? What happened to good old-fashioned trust? I felt like I was in a foreign country or the Twilight Zone or something. I've tried Trader Joe's market (they are great) with no issue there and on more than once occasion. Also, gas stations here are no problem (tried two different ones). I didn't try Lucky's supermarket yet.

Being a former retail slave, you have to understand a few points.

You have a myriad of factors as to why some stores accept rolled coin while other places don't accept rolled coin. Store/Corporate Policies forbid it due to fraud for example (two "real" coins, the rest are metal slugs/washers) Personally, i'd accepted many transactions paid out in coin. It's currency after all. HOWEVER, if rolled, I'd advised the person that I would open the rolls and verify the counts first before accepting. To me, I was being paid for it on company time, but to customers behind, they would be shooting daggers into said customer.

Many retail stores also hire bottom of the barrel prospects in order to maintain the bottom line (i.e. cheap as [shucks] labor = higher profit margins) so comprehension is sketchy at best. I'm willing to bet not too many cashiers have even seen an SBA, let alone a Sac Dollar or even a $2 bill.

And thats the biggies off the top of my head. Theirs more, but at this point, we'd be going into silly and unreasonable possibilities.

And don't get me started on the stupid tagline of "The Customer is Always Right." The #1 way to make me either go slower a/or just give bare bones basic customer service is to act like a total bigot/bitchy douche bag to me.

VWBEAMER wrote:I tried to pay the coffee fund at work with one the new gold colored dollars, and had a 5 minute conversation with my co-worker, he wanted to make sure if I really wanted to pay with my gold coin, gold is up and it could be worth a lot of money.......

Unreal

I had to explain to my grandma there was no gold in them, not even a coating.

I used to live in the east bay. I must say that Safeway was one of the more frustrating stores to shop in. For the most part, service was awful. I see not much has changed.

As stated in an earlier post corporate policy may forbid due to risk of fraud. It has been on our news here in Central Florida off and on for a couple of years and have even seen this mentioned in various locations across our country via the internet. People are intentionally frauding, especially with dime rolls. They put one dime on each end and in the middle the other 48 coins are filed down pennies. Hundreds of dollars of dimes turned into stores, banks, etc. at one time and then this person or these people move out of the area to another location.

Regarding scenario #2: Other than the frustrating fact that you are trying to pay with rolled coinage which is supposed to be legal money to purchase an item with and supervisors must be called over thus taking time.......why not just open the rolls of coins and count them out to the cashier? Wouldn't that possibly save time for those in line behind you and solve the problem?

VWBEAMER wrote:I tried to pay the coffee fund at work with one the new gold colored dollars, and had a 5 minute conversation with my co-worker, he wanted to make sure if I really wanted to pay with my gold coin, gold is up and it could be worth a lot of money.......

This past Saturday I was in a craft store and used three of the new Presidential Dollars (NOT 2009 coins) to pay for my purchase. I thought the reaction I got from the cashier was funny too. Oh, are these the new silver dollars??? At least she was on the right track. Gold color, silver color...who cares? At least she knew they were worth one dollar each.


I have also been in the coin shop when an older person came in with a new Presidential Dollar and they wanted to sell it for the gold content. It took forever for him to explain to them that they really didn't contain any gold at all.

Speak of the devil and it shall happen.......

I literally just finished sorting a roll of dimes that was shorted 14 dimes -- $1.40. It had eleven pennies, so it was short a total of 3 coins overall. The pennies were not filed down and they didn't stand out when handling the wrapper so you couldn't tell that there was anything amiss. The sad part, besides the shortage of $1.40, was that only one penny was a Cu one.

It seems today was a day for me that...The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;...(Job 1:21).

VWBEAMER wrote:I tried to pay the coffee fund at work with one the new gold colored dollars, and had a 5 minute conversation with my co-worker, he wanted to make sure if I really wanted to pay with my gold coin, gold is up and it could be worth a lot of money.......

Bwhahahaha!

One day I gased up at our local convenient market. While I was standing in line to pay with my 3 rolls of JFK's the man in front of me was getting yelled at and I mean yelled at by the manager for using a $100. bill to pay for $35. in gas. The manager said we do not accept large bills and told the guy never to try to use one again (I should state that this place is not a prepay so the man already pumped his gas). Well then it was my turn to pay and I handed him the 3 rolls of halves well if looks could kill I would be dead. Before he could say anything to me I told him if halves were to large I could pay him in pennies ( I had 2 boxes of zincs in the car ). He just turned and went to this small machine and put each roll on it one at a time. I asked him what he was doing he said the machine would tell him if they were short any coins. Now everytime I get gas there I use my halves and I also take my wifes car and fill it up as she won't use rolls.
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO LEGAL TENDER

appjoe wrote:One day I gased up at our local convenient market. While I was standing in line to pay with my 3 rolls of JFK's the man in front of me was getting yelled at and I mean yelled at by the manager for using a $100. bill to pay for $35. in gas. The manager said we do not accept large bills and told the guy never to try to use one again (I should state that this place is not a prepay so the man already pumped his gas). Well then it was my turn to pay and I handed him the 3 rolls of halves well if looks could kill I would be dead. Before he could say anything to me I told him if halves were to large I could pay him in pennies ( I had 2 boxes of zincs in the car ). He just turned and went to this small machine and put each roll on it one at a time. I asked him what he was doing he said the machine would tell him if they were short any coins. Now everytime I get gas there I use my halves and I also take my wifes car and fill it up as she won't use rolls.
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO LEAGAL TENDER

LOL. Just for S&G I probably would have gone out and gotten the zinc's anyways. Just because of his attitude.

appjoe wrote:WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO LEAGAL TENDER

Aside from the misspelling, businesses can legally refuse certain forms of payment if they want to.

cesariojpn wrote:

appjoe wrote:WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO LEAGAL TENDER

Aside from the misspelling, businesses can legally refuse certain forms of payment if they want to.

If he was legally in debt, since he already pumped the gas, i don't think that's true. Legal tender mean you are forced by law to accept it in case of a debt settlement.
They can refuse to accept certain forms of payment before the transaction, not after it's done and one side is in debt.

I was a assistant manager of a retail store for a few years and when cashiers would call me over for someone paying with rolled coin I would simply get the scale we used for counting down tills and weigh the rolls to see if they were cool you just put one roll on after another and its would tell the dollar amount.Not a big deal to do at all.so next time they give you grief just tell them to get there scale.or better yet just go in there and dump a big pile of loose change on the counter and say count that

The Pres dollars are the same size and color as Loonies. I've never heard anyone in Canada suggest there might be a speck of gold in the Loonie coin. Makes you wonder about some Americans.