Best Buy customer service reaches new high (1 Viewer)

[willieGoldman]

Not sure exactly which forum this should go in, but here ya go:

baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.olesker08mar08,1,76004.column?ctrack=1&cset=true

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.

For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.

Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.

Have a nice day, Mike.

--------------------------------------------

Bolesta was then taken to the county police lockup in Cockeysville, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in.

"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."

Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

This will be important news to all concerned.

For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

 

[TravisR]

Anyone that uses that many small bills deserves to go to jail

 

[Mike Frezon]

[vinnie barbarino]I am soooo confooooooosed![/vinnie barbarino]

What was he protesting, willie? I cannot imagine anyone being handcuffed for paying a bill in $2 bills...but what was Best Buy's role in all this?

Frankly, he could've paid that bill in $1 bills or quarters and there shouldn't have been any problem.

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

Help! I don't understand this story at all!!:b

 

[Dave Poehlman]

HERE is a working link to the full story.

Here's his reasoning for the $2 bills:


See what happens when people in retail try to take the law into their own hands?

 

[John Spencer]

Lawsuit pending

 

[Chris]

The whole bit of the teller saying "I don't have to take these" Bullshit. It's legal tender honey. Unless you can voice what is called a "compelling security concern" (which is how restaurants, etc. operate as a dissensentive to robbers) then you -have- to take the money. Last I checked, in fact, since BB doesn't make the compelling argument case against $100 Bills, they have no validity to make the case against $2's.

What a joke. I'd go back the next time and pay them in 228 fifty-cent pieces.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

From another point of view, the author of this article/commentary has been noticed for his bias in previous articles.

A few key statements in the article are how the Secret Service agent mentioned the bills were smudged and with serial numbers in sequential order.... Combine this with the fact that 2.00 bills are not common in circulation and it would raise red flags with just about anyone. Remember, the retailer (and sometimes the cashier) eats the cost if they accept counterfeit bills....

What I would like to know is how BB has the right to "call the police" if he didn't pay for the install that was completed the day before.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

About on par with "You called me a poo-poo head! I'm calling the police."

Police will likely laugh it off. It's the Best Buy employee's responsibility to make sure that the invoice & services are fully paid before the customer leaves the premises. If they don't (and screw up the bill), it's their problem, not the customers to come back and fix their error.

Moe.

 

[Dave_Brown]

If it were me, I would think of all the denominations I might consider running off as counterfeit, a $2 bill would be pretty much at the bottom of the list. $10 or $20's would probably draw a lot less attention, hence probably more successful.

 

[Chris]

I don't think you can counterfeit thanks to the new currency changes, which is basically good news (IMHO) even with color printers, etc. the magnetic stripe, the color wash ink, varying patterns.. good work on their behalf.

I always wondered as a kid about slugs, though.. when we had vending machines, the owners always had "slugs" basically, an object the same size, shape, etc. as a quarter which was used to mimic a quarter for the machine in case someone was ripped off.. sure, using tons of slugs would only get you access to vending machines, but I always thought better ways would come out to stop that. (I think they have since then, though I used a single slug a hundred times or more on Galaga at the time..)

 

[Patrick Sun]

In my youth, all I needed was one quarter to play Galaga for about 3 hours for one game while I was dropped off at the arcade while good ol' mom went shopping at the mall.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

So from what I'm hearing, the guy wasn't arrested for paying with $2 bills, but rather was arrested for suspicion of counterfeiting, right? After all, the police wouldn't arrest a guy and haul him off just because BB had a policy of not accepting the currency (which would also be illegal on BB's part), and the SS certainly wouldn't have gotten involved otherwise.

While I might fault BB for not selling him the right stereo, or charging him for installation after the fact, I wouldn't fault them for notifying the police if they suspected counterfeit bills (and it sounds like suspicion was warranted in this case).

 

[brentl]

"I always wondered as a kid about slugs, though.."


YEP, the good OLE days, when you could run by a construction site and get TONS of free money!!

The electrical boxes were a bonanza for slugs, and the worksites were great for beer bottles.

Brent

 

[Marko Berg]

So, suspicion of counterfeiting warrants locking this guy in handcuffs and leg irons in front of the people in the store?



You could say that. What does 9/11 have to do with possible counterfeiting?

 

[Garrett Lundy]

exploding money?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I always carry $2 notes, and the various $1 coins, because I hate the $1 bill. Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll stay away from Best Buy from now on!

 

[SteveA]

The only thing worse than a $2 bill is a Sacajewea dollar. I've had one for a couple of years I've tried to use on occasion and NOBODY will accept it.

 

[Jason Adams]

I'll take it, Steve.

I've had no problem with the Sacajewea dollar.

 

[TonyTone]

I second that--I mean, IIRC...out of all the US paper denominations that can be/are counterfeited, the $20 bill is the one that is counterfeited the most...especially when you consider that, a) almost no one will question someone submitting a $20 or examine it closely to verify that it is indeed a legit bill; b) there are many retail establishments that won't take anything larger than a $20--either at all or after certain hours...how many places have you heard of and/or seen that explicitly state that they won't take $20 bills at all?

I wasn't able to view the entire article (login required), so I dunno what the flag was that led BB to believe that the bills may be counterfeit--was it because of the smeared ink, because the bills were crisp, and/or because the serial numbers were in sequential order? The smeared ink I could understand but if it were something other than that...BB totally overreacted IMHO.