Best Buy customer service reaches new high (1 Viewer)

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Counterfeiting has always been taken very seriously. If you have an issue with him being arrested, that is an issue for the police - not BB. BB does not arrest people. As far as being handcuffed goes, this is standard procedure whenever a person is arrested (even for a non-violent crime). 9/11 has nothing to do with it.

The real question is what led them to believe that the money was counterfeited in the first place, and was there probable cause for an arrest. Once again, the burden here is on the police since BB doesn't arrest people.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

A few years ago... here at this very office, someone scanned a $1 bill on a flatbed scanner, printed it out on a B&W laserjet printer, and inserted it into the soda machine... and... it worked!

An email was circulated around the office shortly afterwards explaining that this was a federal offense and that if it were to continue, the FBI would be contacted.

What they didn't know at the time was that the soda machine would, if you hit the coin return, give you a quarter for every nickel you inserted. So, most everyone in the office was drinking 10 cent sodas anyway.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

We had a vending machine like that in college -- if you put in a dollar coin and hit "return" without buying anything, it gave you back 5 quarters.

I ate lunch for one dollar every day for two months.

 

[Scott McGillivray]

Ah...well someday the USofA will learn to accept the coin as a real form of currency. We Canadians have $1 and $2 coins and have embraced it (for the most part). Heck, I would easily support the $5 coin too. I hardly ever carry money on me since most everywhere takes debit cards. I love reaching in my pocket and finding a whole bunch of Loonies and Toonies (thats what we call them up here). They cost far less to mint overall than dollars, they survive going through the wash, they work better in parking meters, pop machines etc.

Resistence is futile! Join the coin revolution!

 

[Scott_lb]

This is awesome.... it reminds me of working at Sam's Club during college. Every Saturday afternoon the "strippers" would come in to shop and pay in singles. The strippers were a man and wife who looked like stereotypical strippers - he looked a lot like Fabio and she looked like some blonde from California with a fake chest. Anyway, they would normally buy about $150.00 worth of stuff and would always pay in singles. We never got upset because we got a kick out of them.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I always thought stores and restaurants liked to get small bills and change on the weekend. That way you don't run out before the bank opens on Monday.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

My take on this was that an employee had never heard of $2 bills, and had him arrested for that. I hope this guy gets a good attorney!

Glenn

 

[L. Anton Dencklau]

..

 

[Greg*go]

I'm confused. What does

This seems to be similar to what BB was trying to do. If the Best Buy agreed that the installation costs were a U.S. Dollar amount, I don't see anywhere in the snopes article that states they don't have to accept certain denominations. If BB can refuse $2 notes, then could the reverse be true and a store ONLY accept $2 notes?

 

[Patrick Sun]

And what about those stores that won't accept anything larger than a $20 bill?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Under the Thomas Amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1932, all coins and currencies of the United States are legal tenders for all debts of what character soever. That's everything, from the half-cent coin [last minted in the 1850s] to the $100 000 Gold Certificate [portrait of Woodrow Wilson; it's illegal to own one], and not excluding the $2 Federal Reserve Note. Now, if a thing is a legal tender, it does not mean that anyone has to accept it in payment; it only means that if he refuses it, you don't have to pay him. The big effect of Legal Tender status is thus that someone who refuses to accept the currency cannot sue to recover the debt for payment of which it was tendered.
When the cashier refused to accept the notes, I would have asked for a written statement to that effect. Whether I got it or not, I would have left after that, and if BB again threatened to "send the police" after me [of course the municipal police have nothing to do with it, although the sheriff might have gotten involved if they wished to pursue process to enforce the debt] I would have told them where they could stick their bill.

 

[Chris]

That is my understanding as well; moreover, and maybe this was a bad college econ class, but of course banks can't refuse legal, valid tender in any ammount, and in some states, you must at least state a compelling concern for failure to accept a denomination of bill lower then $100.

 

[Eric Peterson]

My biggest question is, where did he come up with that many $2 Bills? Can you go to a bank and ask for them? I have one or two of them around the house somewhere that I've kept as curiosities, but I would never think of spending them unless I encountered some very hard times.

 

[Nigel McN]

Yeah, I was reading it, and my thought was 'damn, where did he get 57 2$ bills?'

And did you know those pens people use to detect 'counterfeit' bills are merely iodine pens testing the paper quality? On the theory that fake bills use lower quality paper.

 

[Nathan*W]

It's the difference between law and policy. Policy may be more restrictive than law but not vice versa. Although the government says all forms of currency are legal, businesses may accept only what they want. So in this case:
...the answer is YES, whether it's $2 notes, $1 coins, etc. The caveat is that the business should disclose their payment policy prior to entering into the sales agreement.

 

[Greg*go]

Thank you Nathan. And since I highly doubt BB has any rules against $2 notes, they shouldn't be a problem. If this is true, this would also help the places (gas stations) that don't accept any bills larger than $20.

 

[Jay Taylor]

Yes. You can also get rolls or bags of Susan B. Anthony or Sacagawea dollar coins from your bank. You may need to give your bank advance notice that you want to buy them in case they don't have them on hand.

Some businesses use Susan B. Anthony or Sacagawea dollar coins or $2.00 bills as part of a promotional.

 

[Jay Taylor]

 

[Thomas Newton]

Best Buy allegedly claimed that he owed them a debt. If, for the sake of argument, we assume he did, and that the $2 bills were not counterfeit, Best Buy's only choices were to accept the payment in $2s, or to forgive the debt.

Now if the same guy were to grab a DVD off the rack, and offer to pay for it in $2 bills, "legal tender for all debts, public and private" probably wouldn't apply, as the DVD would belong to the store until the moment of sale. If they let him walk out with the DVD without paying, with just a promise to pay later, there would be a debt, and they would have to take the $2s.

 

[Nathan*W]

That is correct. As a legal tender, and barring any public policy of Best Buy's restricting specific currency forms, (or counterfeit notes, as you mentioned) BB would be obligated to accept the money, or forgive the debt.