Not A Happy Chappie

[Goldseeker]

Two things that made me see red today.   Both evolved aroung circulation currency.

First.   Went to Comm Bank with a bag full of coins that I took out a few days ago.   There was $1,000 in the bag of three denominations.   At the end, the coin count recorded/showed $996.55.   Called the deputy manager over and she stated that "the coin coin ,machine does not make mistakes".   I am now down $3.45 and that goes towards the $8.3B profit that the bank makes.

Second.   Shopping at Woolworths, wife goes to pay for the goods and we notice new $2 coins, decimal anniversary, in the till.   We were allowed to swap/buy them.   Move across to the counter that sells smokes and asked if the till had the new coins.   Out comes a $50.00 sealed bag of them.   Tried to buy/swap and was told "no can do.   We are not allowed to swap coins for coins".

I an really cheesed off at this.

The banks I have tried DO NOT receive bagged new coins.

Please tell me where else I can get them outside of EBay.

[Fulvio]

Argue the toss with both companies. They have complaints departments. Use them.

With CBA, explain that you are a collector, that you've been doing this for decades, and that you have systems in plac to guarantee your sacks are 100% accurate. Also explain that you have a spreadsheet of sacks sourced from these machines, and how many of them had errors (might want to leave out the ones that were massively in your favour though). If you get no satisfaction, threaten to go to the Ombudsman. Which charges the banks fees (up to $1,000 per incident) for every complaint they handle.

With Woolies, point out that these are NOT Olympic coins, and are NOT limited supply or part of an exclusive deal. Threaten to stop shopping at Woolies entirely, AND to spread your discontent to the tens of thousands of customers who are also coin collectors.

In both cases, the staff are ignorant, and overstepping the mark significantly. They need to be reined in.

FWIW, I once had a sealed Armaguard sack that was $8 short. Westpac replaced the missing coins, no questions asked, and commented that they are often shortchanged themselves. Machines are NOT infallible.

As for alternate sources, talk to Coles managers in your area. The coins for the self-serves come in bags, not rolls, and they are held in the office, not in the coin dispenser. Also talk to Bank of Melbourne, who are remarkably helpful (well, except for this one woman in Ashburton...). And go further afield, away from major shopping centres. The smaller branches are still easier to deal with.

[JeffH]

:agreed:
I had a $200 50¢ bag from CBA here that was one ziplock short -they pack up sealed bags to return that way (don't know why as Armaguard would not be impressed).
I made up the number, after noodling, and reported it when I returned it. Manager made a note of that and, next time I went to the bank, she came up and handed me an envelope with my name on it. Inside was a $20 note.

Trust should be a two way street -if the banks want you to trust them (CEO of CBA says they want to be known as the ethical bank -long way to go yet) then they have to learn to trust regular customers.

[purplepennyhunter]

Just my 2 cents and I'm not happy about the Olympic Woolworths distribution, but Woolworths pay Armaguard to take their cash and provide coins. It costs them money to do that. Why should they just give their coins to just anyone when they pay for the service? Now I know staff act differently depending on who you get and what store it is, that's the other issue.

Last thousand dollar bag from the bank was littered with foreign coins and a newspaper medallion. It's always under when you count it back in, a dollar or two here or there.

Another gripe, doing the BAS and checking the bank statements this week the CBA is now charging foreign currency transaction fees for AUD transactions if they occur out of the country. It's new they have never done that before. Just another way to gouge.

[trout]

I think it is wrong to "Bully" the staff at woollies in order to get them to hand over their change.
They pay for the coinage to be delivered and I am pretty sure that they don't order in just to hand over to collectors :ok:
Loosing a couple of dollars to have the opportunity to noodle through a thousand dollars worth of coins is not that big a deal.
Just idling at the lights on the way to the Bank would probably cost more in fuel.

[Hercules]

Most other banks would take your word for it and make up the difference, but according to other collectors, Comm Bank can be quite picky about these things. My advice would be to threaten to close your account with them, because they'll probably cough up the money then. If not, then I'm sure most other banks would treat you much better.

The reason Woollies wouldn't swap the coins is because you, presumably, were trying to replace them with a $50 note. Then, they would have to pay Armaguard to replace the coins you just took, which eats into their profit. My advice would be to ask them to replace the bag with 25 of your own $2 coins. Considering the amount of time it would take to count them, you might want to consider buying something expensive to thank them for their time and effort. I think a lot of the Woollies staff have been turned off swapping bags of coins because of the Olympic coin debacle, so you'll probably have better luck at Coles. My advice would be to try them instead.

[Fulvio]

"no can do.   We are not allowed to swap coins for coins".

I think you guys are not reading what Goldy said.

Obviously a store isn't going to want to hand over their change. That's a given. Even though it doesn't actually cost them for the coins as such (they pay for deliveries and pickups, not by the coin/note), being without change is bad for business.

But refusing to swap like for like, as they've done to Goldy, and as they did to me with bags of 10¢ coins during the Olympic debacle, is sheer bloody-mindedness and a disregard for the customer. The sort of idiotic mindset you get from a parking attendant when you're 30 sec late back to your car and they start writing the ticket anyway. Definite grounds for removing your custom.

As for Coles, that won't work at the cash register because of those accursed Armaguard roll dispensers. You'd need to get chummy with the manager and convince him/her to let you swap for the bags in the office. Regardless though, do your shopping at Coles rather than Woolies. The only way to show displeasure that carries any weight is to deny them the pleasure of your purchases.

Oh, and another example of the different cultures....

During 'the hunt', I bought Soda Water at some stores to get around the "one per transaction" BS. And I had a dud bottle that was flat. Well, despite it being Woolies brand, they demanded a receipt before replacing it. Pain in the neck, as I had to go out to the car to get it.

The other day, I bought some Cos Lettuce at Coles, and when I was halfway through eating my sandwich, found this:



I took piccies, and when I was going past a store, asked to speak to the manager. Showed him the pics, and he apologised profusely, asked me to email them to him and return the empty package at my convenience. And then he handed me one of those big red tubs of chocolates that were on special for $12.50 instead of $25. So I got my Lettuce replaced, kept the original one (which I was really careful about washing), AND got a freebie gift to boot. You don't get that kind of service at Woolies, ever.

[Hercules]

I bet they thought you needed the extra protein! :laugh2:

[Unicorn]

Do you want flies with that?

[Hercules]

What a shame! Louie the fly actually died. It's taken Mortein almost 60 years to kill him, so I'm glad they finally succeeded. Let's hope he doesn't come back again as a zombie. :zomby:

[Fulvio]

Do you want flies with that?

NO!

[robbiegal]

Goldie talked about several of his successful visitsto the woolies checkouts for swapping coins for the olympic bagged $2 coin
so I reckon compared to most of us he has done very well with that one

and he probably just expected the checkout staff to do the same - swap for swap

but i bet that the staff have been told in no uncertain terms to cease giving out the bagged coins - full stop

regardless to the denomination, type

ebay & facebook are full of the selling of these bags
i think that you have to either be in business (grocery store, club etc) or in cahoots with the blackmarketing suppliers via the 'legal'coin distribution agencies  etc as I suspect some of those facebook sellers are

the bank - no comment except i believe that every time i banked cash for our judo club accounts, it very often came up as less that the total that we had tallied as well
i think the counting machines aren't entirely accurate

[trout]

i think the counting machines aren't entirely accurate

maybe they have a built in fee deduction for their use :angel:

[Unicorn]

:laugh2: ..... McDuck ..... perhaps ... Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, flies, pickles, onions on a sesame seed pun?

[Fulvio]

:laugh2: ..... McDuck ..... perhaps ... Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, flies, pickles, onions on a sesame seed pun?

:laughingneqw: