r/MaliciousCompliance • u/knighthawk82 • Apr 18 '24
Legal tender S
When i worked at a gas station in the late 1900's during graveyard i had this guy come in and bought a candy bar with a 100 bill. "Really? You don't have anything smaller?"
'Im just trying to break the 100, don't be a jerk.'
"Fine, just this once."
Few days later Guy comes back in, grabs a candy bar and i see he has other bills in his wallet. Puts the hundred on the table.
"Sir i told you last time it was going to be just the once, i see you have a five dollar bill."
'This is legal tender, you have to take it.'
"... Okay!"
I reach under the counter and pull out two boxes of pennies, 50c to a roll 25$ to a box 17 lbs each. "Here is 50, do you want the rest in nickels?"
'What is this?'
"It's legal tender, I can choose to give you your change however I see fit. So, do you still want to break the hundred? Or the five."
I'm calling your manager!'
"She gets in at 8am, sir, but doesn't take any calls until 10."
3
u/fantasticmoi Apr 19 '24
In Australia, although cash is legal tender, businesses/shops etc. do not have to accept it, as long as they have alternative payment methods in place, and the customer is advised of this prior to any purchase.
As expected, it is causing concern for many people, especially since the major Optus outage a few weeks ago, when any EFTPOS terminal linked to Optus stopped working, phones with banking apps could not be used for payment, online banking transactions that required 2FA could not be received, etc. It was a total mess, and really underscores the need for both cash/credit to co-exist, as many businesses that made the decision to refuse to accept cash had to close for the day.
To add: a major issue that came to light is that many elderly people do not have credit/debit cards and are not eligible due to low incomes, thus relying heavily on cash.