Who Was Suckier? Me or Her?

[BookstoreEscapee]

I once had a guy buy a $3.95 magazine at 9:03am. Literally my first customer of the day, and my till started with $100 in 1s, 5s, and coins. Occasionally a 10 or two. He wanted to pay with a $100 bill and I told him I couldn't break it and he could either pay with something smaller or I could call the manager to break it out of the safe (which was all the way in the back of the store). He got all snotty and said, "What, don't they give you any money." I was sorely tempted to take $3.95 out of the till and dump the rest on the counter.

As a supervisor I had no problem going back to the office to get change if necessary but I would always ask the customer if they had anything smaller first, and warn them they'd have to wait a few minutes.

If the $100.00 bill is legal tender, a store has to take it.

Not true. A store has every right to restrict the denominations they will accept. I've seen plenty of stores (mostly convenience stores and the like) with signs saying they won't take any bill over $50 or whatever. Refusing large bills may lessen their profits a bit but that's their choice. If you're talking about an outstanding debt, that's different, I think.

[JustADude]

Refusing large bills may lessen their profits a bit but that's their choice. If you're talking about an outstanding debt, that's different, I think.

Indeed. Any denomination bill must be accepted for debts already incurred, such as paying at a sit-down restaurant, your utilities, work at a garage, etc.

If the product has not been purchased yet there is no debt, therefore the company can refuse to provide the item/service for which the customer would be indebted.

[walking with scissors]

Now, am I in the wrong? The whole time this was happening my gut was crying "PHONY BILL!!" because people rarely pay for things with anything larger than a $50.

To be perfectly honest, if I have $100 bill and need to break it, I'll go to the grocery store since there really are few places that take bills over $20 these days. But I know better than to go first dang thing in the morning.

[Lone Wolf]

OP, I wouldn't say you were the sucky one -- she was. I don't know how common this is, but where I live, lots of stores everywhere have little signs at the counter or on the cash register saying they won't accept $100 bills. This is due to the huge number of these counterfeit bills in circulation and detecting them was so much of a problem, that many stores have just decided that the simplest thing to do was to stop accepting them altogether. This policy is very common in lot of places. I don't know if it is in your area or not, but if it is then this woman at the very least shouldn't have been surprised if you couldn't accept it based on that, plus the fact that you had just opened up.

[Skarredmind]

That reminds me of my old video rental job. Had a wonderful SC just like yours, except he didn't give up, he pissed and moaned until I decided he'd get his.

He was paying for a $.50 rental with a $100 bill...

I had my coworker watch the front, went to the back grabbed a pack of $1's, and gave him 99 singles and 2 quarters....

He gets irritated at that, "Don't you have anything bigger"

"I said I couldn't break it, and I meant it. All I have now sir is a $100 bill and some coins... I'll be following you out the door now, to hit the bank for the second time today..."

[Ironclad Alibi]

I suppose the only 'law' a SC would be able to use to back up them using a large bill for a small purchase would be the one about legal tender. If the $100.00 bill is legal tender, a store has to take it.

Here is a clarification of legal tender:

31 U.S.C. § 5103.

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.