Phones4U Refusing Scottish Note

[greengecko]

Quick question for anyone more knowledgeable than me on this subject. Went into Phones4U yesterday to renew my brothers contract with him, to avoid him agreeing to all the rubbish they try to sell you.

A gentleman at another desk was trying to pay for the handset on a contract he was about to sign up to, however they wouldn't accept a Scottish note he had. I even questioned the store manager on his behalf as I thought (although I may be wrong) that they should accept it as it is legal tender. I got a reply of "I've never seen one before in my life, I'm not accepting it".

Needless to say the guy wasn't too happy and took his name to write a complaint. Just wondering if they could refuse a Scottish note, I guess they can refuse a sale for no reason but is there anything to say they can refuse legal tender or is it a grey area? (Dealing with solely online transactions I've never come across this issue).

Kind Regards

 

[poochieparlour]

as far as I am aware and I am pretty sure im right, as long at the scottish note had sterling on it, they should have taken it

 

[greengecko]

as far as I am aware and I am pretty sure im right, as long at the scottish note had sterling on it, they should have taken it

I'm not alone, all of the staff seemed to agree with the manager which was strange. I left under the assumption I may have been wrong as surely such a large organisation wouldn't leave simple transaction training like that out , seems so.

 

[poochieparlour]

I know what you mean, I used to work in retail and where I used to work wouldn't even take an english £50 in case it was fake, annoyed a lot of people.

On the odd occasion I have scottish notes, I tend to take them to the bank as some people think you're trying to con them when handing it over lol

 

[Scalloway]

Scottish bank notes are not legal tender, even in Scotland.

 

[greengecko]

Scottish bank notes are not legal tender, even in Scotland.

Thanks for that, but what does that mean in terms of my question?

 

[poochieparlour]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ne...ue-or-false-scottish-notes-arent-legal-tender
learn something new every day then lol

 

[greengecko]

Ahh I see - While not legal tender, they are UK Parliament-approved legal currency, which makes them a perfectly acceptable way to pay.

Up to the shop basically, just remember if you're Scottish then Phones4U won't want your money in England!

 

They can refuse any offer for any reason they wish, there is no obligation to complete any sale with any customer that makes an offer.

So on that basis, tough luck

I have just written a complaint to the robbing bar stewards today, first time i ever used them and the last

3 staff all hopeless...

anyway no thread jack the name caught my eye


The manager is a clown, although he can refuse the sale, he refused it on the basis of something he should have more knowledge of, but my 1 experience of the place suggests to me the training is non existent.

 

[poochieparlour]

Yeah don't make sense to me that thy wouldn't take them, each to their own I guess.

 

[Lunazzurra]

We accept Scottish notes no problem because our bank (Lloyds) accepts them but I have heard of other banks not accepting them. They can easily be tested for fake by the yellow pen or UV light in the same way as Sterling notes.

Don't quote me on this as I'm not an expert but I believe it they are legal tender in England if offered in terms of sale from customer to retailer but cannot be given out in change from retailer to customer.

However, just because it has the Queen's head on, does not necessarily make it legal tender i.e. Australian, Canadian, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey currency all have the Queen's head on but are not legal tender in England.
Some banks might agree to change/accept notes but none, as far as I know, will accept coins from these countries.

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

I have the same issue, I used to live in Scotland years ago, born and bred there, when ever my family come down to visit there's lots of shops refuse them there Scottish money as people have said its not legal tender and shops have the right to except it or not, yet you go into a shop in Scotland with a English note and they don't even question it lol

 

they are all legal tender as the bank will buy these at an agreed price which they put on public display each day you can pay your bank in anything you like!

dinar rubles francs

and so on

if someone offers you 20 euros as a business for something that is 10gbp you would be pretty daft to say no we only accept pounds as the bank will accept euros

legal local tender might be more appropriate

regardless, there is not a single retail bank that does not also have branches in scotland therefore none will refuse a scottish note and so businesses that do are missing out typically the exchange rate is a pound to the pound

so rare, hardly worth caring

I paid scottish notes to phones4u this week, same company and of course they kept them! (I am in scotland)

 

[David Griffiths]

There is a widespread ignorance of the meaning of the term legal tender, and that is shown in this thread. This actually refers to payment that MUST be accepted in settlement of a debt. Defined here on the Royal Mint site. There are limits to the number of coins that can be used presumably to stop some disgruntled debtor paying a bill with a lorry load of penny coins.

Scottish and Northern Irish notes are not, within this strict definition, legal tender, even in Scotland and Ireland. However they are safe to accept as they are backed by deposits at the Bank of England. As is made clear in this entry on the Bank of England site, it is a matter for the parties if payment in Scottish notes is accepted. Any trader is perfectly within their rights to refuse payment. Most do accept them, but nobody can be made to accept them. Whether refusing to accept them is sound business practice is a a wholly separate issue.

 

[Vectis]

There is a widespread ignorance of the meaning of the term legal tender, and that is shown in this thread. This actually refers to payment that MUST be accepted in settlement of a debt. Defined here on the Royal Mint site. There are limits to the number of coins that can be used presumably to stop some disgruntled debtor paying a bill with a lorry load of penny coins.

Scottish and Northern Irish notes are not, within this strict definition, legal tender, even in Scotland and Ireland. However they are safe to accept as they are backed by deposits at the Bank of England. As is made clear in this entry on the Bank of England site, it is a matter for the parties if payment in Scottish notes is accepted. Any trader is perfectly within their rights to refuse payment. Most do accept them, but nobody can be made to accept them. Whether refusing to accept them is sound business practice is a a wholly separate issue.

Basically, I think that was all said in the link in post 7.

OP, it's not clear to me from your post if the person was trying to use the Scottish notes in England or Scotland? I'd be dubious about accepting the notes in England mainly because I have no idea what Scottish notes are supposed to look like so it could easily be toy town money as far as I was aware (no offence to anyone Scottish, but I have no idea what the notes look like).

Saying, as another poster did, that any retailer should accept Scottish notes because all banks have branches in Scotland misses the point, I think. Many banks probably/possibly have branches in China or Botswana or India or wherever but it doesn't follow that a retailer in England should accept bank notes from those counties.

 

[mobious]

If he was there paying a contract - it would depend on the contract terms, for anything else it's the shops discretion.

 

[stockdam]

Scottish and Northern Ireland notes are not legal tender. A shop or company or person in England can refuse to accept them but there's no real reason for not accepting them other than ignorance. Anyone who handles money should be trained in all the different types of notes and should recognise the different ones.

 

[DavidWH]

Trouble with Scottish notes is there are several banks issuing the notes, so not all notes will look the same.

I spent 4years in the Navy in Scotland and it was a pain, bringing Scottish notes home and people not accepting them.

 

[ScotComp]

I was at an airport a few years ago in England and the shop refused to sell me an item because I wanted to pay with a Scottish note, it angered me at the time because I thought being part of the UK we should all accept each others notes no problems and I couldn't understand how England had never seen an RBS note since RBS trade in England!

However.... I was then presented with a Northern Irish note when working in Scotland and had no idea if it was genuine or not (although I'm sure it was) so I ended up understanding why they can get knocked back down south.

RBS/Clydesdale notes are very similar but the Bank of Scotland have recently came out with a new design for our notes which make them look completely different to Bank of English notes, in fact I'd say they are very similar to the Canadian dollar note now.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Which begs the question, of why is there a need for different notes? why after all these years do we not have a single currency in the Uk if the currency is in fact a common currency?

God help you when you become independent as at that point you will need to buy UK (bank of England) currency if you are going outside of Scotland as your currency will no longer be accepted, as you will no longer be part of the UK.

 

[Posilan]

I wonder if the notes were refused simply because, due to the rarity of them in England, a forged Scottish note is harder to spot for the store?

Steve