Is it against ANY law to refuse pennies/coins?

Question

for a store owner/cashier to verbally refuse service to me if i choose to pay in coins, namely pennies? If its on camera can i sue? (CVS)

i needed to buy some pampers and all i had was my coin jar, i could have stopped at commerce bank but my childs pampers were of the essence.

Answer 1

Most business can refuse service.  But, pennies are legal tender and the manager should be notified.

Answer 2

There are a number of opinions expressed here that CVS wasn't legally required to accept pennies or other coins in payment for the Pampers you were wishing to buy.  They're correct, but what's missing from those opinions is the authority for those opinions.

Here it is, in the form of a US Treasury Department opinion expressed on the relevant section of the United States Code.

It isn't that pennies and other coins aren't "legal tender" - they are - but rather what those words mean in terms of a merchant's obligations:

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pen...

"Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code states:

'United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.'"

"What this statute means, in the words of the United States Treasury, is that '[A]ll United States money . . . is a valid and legal offer [that's the key word here - Aron R] of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal law mandating that a person or organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.'"

"That's it. All this means is that the Federal Reserve System must honor U.S. currency and coins, not necessarily anyone else. U.S. currency and coins can be used for making payments, but merchants do not necessarily have to accept it for all forms of business transactions."

So what this CVS cashier did wasn't illegal.  Nonetheless, in my opinion, it was scummy of the cashier not to accept coins.  Any cashier with reasonable customer service skills should have found a way to accommodate you.  One option is that they do so by asking that you carry out the transaction at a customer service counter, so as to lessen the inconvenience for other customers who might be waiting at the regular checkout lines.  But they could have found a way.

Complaining to CVS headquarters might be a good idea.  But suing them isn't.  We live in a sue-happy society, and despite how strongly you feel about how you were treated, it wasn't illegal.  Your best course might be to let CVS higher-ups know how you felt, and how their employees' treatment of you affected your family life, its impact on your child or children who badly needed the diapers that day, etc.

You could point out that in today's economy, many families are hurting and will occasionally need to buy essentials, like diapers and food, with small change.  Even families that are doing OK may occasionally only have that means of payment.  CVS staff should be aware of that and find ways to serve their customers with respect.

In your communications with the company, it is also useful to be clear about what you are asking for:  An apology?  A refund, or coupons, or some other form of renumeration for your treatment?  (You can decide whether it's better to be up-front about this, or simply let them take the initiative.)  Some promise of a) guidance to employees about how to handle purchases made with lots of coins and/or b) employee training around this topic, either chain-wide or at your local store?  The latter would seem to be one of the most important outcomes, as it would help ensure that you and others aren't again treated in the way you were that day.

Some contact info:

Names of executive officers of the parent company that owns the CVS drugstores, CVS Caremark Corporation:

http://investing.businessweek.com/resear...

Contact info for the executive officers:

http://www.cvscaremark.com/our-company/c...

(see under "Corporate Contacts", near the bottom of that page)

General contact info for the drugstore part of the company, CVS/Pharmacy.  Even if you write one of the executive officers, be sure to also write - or cc - the customer service managers here:

http://www.cvscaremark.com/our-company/c...

(see under "CVS/Pharmacy Customer Service", the second main heading on that page)

You might also consider writing about your experience - ideally after CVS management and/or customer service management has had a chance to respond, so you can tell the whole story from problem to resolution, if any - on one of the complaint boards such as:

http://www.my3cents.com/search.cgi?crite...

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=c...

and others you can find through a search on Yahoo, Google, etc.

Answer 3

Legal tender is legal tender. I can walk into a car dealership and pay for a 20,000 car all in quarters if I wanted to. Sure it raises questions why your paying all in pennies and is a btch to do that but they have no right to say your money is no good here. I would file a complaint with CVS HQ and tell them that you were refused service because of the way you were going to pay. They will do ANYTHING to keep a customer.

Answer 4

you can't sue them for not wanting a jar of pennies. lol

they are legal tender but most places don't take them in mass quantities

Answer 5

It is not against the law. They don't have to deal with you giving them a million coins that have to be counted multiple times (they would also have to count it), fill up the register, and so on. In fact, barring some special circumstances, they don't have to do business with you at all.

It might not be profitable, so you might get to talk to a supervisor, but you don't have a case from a legal perspective.

Answer 6

Yes they can be refused,  They are not legal tender according to the law.  You can pay a $55 invoice will 55 $1 bills,  but coins can be refused.  Even many banks will not take large amounts of coin.

AND any store can refuse you service for any reason

YOU HAVE NO CASE

Answer 7

They have to be at least rolled up.

lol.

I think it would be funny to go to a restuarant then order and eat then pay with all pennies.

Money is money to me :D lol

Answer 8

Um no lol. Its a private business they can do what they want. This is America. We have something called freedom and it applies to everyone, yes, even people who own businesses.

Answer 9

they can refuse, but most big supermarkets nowadays have coinstar machines. for like 7 cents on the dollar you can get cash from the machine, but a lot of the time if you spend the money in the store at the time they dont charge you anything. i would try that

Answer 10

No it's not illegal....but it's pretty sh*tty of them. Instead of getting all crazy and suing them (which will cost A LOT of money, which I'm sure you don't have since you were paying for diapers with spare change, no offense I've done it too) just let it go and get your diapers from somewhere else from now on.

Answer 11

How many pennies did you have?