A South Australian mother has sparked the online outrage of an entire nation after a local service station north of Adelaide denied her $10 payment simply because she had too many coins.
Amy Bivone this week expressed her anger directly onto the Facebook page of the OTR Salisbury Drive Thru, which is located about 30 minutes north of the CBD, describing the store as “shameful”.
“$10 worth of .50c pieces to get 2x 2ltr Milks and 2x Breads for my kids at OTR so I didn’t have to lug my two-year-old and 11-month-old through the shops and have the car out in the heat just for a simple OTR job (sic),” the post said.
“(I) get to Salisbury Drive Thru OTR, I was the only car there, so they weren’t busy at all with customers.
“My 11-month-old getting cranky cause he is tired and I was refused service cause the man serving wouldn’t accept my change.”
The outburst immediately drew the attention of other outraged patrons willing to call the store “heartless” and “outrageous”, among other anger-fuelled adjectives.
Despite the response, the store did offer their apologies to Ms Bivone but also explained why – according to Australian law – its staff member did not legally act incorrectly.
“As stated in the Australian Government Currency Act 1965 (section 16), coin payment is subject to the following restrictions,” a store representative said.
“If using 5c, 10c, 20c or 50c coins, coin payment cannot exceed $5. If using $1 coins, coin payment cannot exceed $10. If using $2 coins, coin payment cannot exceed $20.
“For example, if someone wants to pay a merchant with five cent coins, they can only pay up to $5 worth of five cent coins and any more than that will not be considered legal tender.
“We apologise that this was not better explained to you in store today and we will be sure to follow up with the store and Team Member.”
But Ms Bivone said this simply is not good enough.
“How dare I not memorise the Australian government currency act 1965 section 16, next time I have two upset, hungry children with me,” she replied.
“OTR don’t want my money apparently so I’ll shop elsewhere thank you.”
