Can Retailer Keep Fake Cash?

wilfulsprite

Just took £20 out of cash machine to buy son a pair of trainers. Went to Sports Direct and handed the cash over. One of the notes was fake, and they have refused to give it back to me, so I have no evidence to show Nationwide when I go in tomorrow to tell them. SD wouldn't give me a note, receipt or anything to say that they had kept it.
Can anyone tell me the consumer rights for anyone who has experienced this?
Thank you :mad:

Entimp

They entitled to retain, but they have to give you a receipt. Not sure if consumer rights cover this, more likely law and the Bank of England as it is technically their property I believe.

SuperHan

AFAIK, the retailer legally has to keep the fake note. I could be wrong though, but I'm sure this was my training when I worked on a till.

Also, if you try to take the fake note back to the bank, they will not exchange it for a real note as the fake not has NO value. You would have to prove that you got it from Nationwide in order to get a legitimate note back.

wilfulsprite

Ok thanks. I've got the relevant page from the BOE website and just going now to try to get a receipt.
Even if they don't give the money back at the bank, they might be aware that they are filling their machines with fake notes - a couple of friends have had the same problem.
The most annoying part is that I know full well that when SD takes their cash to bank it, the bank does not check the notes to see if they are fake. Any retailer not following the rules could just bank our fake notes.

pinkshoes

They HAVE to keep it, but they also have to give you a receipt. I'd also want to mark the note so they can't just switch it to a fake one and pocket it!

Did they show you the proof it was fake?

Forwandert

wilfulsprite wrote: »

Ok thanks. I've got the relevant page from the BOE website and just going now to try to get a receipt.
Even if they don't give the money back at the bank, they might be aware that they are filling their machines with fake notes - a couple of friends have had the same problem.
The most annoying part is that I know full well that when SD takes their cash to bank it, the bank does not check the notes to see if they are fake. Any retailer not following the rules could just bank our fake notes.

Banks always check any notes sent into the bank from anywhere. On reports I get at work it shows any fake notes rejected from the collections.

Why should sports direct accept a piece of paper you hand them that is worth nothing in return for goods. You've actually been quite lucky, the last 3/4 times anyone at the store I'm in has presented fake notes (£20 or over as thats the note i dont see any reason for them to have or been given elsewhere in change) the police have been called and they have been arrested.

wilfulsprite

Forwandert wrote: »

Banks always check any notes sent into the bank from anywhere. On reports I get at work it shows any fake notes rejected from the collections.

Why should sports direct accept a piece of paper you hand them that is worth nothing in return for goods. You've actually been quite lucky, the last 3/4 times anyone at the store I'm in has presented fake notes (£20 or over as thats the note i dont see any reason for them to have or been given elsewhere in change) the police have been called and they have been arrested.

Sorry but that isn't so. Maybe they are supposed to, but when I have banked my takings they just count them up and put them in the till. I sent lots of items by post every week (for ten years), and the post office never checks my cash - it goes straight in the till. Do they check every note they put in the cash dispensers? Evidently not.

My original complaint, if you actually read it, was not that they kept the money without giving me any goods - that is quite understandable, and it is what they are supposed to do. My complaint was that they would give me nothing in return to show that they had kept the money - not the note or a receipt.
The BOE advice for retailers is this -
'

1. Retain the suspect note without putting staff at risk
2. Give the customer a receipt, explaining that the note will be handed to the police. Explain that suspect notes subsequently discovered to be genuine will be returned.
3. Call the police and hand them the counterfeit note; or take it to a police station later if requested by them. They will send the suspect note to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Counterfeit notes are subsequently sent to the Bank of England for analysis.'

The assistant originally told me the note would be taken to their bank, not the police. The assistant manager would not give me a receipt as they are supposed to, and it was all done in front of a crowd of people who were saying 'tough mate'. Embarrassing. Not only that, but what if the note does turn out not to be counterfeit? If they have not taken my details or given me a receipt, they cannot return it to me as per rule 2. On return to the store with the relevant page printed out, I was taken into private and given a receipt. It sounds as if they have been given no training as to what you are supposed to do if a customer hands over a counterfeit note. They are not alone - a counterfeit note was returned to me in Wilkinsons a year ago, and one returned to a customer in Asda recently, with the cashier tearing it in half before returning it.



Of course we are very grateful that they did not call the police, and add to the public humiliation which occurred. But that does not negate the rules which say we must be given a receipt for the note, which if you read the original post, is all we were asking for.

wilfulsprite

pinkshoes wrote: »

They HAVE to keep it, but they also have to give you a receipt. I'd also want to mark the note so they can't just switch it to a fake one and pocket it!

Did they show you the proof it was fake?

They showed us when we returned to the store (rubbed it on a piece of paper). We have the serial number on the receipt, for what it's worth!

Fosterdog

Forwandert wrote: »

Banks always check any notes sent into the bank from anywhere. On reports I get at work it shows any fake notes rejected from the collections.

I've known of plenty of fake notes coming out of cash machines, even the banks own.

OH took money out from an in bank cash machine not long ago, he only took £20 out as a single note and could tell straight away that it was fake. He took it to customer services and he had to leave it with them while it was investigated (luckily he had more in his account to get the £20 he still needed)
Around two weeks later he had a letter confirming the note was a fake and there was clear CCTV footage that the note that came out of the machine is the same note he handed in. They put £20 back into his account and £10 for the inconvenience.

At the beginning of the year a friend took out £150 from a cash point (again a banks own one but this time external), there were two fake £20 notes next to each other in the middle of the wad that came out. This time my friend didn't get any help from her bank as she had no proof that they were the same notes to come from the machine because she didn't notice the fakes until later. She phoned the bank and they just told her to hand them in (she instead put them in with some other £20s to be paid into her account.

The cashier in the bank took them without checking them and the money cleared in her account. She feels guilty that someone else could get caught out but at the same time why should she lose out on £40 because the banks don't check?

vyle

I've seen a lot of abbreviations used here, but SD? Secure digital?

Jakg

vyle wrote: »

I've seen a lot of abbreviations used here, but SD? Secure digital?

I'd guess "Sports Direct"