Coop travel issued out of date Swiss francs

antallen

Hi,
Aug 2022 my sister-in-law got my son 30 Swiss francs as spending money for his scouts trip. Turned out co-op travel foreign exchange gave her "series 8" banknotes which ceased being legal tender in Nov 2021. They won't refund them. They say we might have switched the notes so unless we can prove they issued those exact notes then we can't have a refund. The only places that will accept them are the Swiss National Bank in Bern or Zurich.

How can we prove this? Surely they should know the serial numbers of notes they ordered??? They ordered them in from a head office because they don't get much call for Swiss Francs. Can I insist that they tell me the serial numbers of the notes they issued?

It's not a lot of money, but such a lovely gesture from my sister-in-law and the shop are now accusing her of lying. Don't really want to write it off.

What can we do?

Thanks

Ant

bagand96

antallen said:

Hi,
Aug 2022 my sister-in-law got my son 30 Swiss francs as spending money for his scouts trip. Turned out co-op travel foreign exchange gave her "series 8" banknotes which ceased being legal tender in Nov 2021. They won't refund them. They say we might have switched the notes so unless we can prove they issued those exact notes then we can't have a refund. The only places that will accept them are the Swiss National Bank in Bern or Zurich.

How can we prove this? Surely they should know the serial numbers of notes they ordered??? They ordered them in from a head office because they don't get much call for Swiss Francs. Can I insist that they tell me the serial numbers of the notes they issued?

It's not a lot of money, but such a lovely gesture from my sister-in-law and the shop are now accusing her of lying. Don't really want to write it off.

What can we do?

Thanks

Ant

Do Foreign Exchanges log the serial numbers of all notes they handle?  I'm not sure they would.

Only thing I can think to suggest would be escalating it with Co-op travel HQ/social media channels if the branch aren't being helpful. 

RobM99

bagand96 said:

Do Foreign Exchanges log the serial numbers of all notes they handle?  I'm not sure they would.

 Maybe if they get them brand new with consecutive numbers in a batch but as these are out-of-date, I doubt it with them. Bit mean not to change them out of goodwill. Not like it's £50,000 after all.

bagand96

RobM99 said:

bagand96 said:

Do Foreign Exchanges log the serial numbers of all notes they handle?  I'm not sure they would.

 Maybe if they get them brand new with consecutive numbers in a batch but as these are out-of-date, I doubt it with them. Bit mean not to change them out of goodwill. Not like it's £50,000 after all.

Yes, presumably they would buy them back at a poor exchange rate, so it's a very minimal loss for them, only the exchange rate difference. An easy fix here which is why I would hope a customer service escalation would resolve.

eDicky

antallen said:

The only places that will accept them are the Swiss National Bank in Bern or Zurich.

They can still usually be paid into a Swiss bank or post office account, so somebody might accept doing this for your son when he's there, if all else fails. Even a bank in Italy recently (two weeks ago) accepted without question CHF2000 in eighth series notes that I paid to a friend, for exchange to euros and deposit.

However Co-op are completely out of order to issue such notes and a formal complaint should be made if they continue in denial. As for proof, somebody might order some more from the same outlet and see if they come up with the same recalled series notes, then you have 'caught them at it'...