Servo stokes fury by citing obscure coin law in Aussie mum’s viral rant

Ben Graham
JANUARY 4, 2019
news.com.au

A furious Aussie mum has blown up at a servo which refused to accept her handful of coins at the checkout, and the store’s excuse just made things worse.
An Aussie mother was angry enough when she was told her handful of 50c coins wouldn’t be accepted as payment at a servo, but the store’s response — citing an obscure 1965 law — has taken it to another level.
Amy Dee, from Adelaide, let loose in a tirade against the OTR (Salisbury Drive Thru) which has now gone viral on social media.
She took to the store’s Facebook page to vent her frustration after a cashier refused to accept 20 coins as payments while she had children in the car and didn’t want to go inside.
“$10 worth of 50c pieces to get 2x 2ltr Milks and 2x Breads for my kids at OTR so I didnt (sic) have to lug my 2yr old and 11 month old through the shops and have the car out in the heat just for a simple OTR job …” she wrote.
“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.
“Shameful OTR!! So much for convenience shopping. So, drive back home, (15 mins) to get shoes for my toddler so we can go back to shops again. FML.”
The rant has now been shared hundreds of times and attracted hundreds of comments — with many split on whether the service station should have accepted the coins as legal tender.
OTR (Salisbury Drive Thru) publicly responded to Ms Dee’s Facebook post, citing an obscure Australian Currency law for its refusal to accept her handful of coins.
According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, payment over $5 cannot be comprised solely of coins valued at 50 cents or below, so the service station claimed it was within its rights to refuse her tender.
However, that only fired up hundreds more angry commenters, who felt the store was just being petty and heartless.
The technical response even fired up Ms Dee for a second round.
“Yeah, how dare I not memorise the Australian government currency act 1965 section 16 (sic), next time I have 2 upset, hungry children with me I’ll make sure I go through once for $5 worth of items and drive around again to spend my other $5 worth of coins … oh yeah, hang on … OTR don’t want my money apparently so I’ll shop elsewhere thank you!” she wrote.
This led to a further response from the embattled servo, with the spokeswoman saying its management would like to apologise to Ms Dee face-to-face for her experience.
“Thank you to everyone for your feedback. We too agree this could have been handled much better in store and, as previously mentioned, our management team are addressing this with the store and team member,” the comment read.