A Scots rugby fan spoke of his anger after he was refused the sale of a scarf at the official Rugby World Cup store because he had a Scottish £ 20 note.
Peter Mechan had gone to see the Fiji vs Uruguay match on Tuesday and decided to browse the merchandise store for a souvenir.
He picked out a scarf and tried to pay with a Scottish £ 20 note he’d picked up on a recent visit to Edinburgh, but he said he was left “insulted” and upset when staff said they were not allowed to accept his cash.
Peter, 52, a senior IT project manager who lives in Milton Keynes, later returned to the store to try again and filmed his confrontation with the shop staff.
And after posting the video to Facebook, it was shared more than 4 500 times and scored 156 000 views in just 15 hours.
Peter said: “I went into the shop and I saw a really nice scarf with all the flags of the competing countries and thought I’d by myself 1 as a souvenir.
“I couldn’t believe it when the official shop refused to take any of the Scottish notes, especially after the ban on bagpipes. I only had Scottish notes in my pocket and so I handed over a £ 20 note and they looked at it. They said they couldn’t take it.”
“I was more angry than embarrassed. It feels like an insult, not only to me, but to my country. After that I went to get something to eat from a restaurant and got English notes as change so decided to go back to try and see if I could film it on camera.”
The Bank of England website states that Scottish “banknotes are not ‘legal tender’ and that “Bank of England banknotes are only legal tender in England and Wales”.
The acceptability of a Scottish or Northern Ireland banknote as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved.
In the video, the shop assistant said: “We’re just being told what our managers have told us.”
Peter then replies: “Scottish notes are backed by gold and tradable assets unlike English notes.
“When the Bank of England wants to print more money, it just prints more money, there’s nothing behind it.
“What Scots banks have to do is, if they want to print money, they actually have to actually buy tradable assets in the world and then deposit that with the Bank of England. “So our money is actually safer than yours.”
1 Of the sales clerks then responds: “Technically you’re right, but as I said it’s not down to me. I don’t have the power.”
Peter, who is originally from Edinburgh, said he wanted to film the incident to bring attention to the issue of Scottish notes being refused.
He said: “I did the video with the hope that it might bring some attention the issue because there’s no reason for this to be happening.”
“I live and work in Milton Keynes but still have a flat in Edinburgh, so I’m back up there seeing family and friends about once-a-month. I keep Scottish notes in my pocket and normally when I use them in England people say they’re quite nice and really interesting.”
Peter said he had filed a complaint with the Rugby World Cup chiefs and Thursday someone from the store asked him to remove the video from social media.
Peter added: “I’d really like the Rugby World cup to explain why this happened and why they feel they could not accept a Scottish bank note. I have been phoned back by the shop and the guy apologised to me, explaining that it was a ‘miscommunication’. He did say that they are being inundated by emails and asked if I could therefore take the video down but I refused.”
“I’ve had the problem before in London where a shop assistant wouldn’t take them, but more often it’s just people looking closely at them asking if it’s legal tender and asking their manager.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem now, it’s a problem that should’ve faded in the 70s.”
scotsman
So, let me get this oke’s argument clear here….
If I use a Southern African analogy, does that mean that I or another vender in SA must accept Swazi money, or Mozambique money or Lesotho money ot Botswana money… or heaven forbid Zimbabwe freegin Dollars?
Get real, fella… use your Scottish Pounds in fuckin Scotland, for fucks sakes!
It is every vender and retail outlet’s right to determine what type of tender they accept. Let me give you a perfect example, I do not accept cheques as tender.. no matter whether it is in Rand AND Bank Guaranteed or not… I just do not accept checques… and it is my right to do so. Some of my suppliers do not accept Cash, simply because it is a risk to have too much cash on a premises AND Cash deposit fees at the banks are so high!
1 @ grootblousmile:
No GBS it is not the same as all those countries are separate countries and not part of a United Kingdom. If you look at the note there is the crucial word Sterling on it which is also on Bank of England notes.
There is no different exchange rate, the face value of Bank of England notes and those from Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank (which are the 3 up here that print money) is the same.
There are some folk casting aspersions on the guy’s motivations for doing this. However, although haven’t gone to the same lengths having been in this situation at least twice in England I can fully understand the man’s feeling of indignation.
The one time was when trying to get on a public transport bus with my family (2 children included) in Brighton and the other time was when trying to buy food for my family at a shop called Lidl’s in Southampton having arrived there fairly late on due to traffic. Basically it enraged me that I work in Scotland which is part of the UK go to the ATM here and get my hard earned money from it and because it happens to be money that is printed by any of the 3 banks in Scotland that these people in England chose not to use it YET when I use money printed by Bank of England in Scotland I have NEVER had it turned down. The problem when drawing money from ATM before going on trip down south is either knowing or remembering which one gives Bank of England notes.
The article does give a bit of detail about the legalities of it all and apart from the currency side of it there is always the side that no one HAS to sell someone anything if they don’t want to unless they are being discriminatory in their reasons for doing so, at least that is how I think it works here.
The point for me isn’t whether they legally have to but that fact that they exercise their choice not to and so in a way that made it feel worse for me, especially considering all retailers etc I have come across in Scotland choose to accept the money (Bank of England) they don’t have to. Also at the time I refer to when they wouldn’t take my money Lidl had a slogan on boards outside their stores in Scotland with a Scottish flag and something like always for you Scotland written on it. That evening I left the basket of food I wanted to get for my family at the till in Lidl and drove half a mile down the road to a small Tesco store at a garage and bought food and was treated very friendly by the woman who had no issue in taking my money. In Brighton luckily another family member of mine who is from there stepped in and paid with English money for us to travel, otherwise would have just kept the bus waiting while I ran (no probably sauntered) to the nearest bank to change my Scottish notes into English notes.
Hope that explains it a little bit better.
Please someone grant that third world country independence and be done with it !
gunther wrote:
And rebuild the wall……
Bleedin savages…..
re: ‘The Bank of England website states that Scottish “banknotes are not ‘legal tender’ and that “Bank of England banknotes are only legal tender in England and Wales”.”
So what is legal tender in Northern Ireland?
88
PS: I had the same experience in England – some retailers would not accept Scottish bank notes, whilst others would.
@ grootblousmile:
@ Bullscot:
Actually in Swaziland (and I believe Lesotho), SA banknotes are accepted everywhere as legal tender, and the local currency is linked with the ZAR in terms of exchange rates.
At Swazi banks you can ask for Rands if that is your preference.
However, the Swazi’ Emalangeni is NOT legal tender in SA.
So it seems that there are no hard and fast rules in this ever shrinking planet.
Angostura wrote:
Pebbles and trading tokens?
Scrumdown wrote:
Yes in Namiba ZAR is accepted but you will receive change in Nam $. Not used in SA…
2: jammer om te hoor van die Engelse snobisme wat nog so voortduur. Kan ook nie verstaan hoekom die hele wêreld heeltyd moet weet van al die Queenie en haar kinders en prinsies en prinsesse se doen en late nie.
Hulle bietjie wakker word, hierdie is die 21ste eeu, nie meer die 12de eeu nie, tye van kasteeltjies is verby.
Die Skotte moet vir hulle ‘n brown eye gooi soos in die film Braveheart, jammer dat die Skotte nie onafhanklikheid verkry het nie.
Die ou Engelse klomp, altyd dubbele standaarde. As Andy Murray die Wimbledon wen is hy ‘n Brit met die Union Jack en al. Kry hy nog ‘n slegte pak slae van die Serbinator, dan is hy skielik ‘n Skot, hehe.
@ Angostura:
Hi Angostura been a while how are you doing? They have a similar set up to Scotland in Northern Ireland, two Northern Ireland banks who print their own notes, haven’t been there and quite far away on this side of the country so haven’t seen them.
Having experienced some retailers in England not accepting your Scottish notes am sure you can understand the frustration.
@ Scrumdown:
@ Stormersboy:
Cheers that is interesting, been a long time since been in Swaziland and Namibia so don’t remember what money I used there. Another currency have used was “C Fa”s’ or something like that, Francs that were in use in various West African countries think it was the French speaking ones. So in a way similar to having Euros.
@ Ben-die-Bul:
Dankie lyk of jy die dinge goed verstaan. Although I wouldn’t generize about the people as have family and very good friends there.
I remember the kind of thing you refer to regarding sporting success. Had not been here long and thought there was a bit of thr the chip on the shoulder attitude until I happened to hear a short news clip on BBC children program during a winter Olympics. They started talking about the successful British curling team and then in next sentence mentioned “disgraced Scot Alan Baxter…” I couldn’t believe what was hearing. The successful curling team were competing for Britain but consisted entirely of Scots. Alan Baxter was a skier who got banned as he was tested positive for something that was apparently in a nasal spray he used, he was competing for Britain at the time
@ gunther:
Not happening. Don’t know if you are aware but just over a year ago there was a referendum on that but a few more percent of people wanted to stay compared to those who wanted independence.
@ Stormersboy:
#4:I think there would be some disgruntled people and some delighted ones in Cumbria and Northumberland if that happened
10 @ Bullscot:
G’morning Bullscot
I’m doing just fine, thank you (considering the shock of the Bok’s defeat first up)
Guess you’re doing very well, having TWO teams to support in the QFs.
Thx for explaining the situation in N-Ireland.
Yeah, I have understanding for the frustration some feel re the ‘legal tender’ aspect.
Go well, mate – Best of luck for Scotland.
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