'It's pathetic': Service station refuses to serve mum paying with coins
What was supposed to be a simple milk-run for a young Adelaide mother has sparked a wild social media storm after she was turned away by service station giant On The Run.
With her two kids, aged just 11 months and two years, strapped in the car, Amy Bivone opted to use the drive thru at the Salisbury OTR on Wednesday morning.
After ordering two bottles of milk and two loaves of bread, she handed over $10 worth of 50 cent pieces – that’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“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,” she wrote in a scathing Facebook review.
“The way it was handled was a little poor and shocking.”
Hundreds of Facebook users expressed their disbelief at how the young mum was treated, while others began debating what Australia’s laws actually say about paying with coins.
“That’s bull****,” one man wrote.
“If you want to run a great business with the best customer service you will never refuse money in any form,” another said.
As per the section 16 of the Australian Currency Act 1965, payment in 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins should not exceed $5.
And that is exactly what the official OTR Facebook account cited in their response to Ms Bivone’s review.
It was a response that only incited more anger from both Ms Bivone and her growing social media support base.
“OTR money is money… she didn’t want to give you $50 bucks worth of change… it’s for bread and milk…. shame on you for trying to justify the poor customer service that happened today,” one woman commented.
“OTR wow!!! What an embarrassing response!!! So pathetic,” another wrote.
Since the post went viral, an OTR representative reached out to Ms Bivone and offered her a $10 voucher for bread and milk.
“They are going to look into it with their CCTV and find out exactly who served me that day and confirm I was the only car in the line,” Ms Bivone said.
“I’m glad they called me with a sincere apology, I just wish this could have happened 1st rather than a Currency Law lesson from 1965.”
An OTR spokesperson said the service station chain serves about one million customers per week “including many cash transactions”.
“In this singular instance on January 2, 2019 at OTR Salisbury Drive Thru, we believe the matter at the time could have been handled differently and we have now worked with the customer to resolve it.”
