Have you ever had a cab driver try to pull the “I don’t have any change” scam on you? Well it happened to me today for about the dozenth time, and I’m sick of it. What I’d like to know is this: is a business provider legally obligated to provide correct change for a transaction? If he/she can’t provide correct change, what remedy is available to the consumer?
For instance, take what happened to me today. My fare was $14.55, and all I had was a twenty and a ten dollar bill on me. I wanted to give him seventeen dollars, but he claimed that he only had one single to give back to me in the way of change. Do I have the legal right to give him the ten and say “tough luck sir, if you can’t make change then that’s all that you’re getting”?
Can’t answer the legal Q, but if I frequented taxis, I’d carry many ones and fives. It’s like when I know I’ll be at parking meters, I carry a roll of quarters.
I wish I were wealthy enough to “frequent” cabs, and if I did I’d try to make sure to have plenty of small bills on me. Today I was “infrequenting” a cab.
I don’t carry around coins to give as change; my manager doesn’t even give them to me when he gives me my “bank” for the shift. If your pizza is 14.55, and you hand me a ten and a five, I'm going to conclude that I got a .45 tip.
I’ve deliverd several hundred pizzas in the few months I’ve been working at my pizza joint. Maybe twice has someone actually gotten pissy about not getting their nickels and dimes back as change. I told them that I don’t carry around coins to give back as change, and that’s just all there is to it. If they don’t like it, they can call the store and get a $.xx credit on their next pizza, and next time, write a check if you insist on paying with exact change.
Of course, this has absolutely no bearing on the OP’s problem with his/her cabbie.
I would say one remidy would to be to tell them they will have to go with you to get the change - I bet they would come up w/ it real fast then. That assumes there is a nearby store. or you can start asking anyone nearby for change.
This would have to be the biggest cultural difference I have noticed between the United States and Australia. Tipping is virtually unherad of here, and yet it is rife in the US. Cabbies in Australia ALWAYS carry change with them, as do Pizza Guys.
I always carry at least a dollar in coins just for the 1 customer in 100 that wants exact change. Since they don’t have to tip at all, forcing them to give you $0.45 is illegal and they do have the right to call the cops on you.
True, 99% of the time they tell me to “keep the change”. But I figure it’s better to appear as though I’m willing to give it to them.
[hijack]
Once an order came to $16.10. I was given a $20 and told “keep the change”. I said, “Thank you,” and trotted off with my $3.90 tip. When I got back to the store, the manager said the customer called to complain that I’d run off with her money. I told him that she told me to keep the change. We called her back, and she confirmed that she had said “keep the change”, but she meant “keep the coins”. :rolleyes: Well, wait for me to give you back the bills, then say “keep the change”.
[/hijack]
P.S. -
change -n
…
12. a balance of money that is returned when the sum tendered in payment is larger than the sum due.
13. coins of low denomination.
…
There is still an identifiable General Question about the law on the table here. I for one would like to know the answer. On whom does the legal obligation fall?
IANAL, but it strikes me that any business from which change might be provided, whether it be a pizza delivery svc, a taxi svc, a store, whatever, which makes the decision not to give its employees the ability to make change is engaging in deceptive business practices and quite possibly fraud, i.e. it’s quoting one price but effectively charging another. That the overage may be absorbed into the “tip” the customer may choose to offer is no excuse. But they probably figure no one’s going to make a fuss over a dollar or 45 cents or however much it is. It seems to me you would be completely within your legal rights to demand that correct change be provided at no additional expense to you.
I’m still waiting on a definitive answer here [Mr. Hand voice]Anyone?.. Anyone?[/Mr. Hand voice]
It does seen to me that there is a difference between pizza and taxis. If the customer who orders a pizza doesn’t have change, the pizza delivery can always refuse to give up the pizza. Sure they may be unhappy, but that might encourage the store owner to provide some change for the delivery folks.
In the case of the taxi ride, the service has been rendered. It would seem to me that it falls upon the cabbie to either have change, or make the passenger aware at the outset that no change is availiable. Could this be covered by licensing rules?
[Mr. Hand voice]Anyone?.. Anyone?[/Mr. Hand voice]
The topic has come up in another thread (which I can’t find now), in regard to businesses that refuse to accept $100 bills. I think the conclusion was that businesses are required to accept all “legal tender” but are not required to give you any change.
Actually, it was in relation to paying for gasoline that had already been pumped. It’s theoretically possible to siphon out the gas you pumped in, but in practice it’s not likely to be done.
Regarding frequency vs. infrequency: I suppose it’s all relative.
Regarding legality and ethicality: After sleeping on it, cooling off and gaining a little perspective, it occurs to me that as despicable as the cabbies behavior is, ethically (and although IANAL either, my guess is legally too) the onus to provide exact payment falls upon the taxi passenger.
Side note: A Yahoo search turned up a number of articles about foreign taxi drivers pulling the “don’t have change” routine (one country, I forget which, was even considering making it illegal to not carry change, punishable by fine and/or imprisonment!)
Generally, the unwritten contract between you and the cab company is that they would provide a serive, ie driving you to a location of your choosing, and you would provide a payment based on a preset distance fee. By getting in the cab and telling the driver where you want to go, you are accepting these terms. There’s nothing in the agreement that requires the cab company to accept amounts larger than their payment and give you money back in return.
However, the passage that lucwarm quoted would change this. In areas where such policies are in effect, the contract between the passenger and the cab company would include these terms.
I’m a part time cab driver. Generally change is no problem but I still get the occasional passenger with a “what, you can’t break a $100?” kind of attitude.
Generally if I am low on change I make a point of mentioning the fact right after the passenger gives me a destination. I’ll give them a fairly accurate estimation of what the fare will be and explain my change situation. If it turns out we need to break a bill I’ll find a place on route.
Tips, and repeat business are a major component of my income, so avoiding disgruntled passengers is an issue of significance to me. In the situation mentioned in the OP, had I not sorted the change situation out before hand, and no other solution was workable, I’d have taken the ten and ate the loss. Assuming of course the passenger wasn’t a major a-hole to me en route.
As far as the legal question in the OP? Not entirely sure. The passenger doors of our vehicles have a sticker explaining that we have no more than $5 in change and the only time I had a related argument go to the “flag down a cop” level the cop sided with me and I got $15 for a four dollar fare.(the passenger had a $20, I had five singles then more twentys, the cop decided I was responcible for the advertised $5 in change and the passenger for the rest)
