'This bank is no longer customer service oriented': Restaurant manager closes account after banker refuses to give him change for the workplace

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 23, 2023 11:00 AM EST

This bank is not banking. You'd think the one thing banks would know how to do is to hold and distribute money, but you'd be mistaken. 

If you've ever worked in retail or food service, then you probably know that needing more change for your cash register till is an ongoing thing. Especially on the busiest days, cashiers need refills on their quarters and dimes fairly often in order to avoid giving customers like $.65 in pennies and nickels. Even in a world where lots of people pay for almost everything with a tap of their phone or a swipe of their credit card, some folks still use cash. 

These days, cash is so outdated that a lot of retailers have started rejecting it. They'll only accept digital payments, which is just plain weird. However, one time I got a free burger this way. I ordered a whole meal and didn't realize that it was a cash-free place. I was mortified as I told the cashier that I actually didn't have a card that day, and only had cash. They just comped my order and I walked away with a free lunch. They literally turned away my physical paper money! It was so strange. 

I imagine that happens all the time at cash-free places, and they don't want customers making a scene, so they just give them the food. I'd never tell you to go to a cash-free place without a card and hope for this scenario in order to rally against an unfair business practice. I'm just saying it happened once, and it could happen again. 

Anyway, check out this story of a nurse tech who called the police on his hospital employer after they wouldn't help him catch a lunch thief. 

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  • 01
    Bank won't make change, I close my account instead M OC This happened a few years ago, I was working at a large national chain restaurant as a Manager. I was asked to temporarily re-assign to a location in a city about an hour away, and accepted...they put me up in a hotel, the whole 9 yards.
    via u/captainp42
  • 02
    The first weekend I was there, I discovered that the GM had screwed up and not ordered any change (small bills/rolls of coins) for the safe, and that the local branch of our bank would be closing in the next hour. I also happened to have a personal account at the same bank, and had, in the past, gone and gotten change from the branch back home.
    via u/captainp42
  • 03
    Since time was tight, I quickly looked up the address of the bank, grabbed $800 dollars, and jumped in my car. I get to the bank, wait in line, and then ask them to make change ($400 in $5 bills, $300 in $1 bills, and $100 in assorted rolled coins). The teller tells me that the bank doesn't make change. Me, thinking it was because they didn't know me,
    via u/captainp42
  • 04
    informed her that our restaurant had an account she could look up. She then told me,"No, we don't make change at all." The thought going through my brain was, ? You are a BANK!!!" I tried explaining the situation, but was quickly shot down. I left, went back to my car, then had an idea.
    via u/captainp42
  • 05
    I went back inside the bank with my personal checkbook. Got to the front of the line, and (luckily) the same teller. Before she could even greet me, I told held out my checkbook and told her, "I would like to close this account, since this bank is no longer customer service oriented". She kind of rolled her eyes, but went about my request. Then she
    via u/captainp42
  • 06
    asked how I wanted my cash back (an automatic response, I'm sure, and one I was counting on). I said, "$400 in $5's, $300 in $1's, $70 in rolled quarters, $25 in rolled dimes, $4 in rolled nickels, and $1 in rolled pennies. The rest can be on a cashier's check." No reason for her to deny it, so I got my change.
    via u/captainp42
  • 07
    And the following Monday, I returned, closed out the other 2 accounts I had there, and I opened accounts at a different bank where I have been banking ever since.
    via u/captainp42
  • 08
    EDIT: So, wow, never saw this exploding this much....I have only read a few comments and won't be back online until tomorrow to read the rest, but let me clarify something from the comments I did read... I did not open or close any accounts for the business. I closed my personal account and took the payout in small change to help the restaurant, then kept the larger bills for myself. In essence, I made myself into
    via u/captainp42
  • 09
    the bank...I made change for the restaurant. On Monday, I closed all of my personal accounts with this bank, and opened new accounts at a different bank, and deposited the $800 in large bills along with the money from my accounts. Also: this was 15 years ago, so banking at the time was not all done on a Smartphone, and none of my bills were autopay, I still wrote checks.
    via u/captainp42
  • 10
    AlwaysHopelesslyLost I switched to my current bank 14 years ago when my old one refused to make change. A friend needed change and we went to my bank. The teller refused since he didn't have an account. I told her I had an account and she said it was his money so no.
    via u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost
  • 11
    I asked him to borrow money, he handed it to me, and I said it was my money now and she said no because I was just going to give it back to him. We needed change pretty urgently and he said "fine, I will open an account." And she shot him down saying he would close it immediately and she wasn't stupid. So I closed my account and went to the bank in the next town and have been with them ever since.
    via u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost
  • 12
    [deleted] Very clever and well deserved.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    mendokusai99 I had a bit of the opposite problem. Went to the US and had to get about 1'600 USD. Visited three different ATMs because of the limits but ended up with a I of 20s. At the last bank, I asked that they give me bills of 100 in exchange and they refused. Had to get a manager involved and explain that I got all the money from their machine and how unsafe it was to walk around Chicago in my current state. Thankfully, he agreed. AA
    via u/mendokusai99
  • 14
    CheeseandOnions Very similar story: A guy goes into a bank and needs to talk to the bank manager for a specific transaction. The bank manager isn't there so the guy asks a teller to validate his parking. The teller tells him that she cannot validate his parking because he didn't make a transaction. he goes to the bank across the street and opened up an account. Then
    via u/CheeseandOnions
  • 15
    he goes back into the original Bank and ask for his entire account of millions of dollars to be transferred into the new bank and to shut down his old account. After losing all that money the teller validated his parking.
    via u/CheeseandOnions
  • 16
    MrMandor Almost all banks in Sweden are now "Cash free" and proud of it. They simply don't handle cash at all. Only transfers and cards. :( Was a real hassle when the bank accidentaly blocked all my cards from that bank, and it took 5 days to reactivate them.
    via u/MrMandor

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bank boss cash work stories job restaurant coins workplace restaurants change money banking malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit malicious compliance reddit
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