NOTE AMUSED
Supermarket bosses apologise for telling customer they don’t have to accept Scottish cash
BY MICHAEL PRINGLE reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk SUPERMARKET chiefs have apologised after a customer was told that their stores do not have to accept Scottish bank notes.
Morrisons also claimed in an email to Jim McInally that their Scottish shops do not have to accept English currency.
However, last night the company backtracked on the comments from their customer services department and insisted there had been a mix-up.
Jim, 53, from Uddingston, Lanarkshire, was stunned to discover self-service checkouts in a Morrisons store in Bradford wouldn’t accept his Scots notes.
But he was more shocked with the initial reply to his complaint. Jim explained: “I’ve been to that supermarket several times before but this time the machine wouldn’t accept my money. I tried £5, £10 and £20 notes but it wouldn’t take any of them.
“I spoke with a sales assistant, who told me they wouldn’t take it at the manned checkout either. I ended up having to use chip and pin.”
The IT salesman contacted Morrisons’ customer services and their response only served to confuse matters.
Morrisons insisted that “unfortunately, it is no longer a requirement to accept Scottish or Northern Irish notes” but that “some of our stores still take them”.
The email added: “This would be the same in Scotland. They may take English notes but are under no obligation to. I, however, understand how this may be frustrating at the time.”
Jim said: “I thought they may have said it was a mistake of some sort but someone must have set the self-service checkouts to not accept Scottish notes.
“I tried to engage with them on Twitter too but their response was poor.”
A spokesman for Morrisons, who have about 60 stores in Scotland, denied they had changed their policy on the notes.
They said: “Our English stores should accept Scottish bank notes at their main bank checkouts and we apologise. This was a mistake.”