Coinstar: Ultra-Convenient or Bait-and-Switch Artist?

Today Consumerist related a tale of woe from Karen, who fell victim to a technical gitch while using a Coinstar machine:

Karen emptied a sock filled with $33.04 in coins down the steel throat of a Coinstar machine. Coinstar allows her to funnel the change into an Amazon gift certificate: this would allow her to convert all of her cash without the usual percentage Coinstar takes from the top.

The only problem? Amazon wasn't picking up. So Coinstar told Karen she had no choice but exchange her Coinstar receipt with a cashier for currency. Except they took out the service fee, even though Karen had agreed only to exchange her coins in relation to a no-fee Amazon transaction.

Consumerist is torn, though -- is losing $2.94 worth getting grumpy about, or is this a petty complaint? Comments seem split on whether she should just suck it up and "consider the 9% fee a laziness tax" or "if a store did this, it would be called bait and switch."

Seattlest thinks calling it "bait and switch" is hyperbolic -- do technical glitches qualify? And we're curious if there are any banks in the Seattle area that count coins for you without charging you extra -- we haven't been to any lately, but then again, we haven't asked.

Ultimately, the volume of our outpouring of sympathy depends on whether Karen was stuck getting a cash voucher and paying the related service fee, or if she had the option of switching her total to a gift card from a different merchant -- or even a charitable donation.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By James in News on September 19, 2006 2:00 PM

Comments [rss]

Dan

Direct to my email inbox:

Dan/Ben:

Regarding your recent Coinstar story on a consumer who attempted to purchase a

gift card through our machine, was not able to complete the transaction, then

was charged a coin counting fee...

"There's a very hazy delineation between the principle of the thing and

pettiness. Reader Karen I's complaint about Coinstar — those wonderful machine

that magically transforms your sweat socks full of spare coins into hard cash —

flosses that line as if it were a thong.

Karen emptied a sock filled with $33.04 in coins down the steel throat of a

Coinstar machine. Coinstar allows her to funnel the change into an Amazon gift

certificate: this would allow her to convert all of her cash without the usual

percentage Coinstar takes from the top...."

Coinstar's policy for this situation is to refund the customer the 8.9% fee they

were charged. Our business was built on customer service and we certainly don't

want to charge a consumer for a service they don't want.

If the consumer who has this problem goes to the store customer service desk,

they contact us and we:

a. verify (electronically) that they did attempt to put their change on a

gift card

b. offer the consumer a refund (some stores will pay the consumer on the

spot, others have us send a check)

The same applies if the consumer contacts us directly through our 1-800-928-CASH

customer service line.

The vast majority of the time our machine is able to complete this type of

transaction with the card partner, however a bad phone link can occasionally

create this problem. We are soon executing a software revision to resolve the

issue.

Ben - we are looking to contact Karen and offer a refund. Do you have an email

contact?

George White

Coinstar PR

Christopher Michael

If their deal with Kroger truely is that they can only exchange it for cash then the machine needs to state that it doesn't allow for Amazon.com certificates. Otherwise thats just plain wrong.

The problem is once you put the money in you can't just take it out.

Jozef

Funny; that's exactly that happened to me yesterday. Only in my case the fee was around $5 (8.9% of over $60). I, too, wanted to get the Amazon certificate, but when the receipt came out it said that I could only exchange it at the store for cash. I was not made aware of this option before I started pouring my coins into the machine.

Upon contacting Coinstar I was told that their deal with Kroger (that's the store chain I used the Coinstar machine in) required them to only allow exchange for cash. I assume they share the fees with Kroger. Unfortunately, the nearest non-Kroger machine is 18 miles away, and that's not worth the $5 each six months or so...

davis freeberg

I can understand why she would be upset to pay the fee when she thought she could just get a gift certificate, but I wonder if she even bothered to contact Coinstar or to try and get the fee back from the store. I'm sure that there is a way that they could have refunded a voucher if it was really that big of a deal. If I was Coinstar I would send her the $2.94 back in pennies, nickels and dimes.