Yes, fans of GNWCoffee Co. I know that Tim Horton's is evil, but I went there for lunch today, because I had some coupons.
Did you know that they currently do not accept debit cards at Tim's (Thunder Bay?)? You have to use something called "cash" (the mark of the Beast, I suspect).
They should have a big sign as you enter saying "Tim Horton's is now happy to reject Interac!" If it is a national thing, they should have an ad in which a dumb, white male with a giant spoon tries to use his Interac and is cut down by a sassy female sales clerk (who enjoys her work).
Now, the cashier (a manager?) did let me underpay by a dollar or so. He told me that Tim's was "testing" this. Well, I think they fail the test!
This is dumb!
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17 comments:
Using cash is dumb? I think things move quite quickly at Tim Horton's without interac, for which I an forever grateful, unlike other coffee shops in this city. In my travels across Canada, with the exception of a test program in North Battleford Saskatchewan, none of the Tim Horton's accept interac. As well, Tim Horton's sponsors a number of camps for kids, so I hardly think they qualify as 'evil'. Maybe the GNW coffee company should have had a better business strategy in place.
Yay, lots of "quality" blogging from Richard lately!
Yes, I've been bit by stupid Tim's before too. Must be nearly two years now since I was on a DSL run in the phone truck, about to head way up Lakeshore Drive around supper time, so I thought I'd grab something at Tim's on Hodder (it's kind of like a last outpost).
I went in and made my order, and tried to pay by debit (which was all I had), and the lady told me they didn't accept it - cash only for my convenience. As I glanced around the nearly empty shop, I asked how this was convenient. She told me that it was to keep the line-ups moving quicker.
I ended up going to the small grocery store across the street and getting a box of animal crackers.
Well, that is, unless the camps they sponsor are evil.
But seriously -- I hardly ever go to Tim's, especially since I've started using debit more frequently. Has Tim's not been using debit for a long time (forever?)?
For good or for ill I think the balance has tipped in favour of it not being an unreasonable assumption that major franchised businesses accept Interac. I know that there is no sign on the door saying they do, but I wonder if things are at a stage now where they'd be smart to say they *don't*. Are cases like mine so rare? The line wasn't held up significantly because the cashier made the decision quickly to absorb the underpayment. What if he hadn't?
---------
Note I am not really losing a lot of sleep over this. This is more of a tongue in cheek response to Shroom's admonition to blog more.
I think there are signs saying they don't accept interac - or at least there used to be. That I remember for certain. Robin, I agree that it seems stupid not to accept interac when there is no line-up, but if you ever been to a really busy Tim Horton's at a ruch hour time of day - say West Portage Avenue in Winnipeg @ 8:00 in the morning and the line is 20 people out the door, interac would probably make business difficult, if not impossible. So, to be consistent, they probably instituted a company wide policy to not use interac.
Ok, basically I'm totally annoyed with Tim's for this same reason. They've got us all addicted to their coffee and then refuse to accept interac. They tell us it is "to serve us better"....
Whatever!
It's about $$
By attempting to apply Robin's way of calculating the amount of gas stations we have in Canada, I have attempted to calculate how much money Tim's saves per year by NOT accepting interac:
@ $50/Interac terminal per month
approx 3 terminals needed/Tim's (with drive thru)
approx 10 Tim's/ city size of TBay
let's say TBay has 100,000 people to keep #s round
This is $1500/month saved for every 100,000
Or $18,000/year for every 100,000
Let's say that Canada has a pop. of 30,000,000 (to keep this easier for me)
Tim Horton's saves $5,400,000 per year by NOT accepting Interac.
It's about money. Not customer service.
It was like that in calgary at a few of the timmy's when we were there last, probably the busiest ones. it was horribly annoying at the time as we are the kind of people who never had cash and only used debit. It is funny now us living in a country that has no interact. helps keep the math skills going and the language learning for us:)
Being a neo-luddite of sorts (who is using a computer - how strange) I prefer to use cash whenever possible. To quote Gandhi, 'There is more to life than increasing it's speed.' It is true however, the crack they sell at Tim's - I mean coffee - is addictive indeed.
I'm not a coffee drinker, but I'm a proponent of a cashless society. (No, I'm not, but I usually use a card of some sort.)
My two cents...
1 cent: Most major (and most minor) businesses these days accept interac. It's not unreasonable to assume that a big place like Tim's would too. (I wonder if Wendy's--Tim's parent company--accepts interac.)
2 cent: To respond to Tom's Portage Ave 20 people out the door lineup reasoning (and I've seen that kind of thing downtown in Ottawa all the time too.) The problem in these cases is that the location just can't handle the volume of customers even without interac. That should be addressed, not given as a reason to not accept debit cards.
PS: Rich, you should keep blogging more. This is fun.
I was wondering if Black Mamba would like to go for coffee sometime. Maybe we could meet at Tim Horton's?
teehee
I guess Tim's business plan is working and they feel they have enough customer loyalty to continue this way, despite annoyance to Robin, Black Mamba, me and the few we represent.
As well, I suppose they believe that this policy is becoming well enough known with or without signs.
In fact, I've just done my tiny part to spread the news on their behalf.
I am dumb.
I am evil, too.
(I don't even know how to give good gifts to my children; so I am worse than evil. Luke 11:13)
I don't know if anyone will read this since reppepper has already posted a new one, but Wendy's not only accepts interac, but was one of the first fast food places in town to do so.
Wendy's (in Thunder Bay) started accepting interac in 1997. I only know this bit of trivia because I worked there then.
Rich.
it is time you came to calgary then. Almost every Tim's has interac. Plus you need to see the mountains again, it has been way too long for you. Always a place for you to stay.
Just to add an "american" spin...I know that if any business down here didn't accept plastic in one form or another, there would be riots!!! Actually, there was a chain down south called Chic Fil-a They were sooo good. A christian run organization (they were closed on Sundays purposely) and they took cash only. Not even cheques. It was annoying when you wanted to run there for food and realized you had no cash and couldn't go there. But I think as we were moving they were accepting ATM cards. I find keeping cash on me leads to me spending the money. If I have plastic, I tend to stick to our budget more.
I like you blogging more too Richard :-)
I think Canada should inniate "National go to Tim Horton's and try to buy $20 worth of food on your Interac Day"
The ONLY reason Tim Hortons doesn't accept debit cards is because of the huge overhead cost for them. If you notice a lot of small shops have signs which say "minimum $5 purchase on debit"... because it costs them to much to accept small payments with it. And when you think of it, most of Tim Hortons purchases are below the $5 mark. They are not disallowing debit "for your convenience", they do it because they make more money using cash only. Does anybody really believe that cash is any faster than debit anyway? While it is true some businesses still use the slow debit machines, most places have new ones which connect and complete the transaction almost as soon as you have finished typing in your pin number. I tend to think that cash-only actually SLOWS the line-up! People digging for coins, cashiers having to count it, etc... Don't bother argueing this point because you know I'm right.
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