Sandpiper stops accepting cheques
Thursday 30th December 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
Liz Chamberlain, left, who was shopping a with grandchildren Harry and Emily and her mother, Joan Provost, at Checkers yesterday. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 1072935)
CHEQUES will no longer be accepted in any Sandpiper business from the new year.
Area manager for Guernsey Kenny McDonald said it was a sign of the times.
‘Our customers have been telling us for a number of years that their preferred payment is card or cash. Cheques just don’t appear on the scale any more,’ he said.
And while islanders said that would not cause problems, the phasing out of cheques in general would.
* The Sandpiper businesses where cheques will not be accepted are Checkers at Admiral Park, Safeway, Checkers Xpress stores and forecourts, Wine Warehouse and Iceland.
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Seems like a sensible decision to me.
Cheques are also due to be phased out totally in 2018, so why not do it now? Besides, most retail outlets won’t accept them without a guarantee card anyway, which is usually a payment card.
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Paul Le Page
My Grandpa pays his monthly milk bill by cheque. Are you suggesting that he leaves cash in an envelope in his communal hallway to get stolen .. is that what you want?
He just about manages on his pension what with the high rents and heating bills, and having to pay his milk bill twice would put him in debt .. is that what you want?
He is a proud man who has never been in debt in four score years.To be placed in debt at his age would be a catastrophe. He would have visions of having to go to the debtors prison .. is that what you want?
Given the choice of debtors prison or cancelling his milk I’m sure he would cancel his milk but his doctor has warned him that he needs at least a half litre of blue milk daily otherwise he would contract rickets .. is that what you want?
He has been a quite healthy man all his life and the thought of having to go to hospital with rickets,or the shame of the debtors prison would probably kill him .. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT ?
Keep cheques until 2018 and beyond .. that’s what I want
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Ray = Troll
:)
‘Fraid your grandad will have to move with the times. My parents too have a milk bill, they currently post cheques to him. Either the milk man will have to call round and pick up the cash or supply an invoice to make a payment from the bank.
Not impossible, am sure people will not be spiraling into debt due to unpaid milk bills….
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You could always help him out Ray….isn’t that what families do?
Tell you what though, come 2018 if you can’t be bothered to help him, if your Grandpa can’t find a way to get around the dilemma and is at risk of an appearance in Petty Debts or a bout of rickets get in touch.
If I’m still around I’ll arrange to pay his bill via internet banking and he can pay me back in cash. If that’s the price of progress I’ll pay it! :-)
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Paul Le Page
I’ve tried to help over the years but he lives in Bolivia which makes it very difficult.
I think his heart was broken when the girl Doodah from the Dos D’Ane went off to live with a German just after the war. He settled in Guernsey for a while and married my Gran but it didn’t last.He just suddenly upped sticks and went off to sea leaving her with two young children,one of them being my Mum
His monthly milk bill comes to about 15 British Pounds or 167.652 Bolivianos.There’s no way I can send a British bank cheque,or moneygram or whatever they are these days for that small amount,and there’s no way that he would accept it as a monthly gift.
He would no doubt post me a Bolivian cheque in the correct amount which of course defeats the whole object.He may just as well write the 167.652 Boliviano cheque direct to the milkman as he is currently happy to do
Some tossers in the ivory towers of the banking world look no further than how they can make another .0007% profit and forget that the little man relies very heavily on the cheque which has worked very well in most cases for decades
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I see your predicament Ray!
Fortunately for you good sir I hear that cheques will only be phased out if “easy-to-use efficient alternatives” are found.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8414341.stm
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Yes I write out a few cheques every year, mostly for the States of Guernsey (RV tax etc) as they don’t accept my Credit/Debit card for online payments!
Also how would I pay people who don’t have a credit card machine like the shops?
Sounds like digital radio, a no goer for years to come!
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I hate cheques. It is so much easier to pay with debit card or Visa/ MC. The other method I use is direct payment from my account for monthly bills.
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Ray
So your Grandpa is part of the exodus thats good to hear,maybe you should take his lead instead of being stuck in a time zone
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The cheque system isn’t broken, so why try to fix it?
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Ray? Bolivia? That’s the best one I’ve heard for years!!!
Do they have Petty Debts courts in Bolivia, or do they just send around the Junta to shoot people in the knees like the good old days? Sorry, Junta – that’s in Argentina isn’t it.
Perhaps your Gramps could go down the shops to buy his milk when he gets his shopping?
Ray, you seem to be very worried and excitable by the whole “stopping the cheques” thing. Blimey – hope nothing really interesting happens in Guernsey over the next few weeks otherwise we will have to get oxygen delivered for you. (please leave the money underneath the plantpot by the front door, OK?)
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sarnia expat
I agree that Bolivia does seem to be a strange place for a Guernseyman to end up
Despite abandoning my Nan in 1948/49 he kept in touch with his own side of the family ,the Parkers from Perelle. Apparently he sailed the world for the next twenty years before settling for a while in Utah,USA.
That was where he got a fixation on the life of Robert LeRoy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy
He made his way to San Vincente ( population 800)in Bolivia where Robert Parker was supposed to have died and because the place reminded him of the smallness and close community of Sark he remained there ever since
There are no shops as we know them in San Vincente. Milk is distributed by a local farmer from a handcart,strangely enough in red,blue or green bottles.Bread is mostly home made and everything else is bussed in once a week and sold in the village square
Although I’ve never met him I’ve made several attempts to get Grandpa Parker to return to Guernsey but I think he still carries some guilt about abandoning Nan Parker,who never remarried
He seems to be quite content to end his days in San Vincente but I do worry that ending the cheques system could bring forward his own demise
Pass the sick bag,sorry …. oxygen bottle!
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I had a letter from my bank today advising that the facility to guarantee cheques with a plastic card is being phased out at the end of June 2011.
Surely this is another nail in the coffin for cheques? I can’t imagine many “cash and carry” retailers taking the risk of a non-guaranteed cheque.
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The best thing about this story is that Sandpiper have refused to upgrade their chip and pin system so that if your card is Lloyds Tsb then they cannot process your payment anyway! I guess if they won’t take my cheques either then I will be forced to shop elsewhere.
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I feel strongly about this – on eht eone side, many people do have cheque books and many people buy milk with them – but then i think realistically how some people should buy their milk a different way maybe – the elderly like to go out and buy their milk at a corner shop. maybe old folks won’t notice the change if their family takes care of these delicate matters for them. i mean i can’t read some of the scribbly words they write at the best of times. maybe the milk man is stealing from them. ive had that before – they took a nice gnome i had.
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I have no objection to using my card for purchases made from Sandpiper outlets and, have done so for years,however, to my mind they have been a little “previous”. Maybe they should have waited until new card payment systems are put in place – some of which currently are so old and worn that card numbers are not recognised, twice in the last month I have been told “it doesn’t like certain numbers, you have to press really hard”. Then, to get a regect, when you know there are more than sufficient funds is frankly ridiculous.
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Beware of using credit cards in shops,there is a lot of card fraud with assistants cloning cards,I think this is happening locally too!
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Ray
If your grandpa lives in Bolivia, then why is he concerned about sandpipers policy on cheques??
Do they have many Checkers in La Paz??
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Ormerman
Grandpa Parker’s concern is that cheques may be phased out completely within a few years,with no adequate replacement
I can understand his inquietude because I also have to pay perhaps four or five bills every month or so.Some traders will accept a card payment over the phone, others do not have that facility,which means I either have to add to the traffic congestion by visiting their premises with cash ( not wise what with gnome thieves at large) or employ the very civilized long standing system ( which ain’t broke ) of posting a cheque,thereby supporting the local Post office
This is nothing more than yet another money grabbing/penny pinching/profit before service exercise dreamed up by the leeches who have somehow managed to find themselves in charge of the shambolic banking system orchestrated by that useless prudent prat Gordon Brown
Where’s my oxygen!
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Good God RAY ~ your rants have to be the most unimportant, pointless waste on internet space!
You made out like your “pops” was living in gsy, now Bolivia, the whole story of your family history, get a grip man and do all of us a favour and tell someone in your nursing home your boring stories about your gran getting dumped and someone running off with a Germain! do we care…..is that what you want?!
and as for the milk bill…….go to the shop or is that too hard for your dear old pops?!
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@Ray
Yes I want all those things :0)
You are so dull…zzzzzzzzzzz
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Vee and Dave
Sorry.It’s been a bit of a slow week at the office
I was saving the best part for last but it seems you might not want to hear about my great great Gramps, Ebeneezer Le Page
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@D_T
Strange @ Sandpipers yours not accepted but mine are?
Either they are out of date, exceeded credit limit or you using the wrong pin no
Phhttt!
Try again, get in touch with your Credit Card companie/s for help
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Ray,
Is it true your grandpa is playing football to a high standard in Bolivia?
Would he consider playing for their national team>
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John
Thanks for asking about my grandpa but I really must kill him off now.Actually he was more into ice hockey. One time he …. No I really must stop this RIGHT NOW
THE END
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@soph and D_T
Checkers have chip&pin, but it never seems to be working, so my card is swiped. A swiped card at a chip&pin enabled retailer is apparently automatically regarded as suspicious – so every time I shop there my card either gets refused, blocked or both …..
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HA HA HA Ray, u really know how to wind others up with ur amazing fiction skills! I’m dyin of laughter here. :-D:-D:-D
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