jimther
Elite Member
I had a reason to call Coinstar's Customer Service folks yesterday, after the AMAZON Gift Card Code on the receipt was rejected as invalid when I tried to redeem it at Amazon.com
After we straightened out the problem the guy asks me if there was anything else he could help me with. My reply: "Well, since you asked, I should mention that this was my first time ever using a COINSTAR, and I was pretty disappointed in the total amount on the receipt ($47.52) when I definitely brought in a little over $50 in coins to cash in. Even though a small handful of coins was initially rejected, they were taken by the machine (except for a couple) on the 2nd pass, but my receipt total did not increase. I should have called Customer Service the same day to complain, but I forgot, then I just let it go. Is this a common thing to happen to customers?"
His response floored me. He said that the machines only accept coins dated 1979 or later. When I asked how the machines know which coins are 1979 or later, he said "They can read the date." I pursued that more by saying that my understanding was that reject or accept was based on the coin's metallic composition and not date, and mentioned that U.S. clad coinage began in 1965 and there was no composition change at the 1979 date threshold.
He said that was the information given in his training. I said that I didn't think their machines had the technology that could actually read dates and mentioned the composition reject/accept thing again. He was getting flustered by now and so I just said I would like to make a polite and respectful suggestion that he revisit his training in this regard.
Maybe the guy was correct about date-based rejection, but that has never been my understanding after reading numerous COINSTAR threads here. Am I all wet ?
Jim
After we straightened out the problem the guy asks me if there was anything else he could help me with. My reply: "Well, since you asked, I should mention that this was my first time ever using a COINSTAR, and I was pretty disappointed in the total amount on the receipt ($47.52) when I definitely brought in a little over $50 in coins to cash in. Even though a small handful of coins was initially rejected, they were taken by the machine (except for a couple) on the 2nd pass, but my receipt total did not increase. I should have called Customer Service the same day to complain, but I forgot, then I just let it go. Is this a common thing to happen to customers?"
His response floored me. He said that the machines only accept coins dated 1979 or later. When I asked how the machines know which coins are 1979 or later, he said "They can read the date." I pursued that more by saying that my understanding was that reject or accept was based on the coin's metallic composition and not date, and mentioned that U.S. clad coinage began in 1965 and there was no composition change at the 1979 date threshold.
He said that was the information given in his training. I said that I didn't think their machines had the technology that could actually read dates and mentioned the composition reject/accept thing again. He was getting flustered by now and so I just said I would like to make a polite and respectful suggestion that he revisit his training in this regard.
Maybe the guy was correct about date-based rejection, but that has never been my understanding after reading numerous COINSTAR threads here. Am I all wet ?
Jim
I've seen them open up a machine, and next to the reject tray there is an internal one, where some foreign coins, some silver, and who knows what else go. ScubaDetector had a similar experience and he said he saw them open it once and there were 2 Morgan Dollars in the internal reject tray in this post: 
