Upset by electric bill, Va. man pays in pennies

FROM:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1619680

Upset by electric bill, Va. man pays in pennies

March 9, 2009 - 9:54am
By DAVID McGEE
Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - Rather than get upset about his
$350 electric bill, John Almany found a unique way
pay it _ in pennies.

Almany said he and his brother Gary came up with the
idea in January. After finding enough banks to supply
the pennies, Almany delivered more than 29,000 to
Bristol Virginia Utilities.

"I thought I'd make light of the situation," Almany
said. "Everybody gets mad, but there's nothing
anyone can do about it."

Their first challenge, Almany said, was finding that
many pennies.

"I called some nearby banks to see if I could
exchange cash for pennies," Almany said. "We got
all the way to the w's in the phone book. One bank
gave me $170 in pennies and the other $123."

After trading in the cash, Almany and his brother
spent about an hour removing the coins from the
50-cent rolls and dumping them into two large,
black duffle bags.

That many pennies weighs about 170 pounds, so the
two men worked to carry the duffle bags into BVU's
Lee Highway office.

"We pulled into BVU about 2 (p.m.) and took the
bags of unrolled pennies to the pay counter,"
Almany said. "To make my case better, I noticed
a man just paid cash right before me. I laid my
bill on the counter and told the lady, 'Here is
my bill and I'm here to pay every penny of it.'"

After about 20 seconds of silence, Almany then
explained what that meant.

"She seemed shocked and told me, 'We can't take
that.' She said we'd have to wrap that up and
repeated they couldn't accept it. I asked her
if she was refusing my payment and she said
she wasn't," Almany said. "They said they didn't
have the manpower to count all those pennies
and I said as much as BVU is billing its customers,
they ought to have all the manpower they need."

Brian Bolling, BVU's vice president of customer
service, declined to respond to questions about
Almany and his payment.

In an e-mail, Bolling wrote that BVU has enacted
a payment policy.

"With respect to coins used for said payment, the
following restrictions are imposed to prevent
overburdening of the cashier operations of BVU
due to time and weight issues, which restrictions
are reasonable and do not constitute a refusal
to accept coins as legal tender," Bolling wrote.

The policy includes acceptance of no more than
$10 in unrolled coins, while rolled coins "of
any denomination up to 20 rolls will be accepted
for each dollar of any one payment to BVU."
There are no limitations on paper money.

Almany said BVU employees held a prolonged
discussion with supervisors before eventually
accepting his coins. They then spent about two
hours counting just $26.

"They brought the rest back up because they
were getting ready to close," Almany said.
"The lady told me to come back Monday and they
would count the rest."

With his point made, Almany said he took the
rest of the pennies to a coin machine, and paid
the balance of his bill in larger forms of cash
a few days later.

Was it worth the trouble?

"It was worth every penny," Almany said.

...

Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
FROM:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1619680

Upset by electric bill, Va. man pays in pennies

March 9, 2009 - 9:54am
By DAVID McGEE
Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - Rather than get upset about his
$350 electric bill, John Almany found a unique way
pay it _ in pennies.

Almany said he and his brother Gary came up with the
idea in January. After finding enough banks to supply
the pennies, Almany delivered more than 29,000 to
Bristol Virginia Utilities.

"I thought I'd make light of the situation," Almany
said. "Everybody gets mad, but there's nothing
anyone can do about it."

This is not "making light," this is just plain pathology. Pity the poor,
underpaid and overworked clerk behind the counter who had the bad luck to
the first to have to deal with this clown.

James

"Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote in message
...
Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
FROM:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1619680

Upset by electric bill, Va. man pays in pennies

March 9, 2009 - 9:54am
By DAVID McGEE
Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - Rather than get upset about his
$350 electric bill, John Almany found a unique way
pay it _ in pennies.

Almany said he and his brother Gary came up with the
idea in January. After finding enough banks to supply
the pennies, Almany delivered more than 29,000 to
Bristol Virginia Utilities.

"I thought I'd make light of the situation," Almany
said. "Everybody gets mad, but there's nothing
anyone can do about it."

This is not "making light," this is just plain pathology. Pity the poor,
underpaid and overworked clerk behind the counter who had the bad luck to
the first to have to deal with this clown.

James

Yes, thats the problem with "sticking it to the man"; its some poor stiff
that gets the shaft.

And BTW, you are only required to accept up to $25 in coins in payment of a
debt.


--
*
/?\
/___\
-O=O-
^
AS & His Magic Hat

A conclusion is simply the place
where you decided to stop thinking.

"Arizona Coin Collector" wrote in message
m...
FROM:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1619680

Upset by electric bill, Va. man pays in pennies

March 9, 2009 - 9:54am
By DAVID McGEE
Bristol Herald Courier

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - Rather than get upset about his
$350 electric bill, John Almany found a unique way
pay it _ in pennies.

A first class immature jerk.
Bob-tx