Spark again.

[B.M.]

Spark are certainly endearing themselves to their customers.

Next thing they’ll insist on being paid in gold.

HERE

But I always thought you had to accept Legal Tender, it seems not these days.

[wainuitech]

Hmmmmmm Some of the comments under that article are interesting.

Wait for it--- Spark may come back saying it was a human mistake and shouldn't have happened ya de ya de ya

[1101]

"The rules around legal tender are not straightforward, although the Reserve Bank website says that cash cannot be refused in payment of a debt."

could it be argued, that since spark refused a legal tender payment of the debt, its their fault that the bill remained unpaid.
Whats the law when a company refuses to accept payment of a debt, does that make the debt void ?
So if they wont accept cash, simply dont pay .

[wainuitech]

Whats interesting, and its all in the wording, on the comments section of the article someone posted the "Rules"

The rules of legal tender say that cash cannot be refused in payment for a debt. In the case of purchases from a shop, however, no debt is incurred by the customer at the time they offer to pay for goods with cash.

and a comment that is under it ---

Very good point but I fear that Spark will argue that because your bill is paid monthly in advance, you have not yet incurred the debt, so apart from any toll calls, technically they would be able to wiggly their way out of it.

Just another way that Spark are losing customers -- Their new motto -- never stop Starting ? more like never stop losing customers

[dugimodo]

Spark bills are not paid in advance unless you use a pre-pay mobile only. And they could argue that their agent NZ Post accepts cash but the Spark store does not have the facilities to handle it. They are not refusing payment altogether, just at that spark shop. Not that I think it's ok, they should accept cash payments at anything that calls itself any kind of "store" or "shop" and has a physical branch you can walk into.

For the most part much ado about nothing. The world is moving away from cash, resistance is futile. I myself seldom have cash and prefer electronic payments. Places that don't accept cash payments are likely to become more common in future. Why people insist on carrying large amounts of paper currency around mystifies me personally.

[CYaBro]

So are they saying that if I walked into a Spark store and tried to buy a new mobile phone with cash they wouldn't let me?

[paulw]

Don't forget companies get charged by the banks these days to deposit cash so that may be behind it. I've heard of restaurants that won't take cash as well, don't like having large amounts of money hanging around...

[1101]

Whip out the chequebook instead, get some use out of it :-)

[Terry Porritt]

On a slightly different tack, what irritates me are those organisations (like St John frinstance) that make appeals for donations, and when you go to their site to make a payment, find you can only pay by credit card.

Why cant they just put up their bank account details so direct payments can be made ? So much easier for everyone.

[johcar]

Whip out the chequebook instead, get some use out of it :-)

The what-book???