So the vending machine tore my $5 in pieces. What now?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, if you have clearly more than one-half of the current bill remaining, you should be able to take it to your bank and exchange it. But if for some reason your bank will not take it, you can submit it to Bureau of Engraving and Printing Office of Currency Standards. Question asked on http://www.moneyfactory.gov/faqlibrary.html I have some currency that was damaged. My bank will not exchange it for undamaged currency. What can I do? The Bureau of Engraving and   Printing's Office of Currency Standards processes all requests for   reimbursement for damaged United States currency. They decide the   redemption value of torn or otherwise unfit currency by measuring the   portions of the notes submitted. Generally, they reimburse the full   face value if clearly more than one-half of the original note remains.   Currency fragments measuring less than one-half are not redeemable. Go   to the Damaged Money section of our website for additional information   and the procedures to redeem mutilated currency. However take notice of this: Any badly soiled, dirty, defaced, disintegrated, limp, torn, worn, out   currency note that is CLEARLY MORE than one-half of the original note,   and does not require special examination to determine its value. These   notes should be exchanged through your local bank. There is usually contact information for the owner of the machine printed somewhere on it. Call that number. If it is in a business you could always try the clerk.  Whether you get your money back is up to that person, I suppose.
"Hypothetically, yes! From the U.S. BEP's guidelines on Damaged Currency: Under regulations issued by the Department of the Treasury, mutilated   United States currency may be exchanged at face value if: ""50% or less"" includes ""0%"". However, it is probably going to be very difficult to prove that the currency existed, had a specific face value, and was completely destroyed (instead of being replaced with a decoy at the last minute.)" "My guess would be that they sell your debt to a collection agency and don't really bother with pressing charges for 500 dollars.  A collection agency can do multiple things to hold you accountable for your debt. I hate to bring it to you but it only makes sense that you should try to resolve this debt given that ""not being careful enough"" is not facebook's responsibility. I also assume they won't let you run any further ads on the same credit card. Edit: What you could possibly do is call facebook and be honest with them, tell them it was an accident and that you can't pay the current amount. Maybe they'll waive the debt or give you a settlement offer." Typical consumerist bullshit.  Post some chat transcript with some flunky as proof of how evil corporation is.  Yes, I'm sure Comcast won't sell you the box.  But consumerist should be seeking interviews from upper management about this issue.  Flunky order-taker is probably just not in the mood to deal with some asshole who wants to buy a box.    Next week Consumerist is going to post about how Burger King will not make a Big Mac, and present video of someone placing the order at a drive-through as proof of how horrible Burger King is if the gold is damaged it has to get melted first to measure the gold content. after this process you will get your money The issue yo have to consider is that under many state laws, you must give a merchant three opportunities to correct an issue before you can sue them, so check with your state before considering that option. Here's a link to the Federal Trade Commission's warranty information page, which may give you some ideas about what your options are. Keep in ind, if you let someone else work on the computer rather than the store you bought it from, you might give the guy a valid claim in court to throw out your lawsuit!  Many times, warranties will spell out the conditions under which repair work can or must be done, so make sure you follow every step to the letter in order to preserve your claim. I would strongly suggest that you start creating a paper trail for your claim.  Start by writing a very precise and detailed letter to the store owner, with copies of all relevant documents (your receipts, warranty papers, etc.) included.  Explain the entire history, including what steps you've taken to date to get him to honor the warranty.  Offer him the option to let you take the computer to another shop for repairs at his expense.  Then, send the letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the store owner so that he can't deny receiving your letter.  This is all in order to make the best case you can for your claim just in case you do have to sue him. Do not take the computer to anyone else until or unless he tells you in writing that he is willing to let you do that.  You don't want to risk him arguing that the other shop is responsible for the problems now. I hope this helps. Good luck! "&gt;Title leads one to believe that one complaint call cost a company four million bucks.  Actually the title is ambiguous; it merely implies that the complain call was *worth* $4 million.  You chose to *infer* that the end result was a ""cost"" rather than a ""gain""." Have you tried your local panhandler? She/He will probably accept 50€ in small change. I recently drove past Winslow, Arizona and knocked out the fuel pump in my truck. It cost $500 to repair, and the tow would have been another several hundred if I hadn't had a Good Samaritan's club card, since it was the weekend. 2-3 days would not be acceptable in this sort of scenario. And that was just the fuel pump! "The service processors are providing is absorbing the risk.  The flow goes, roughly (and I say roughly because it's a complicated process):  1. You swipe/insert your card at Bob's House of Eatery and get charged $10 for a bucket of ramen or something. 2. The device you swipe your card in, (""a terminal"") encodes the card number, amount, and some other transaction details and contacts a ""Payment Gateway"".   3. The gateway decodes the blob of data, and is responsible for determining the issuing financial institution (""Chase"", ""US Bank"", etc.). 4. The gateway contacts the above and asks, ""Can card # 555.. charge $10?"" 5. The gateway also sends this answer to the processor.   5. The processor _immediately_ proxies that yes/no back to the merchant's terminal. 6. The processor, having a transaction ID, and a yes/no, sends the response to the merchant's systems so your receipt can be printed or order processed, and so on.   7. Meanwhile, the processor has a transaction ID and is busy figuring out things like interchange fees.  The amount depends on a whole host of things, and almost everyone involved in the process wants their cut -- the bank, the gateway, the processor, and it all depends on the type of card, customer, rewards, and so on.   8. At the end of the day, week, whatever, the processor collects money from the issuing financial institution and is responsible for giving the right amount -- less fees -- to the merchant.    The processor here also absorbs the risk and costs for things like chargebacks, as almost everyone in that chain (gateway, issuing bank) want their pound of flesh for a chargeback, and often the processor doesn't pass that full cost on to the merchant and instead does some risk analysis to determine if they think this merchant is going to be okay to do business with.    That's what you're paying for." Also see who has the authority to delete bills or items on bills. This was a huge scam with some servers I've worked with. If you can delete an entire bill that was paid in cash then that's money in your pocket. Wait I'm confused maybe you can explain  I'm in the federal reserve and I buy a hundred pounds of coin material for 180 dollars. I put that material into a magic penny machine and get a hundred pounds of pennies. My hundred pounds of pennies will now have a value of 100 dollars.    I had a hundred pounds of mass worth $180 and now have a hundred pounds of mass worth $100.  Where did the 80 dollars go? "That was a little longer than five minutes, more like twenty. Fire isn't really a ""product"". Wireless capabilities - be more specific.   Theft implies that you didn't implicit mean for it to be taken. The fact that you live here, and are a citizen relays *implicit* concession to *give* that money to the government.   So, let's hear it - what is this ""better way to collect revenue""?" Just wanted to chip in on the card reader thing.  If they threaten to call the cops, call their bluff; worst case you'll spend the time waiting for a copy to show up that would've been wasted driving around looking for an ATM.  Also, make sure you call the company after the fact and let them know about it (as well as identifying details about when and what cab # you were in) -- some companies don't care but the ones I've had to call about generally take that seriously (i.e. management calling me back later to get as much identifying info as possible to find the drivers responsible). "Do you know anyone in the US, still?  If so, ask them to close it for you.  $2.38 is well within the ""if anybody I knew asked me to I would"" range, and probably is for anyone you know well.  Offer to send them money via a wire transfer (or Western Union or whatever), but odds are if it's a friend or coworker they won't care about $2." Generally speaking no person or program is really going to be able to help you lower your current tax burden, most tax decisions are done well before you reach the tax time. You either qualify for the deduction/credit or your don't. Where a good accountant will really be able to help you out is in planning that will limit your future tax burden. Particularly if you run a small business or are very wealthy you will probably want to consider using an accountant. I would always avoid the large scale tax prep places like HR Block they provide the same or lower quality service for a higher price than the software. I run a small business and do my own taxes using turbo tax, but my business isn't overly complex Sole prop, no employees, couple 1099's simple expenses (nothing to amortize) etc.