The Bar Towel

When I went today in London to return my case of DFH60 and Post Road Pumpkin Ale at the beer store, I was given the runaround about the deposit...
"The beer store does not give deposit on any bottles that are in fluid ounces / come from the US"...
I told them that I bought these from the LCBO across the street, and paid deposit on it.
They said in a nutshell "too bad...not our policy".

I don't give a damn about the couple of bucks in refund, it is the principle of the matter...why are we paying deposit at the LCBO if we don't get it back?
Did I run into a picky Beer Store, or is this happening anywhere else?
Anyone else run into this?
My gut feeling on this is that the Beer Store hates getting in all these (to them) 'weird' singles, and the easiest response is to tell people "no deposit" so as to deter them from bringing them in, and blue boxing them instead...

Cheers,
Dokta Owange

Never had that problem myself but I've heard of others having trouble

If I was you I would call the store manager or district manager about it. That's unacceptable that you wouldn't get the deposit back. The employee obviously doesn't know anything.

Call, seriously.

P.S. this has happened to me before, out in cottage country. I went today to return some random singles and got all the deposit back. Some stores / employees are probably more informed than others, but there's no allowance for error IMO.

I separate bottles that would/could have been purchased from the Beer Store (and group beer bottles that are from the same brewer/brand), from stuff purchased at the LCBO (whether they are beer bottles, wine bottles, or whatever) to make it clear where they came from, and I tell them the quantities instead of them needing to count them, and I have never gotten any trouble in getting all my deposits back.

They would need to sort them anyways, so if you make life easier for them, they're less likely to try and refuse giving back to you the deposit refund you're entitled to.

DFH60 bottles quote no measurements in ounces, only in ml and the bottles are bilingual...do they think the Americans speak French? (The 6 pack carrier is U.S. and does quote oz. so don't use the carrier when returning as it may confuse some of these grade 3 graduates)

You also might remind them that they sell:

MILLER GENUINE DRAFT
LAKER LAGER
OLD MILWAUKEE

among others, all of which are brewed in the U.S.. Are they not aware that there are several other U.S. beers sold at the LCBO that are not available at BRI and, frankly, what the hell does a clerk handing out refunds care about where the bottle is from as long as it looks like a beer bottle? The LCBO does not come around and inspect each bottle before it coughs up the 10 cents. I would hold up the line and demand that the clerk call the LCBO to confirm that it is a legitimate LCBO brand and that a refund is due...stand there until they bring out the manager...make life miserable for them. If anything, they should have access to a master list of all brands so that they can check themselves. If they don't, who the hell are they to guess as to what is refundable or not?

Not that you should have to, but try saving the LCBO receipt the next time you buy and take it with you.

I would scream bloody murder to someone at BRI as this is outrageous.

If you left the bottles, I bet the employee pocketed your deposit.

They should really pay those clerks a higher salary.

I've never had a problem returning US products that I ve bought at the LCBO. And I have only once had a problem returning stuff that I bought in Buffalo. I was told that the Beer Store pays to have its own stuff returned and anything else is just considered garbage to them. Its a joke that people are getting hassled over stuff like DFH 60 though.

From what I've read here, you're not the only one whose had this problem. Never happened to me though; in fact just the opposite. I tend to go to a busy TBS in Toronto and there always seems to be a lineup of various sorts of people with huge amounts of glassware (as an aside, I imagine the TBS staff are plenty pissed that their cushy positions have morphed into busy recyling-depot gigs). Anyway, perhaps because it's so busy, they've always accepted everything I've brought, including Dieu de Ciel bought in Quebec, various stuff from the US, and all my legit LCBO stuff.

Derek wrote:If you left the bottles, I bet the employee pocketed your deposit.

They should really pay those clerks a higher salary.

Yes they should. The ones that do their job properly that is.

SteelbackGuy wrote:

Derek wrote:If you left the bottles, I bet the employee pocketed your deposit.

They should really pay those clerks a higher salary.

Yes they should. The ones that do their job properly that is.

No, they shouldn't. It's an unskilled position that doesn't deserve exceptional monetary reward.

Kind of like the LCBO. My friend makes 17 bucks an hour, and he's part time. Fucking ridiculous.

DragonOfBlood wrote:

SteelbackGuy wrote:

Derek wrote:If you left the bottles, I bet the employee pocketed your deposit.

They should really pay those clerks a higher salary.

Yes they should. The ones that do their job properly that is.

No, they shouldn't. It's an unskilled position that doesn't deserve exceptional monetary reward.

Kind of like the LCBO. My friend makes 17 bucks an hour, and he's part time. Fucking ridiculous.

17 an hour sounds about right for a current part time employee at the LCBO right now. And there are unskilled people in every field that are making way too much money for what they do. Radio included..........

If you need to return bottles in london again go to the beer store on adelaide north. I just take my recycle bin full of bottles in and they accept them no problem. They have even accepted a bunch of quebec and us bottles not purchased in ontario.

I've never had any problem with any of my returns. In fact, I even return bottles from beer trades, the states, etc, and I always get a refund for those too. The Beer Store on WHarncliffe ROad South in London is good for returns IME.

I ran into a newbie guy at TBS last week. He couldn't quite figure out my odd LCBO beer bottles.

His comment about some of them were "We can take these for recycling but can't give back $$ on these"

I knew he was in the wrong as I've never had an issue at the beer store or any others I go to....and usually have no problem returning non-qualifying beers even.

Anyways....it was a small amount, so for the less than $1 I lost out on I didn't care....it really only return things for the recycling component more than the refund anyways.

This employee was clearly being a dick. Most of them don't look THAT closely at bottles in order to blow you off.

What if you kept handy the LCBO receipt & a web printout showing Ontario policy (the one about ALL LCBO packaging being returnable at TBS?)

If he gave resistance to THAT, demand his name and his supervisor's Tel # to call right there on the spot. Only a dumb-ass employee would not cash your deposit before you made the call.

This is educating the fellow. Plus, you are helping a real dick be a better person!