The sub-heading clarifies this slightly, pointing out that this is not a general ban but only 'barmy Eurostar bosses' who have, apparently, 'banned' sterling as it is 'not good enough'.
The Express 'exclusive' by Alison Little says:
Outrage erupted yesterday after Eurostar stopped passengers from using British cash to buy snacks on board its trains.
The crazy ban was part of a controversial plan to ditch the pound on the company’s cross-Channel services and force passengers to pay in euros instead.
There then follows predictable 'fury' quotes from usual suspects Gerard Batten and Philip Davies.
Did this outrage really 'erupt yesterday'? According to the story, the Express was contacted by a reader who discovered last Sunday that Eurostar were doing a seven-day trial during which they were not accepting cash payments in sterling in their buffet bar (debit card payments were still accepted). One other passenger left a critical message on the Eurostar's Facebook page on 29 August.
As ever, you need to skip to the end of the article for the full story. Here's the Eurostar spokesman:
“Like all businesses we continually monitor the range of products and services we offer to our customers and from time to time we trial new initiatives in order to better understand their views.
“Over recent years we have seen a decline in the number of cash-based sterling transactions as more customers choose to pay using debit cards.
“This prompted us to run a brief trial on board to gauge customers’ views about the possible withdrawal of this payment method at our buffets.
“Having listened carefully to the feedback from our customers it is clear that for many this is their preferred payment method and as a result we have decided to continue accepting cash-based sterling payments on board all our trains.”
So a week-long trial, during which people could still pay for snacks with their debit card, comes to an end and Eurostar decides to continue accepting 'cash-based sterling payments' anyway.
Or as the Express puts it: 'Sterling is not good enough say barmy Eurostar bosses.'
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Buyer picks up paper.
ReplyDeleteReads title, reads sub-header.
Doesn't bother reading entire article, certainly not to the end with the quote from the Eurostar spokesman.
Continues on to the other stories, disinformation firmly lodged in brain.
And to tomorrow's edition.