Costa Coffee caught up in row as they’re accused of not accepting Scottish bank notes
The popular high street chain were slammed online after one woman revealed Scottish money was not accepted in the Margate store
COSTA Coffee have been embroiled in a row after being accused of discrimination against Scots - by refusing Scottish bank notes.
The storm erupted after one furious customer noticed a post declaring the world's oldest post office opened in Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway, in 1712.
The irate punter replied to the tweet asking if that would mean Costa would reconsider rejecting her Scottish money, as the reason given was they bank with the Post Office.
The coffee giants' social media team responded saying their branches are allowed to reject the cash at the manager's discretion.
But, after a furious backlash from patriotic Scots, they backtracked later and said that they DO, in fact, accept notes from north of the border.
The original post from Linda, a Scot living in Margate said: "Wonderful. Hope @CostaCoffee see this seeing as my local store in Margate doesn’t accept Scottish money; the manager says it’s because they bank with the Post Office (and I swear she thought it was therefore English)."
The official Costa Coffee account, replied: "Sorry to hear this, I'm afraid our teams are allowed to refuse Scottish notes; this is down to manager's discretion. Apologies for this."
When pushed on this further the team added that use of the notes is "essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved."
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But social media users were not buying the explanation and hit out.
Ben Smith asked: "So why would you discriminate one from the other, given the only difference is one is from England and the other from Scotland?"
Broadcasting Scotland said: "Only reasons to refuse a Scottish banknote are either ignorance or discrimination, so helpful to Scots to have clarity on your position."
Mark Haddow wrote: "I drink Costa everyday. Shocking and pathetic response and to be honest downright rude."
Another user said: "Had it been a fake English banknote at the Margate store would you have banned all English banknotes? I think not
Gordon Muir added: "Awful Answer. This could end badly. I use Costa most days but am seriously going to have to consider whether this will continue. You want to get this sorted and nipped in the bud now otherwise your Scottish shops may well suffer."
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But the coffee makers later backtracked and insisted they do accept Scottish notes.
They explained that the store in question had issues with fraudulent notes so "temporarily stopped accepting them."
And they added: "Genuinely sorry for any upset or offence that our initial response has caused. The last thing we want to do is alienate any of our customers."
A Costa Coffee spokesperson said: "We can confirm that we accept Scottish tender across our Costa Coffee stores in England.”
We told how a warning was issued as fake £20 notes were in circulation in Scotland.
High street businesses and police forces across the country have flagged the spike in counterfeit cash online.
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