Create Change

Explanation

On the 25. February, the shop in the MD building went cashless, supposedly for a week's trial. However, on the 5. March, I went into the shop thinking I could pay for the items I had bought using cash, however, this was not the case. This state of affairs has caused inconvenience and annoyance to quite a few students, including my friend, who had taken money out of the cashpoint in Santander expecting, as I did, to be able to pay using cash.

Therefore, I would like someone from the SU, such as a shadow councillor, or the Union Chairman/Chairwoman to ask the manager of the catering department, to whom the MD shop belongs, the following questions:

1. Why was there no consultation, either on Canvas, Strawpoll etc., on whether the shop should go cashless or not?
2. Why has the shop continued to refuse cash payments beyond the duration of the trial without anything being posted on Student Comms, Canvas, etc.?
3. What other methods of payment will the shop accept if the card machines go down, whether due to IT issues or planned maintenance (cheques, or purchase on credit, possibly?)?
4. Have any of the staff in the shop faced hostility due to this sudden change, and what could be done to lessen or (ideally) prevent this?
5. What were the results of the week's trial?
6. Will the shop go back to resuming cash payments, and if not, why not?

Personally, I think this has not been handled in a good way, especially for certain groups of students, such as foreign students, and students with certain disabilities, such as certain students on the Autistic Spectrum, who may have built up a routine of using cash payments, only for this to be broken, to great annoyance at the very least, and possibly verging on stress and distress for some.

The lack of transparency on the supposed permanence of the refusal of cash payments is the most annoying thing to me, and possibly many others, who have been caught out by it. Could someone please address this?