Bottle Depots

[Jayems]

I got royally hosed out of about $50 today by some half-wit who counted wrong. I made a huge scene, lots of swearing.. and finally saw the uselessness in the whole matter as the guy wasn't going to back down.

Anyhoo, with out getting into too much detail,

Anyone have any good tips to not getting hosed at the bottle depot?

(Other than counting the bottles yourself...)

[habernac]

get the boxes they use and count 'em before hand. Pretty easy if you have cases or boxes.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Fifty dollars is a lot of bottles.

You lush.

[4X4]

Heh... Reminds me of the time the bottle deopt guy muttered "thanks for the tip" as I walked out with my bundle of cash.

What I did to ensure accurate counting was helping to remove the caps (bring some cheap RONA gloves), and don't wince or shudder when dumping out the bag of bottles from under the deck that are mold infested... Just insults the guy.
These guys spend hours per day in one of the places that the rest of the population can barely stand for 10 minutes. Any act of assholishness on your part translates in to a miscalculation of your refund. What are you going to do? Stand in the bottle depot and argue?

At least, that's what he might figure.

[ken0042]

There is one on 114th ave SE, by Douglas Glen (north side of 114 ave.) They are awesome. Unlike most other depots who hire anybody who will do dirty work for minimum wage (usually tennagers who may have been rejected by McDonalds), this is run by a bunch of South-East Asians. The reason why this is a good thing; it's run like a familly business by a bunch of first generation Canadians who just want to make the customer happy.

They never count more than 100- 5¢ cans at a time, they count out loud, and give the number to you as they write it down on the pad.

They also have a car wash on the parking lot, and you get a coupon off the wash when you bring in bottles.

[pope04]

Originally Posted by habernac

get the boxes they use and count 'em before hand. Pretty easy if you have cases or boxes.

That's the ticket. Use the "flat" boxes for two-fours. Make sure you separate the beer (10-cent refund) and pop (five-cent refund) so there is no discrepancy.

[pope04]

Originally Posted by ken0042

There is one on 114th ave SE, by Douglas Glen (north side of 114 ave.) They are awesome.

I've had a really good experience at A.P. bottle depot in the ATCO industrial park on 50th Avenue SW. A family business, and very honest.

[Cube Inmate]

That's not a mis-count, it's theft. At many depots, it seems to be common practice. At the very least, complain to someone at the "beverage container management board" (www.bcmb.ab.ca).

I recommend you use the VRRI depot near the university on 32 AVE NW. They're painfully slow sometimes, but awesomely accurate. They employ people with disabilities...some mental, some physical...which is why they're slow, but their honesty deserves reward.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Any act of assholishness on your part translates in to a miscalculation of your refund.

I was not an ******* at all. I helped put cans into a box, flatten all my boxes, and de-cap the rest.

Originally Posted by 4X4

What are you going to do? Stand in the bottle depot and argue?

Yes I did. I did it respectfully, but I did raise my voice, called him a scam artist and that he was BS and the place was BS.

I got ****ed off and left.

Originally Posted by Cube Inmate

That's not a mis-count, it's theft. At many depots, it seems to be common practice. At the very least, complain to someone at the "beverage container management board"

Yeah I know... but when you argue with the guy for 10 minutes, and they guy is still insisting he counted wrong, and after all the complaints to his face in the world, nothing got through, so i took my measley $15 and left.

I called the BBB, they said I can make a complaint, but i have to contact the company first. So, i searched it, and they fall under the ABCRC. I wrote them an email, and it was returned as undeliverable.

I have wrote to that BCMB place you said, and asked if they are responsible for the depot.

[Jayems]

I went to the Bowness one.. it was totally packed and line was out to the street... (Too many bottles to stand in line).

Went up to crowfoot, line was twice as long...

So i went out to Bragg Creek, which turned out to be the worst decision of my day.

At least I got to listen to the big show for 2 hours whilst driving around today. There is 1 good thing =)

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Fifty dollars is a lot of bottles.

You lush.

heh.. I know..

It was about 2 months prior, and included all the christmas and new years bottles.. I also found 4 boxes of wine bottles and old 2/6's so that helped.

I was royally hosed, and feel I could have done something more. I should have counted.... damn.

Guess it only has to happen once before you learn..

I understand that you usually get ripped of $2-$5, I understand that going into it... but that was a blantant disrespect to me.

Ive finally calmed down though

[Gravitykillr]

Originally Posted by fotze

Was it the one on 37th street SW between 17th and Richmond?

My dad used to got that one because we live really really close (I Live on Richmond Rd., and he lives on 46th ave.) but they ripped him off once now he goes to the one just down from Chinook, by the Train Station at Heritage, says they are really good they'll even give you the boxes to put your 2litre bottles in to make it easier to count

[RougeUnderoos]

There is one just west of Schank's South, sort of down the hill, on (I think) Fisher Road. It's pretty fast and they have never, far as I can tell, ripped me off. They have big standardized red boxes for the bottles to go in so it's kind of hard for them to burn you because you know (or at least he thinks you know) how many bottles went into the box.

[Circa89]

I used to always go to a place where I knew they were ripping me off something fierce. So as a lark I went in with a small calculator and pretended to punch in a bunch of numbers as they were sorting. The result, an extra ten bucks that month. Thats the easiest solution.

[Jayems]

GF's mom says that up in Sylvan lake, you dump your cans into a can counter and it spits them out one by one so there is no if ands or buts..

Anyone know of one in calgary?

[Neeper]

i always get ripped off no matter where I go. It's pretty much industry standard. Assh---s!!

[albertGQ]

Finding an honest bottle depot is like finding an honest lawyer or used car salesman. It doesn't exist

[troutman]

There was a consumer investigation about this on one of the local TV stations a year or two ago. I think they discovered that some depots routinely under-count the bottles people bring in, and that it was pretty much deliberate.

[Madrox]

Originally Posted by fotze

Was it the one on 37th street SW between 17th and Richmond?

I was down there a few times, and they definitely counted low every time. It's people like that that give the other East Indians a bad name.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by pope04

I've had a really good experience at A.P. bottle depot in the ATCO industrial park on 50th Avenue SW. A family business, and very honest.

I goto A.P. too, been going to them for years and they always count it right, very nice people.