check altering

[plinms]

What is the name of your state? Mississippi
I recently made a purchase at a store where the computers were down. The sale was hand written and the check made out for that amount. Meanwhile the computers came back up and the transaction was entered into the computer. My check was altered one penny to compensate for the computer rounding up to the next number. Is this legal? Can you change someone's check like that? I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

 

[toasted]

No it is not legal. Did you get a receipt when you paid? I would bring this to the legal departments attention at the store. While I know its only a penny, the fact remains what they did was very illegal.

Your bank shouldn't accept the check either but since things are automated now, I have a personal trick that makes my checks get hand processed. I draw a line through the acccount number on the bottom of my checks (not to hide it but to make the OCR spit it out as unreadable). Thereby making them hand process. Had this been my check, the bank would have seen the changes and not processed it.

 

[plinms]

Thanks for your thoughts and advice. I am still considering what steps to take next. We returned to the store and questioned them about it. Their response was "I can't believe you are this upset about a penny." You know..it was never about the penny. I would have gladly taken them a penny had they just called me. By the way, I like you idea about marking thru your account number on your check. I may start doing that.

 

[DMoorman]

Here in Texas you can't mark through your account number. The machines read those numbers to see if you've written a bad check at certain stores before. Might check with your state to make sure you can do that there before doing it.