Box Tops for Education

Beware of check dates

Our elderly school secretary retired this year and when they recently cleaned out her files they found our Box Tops check from 2006. Obviously it could no longer be deposited so I called General Mills and requested a new check. Their policy is: They CANNOT re-issue checks that are more than 18 months old. Not only do I feel badly for our secretary but for all the childrens who worked so hard to earn this money. I have been the Box Tops coordinator since 1997 and I am really disappointed in General Mills. Obviously this rule benefits only General Mills because they got to keep almost $1,000 of our money. Additionally, think about how much profit they made off the 9,760 boxes of products bought by our school parents. Their policy is not very ethical in my opinion, especially in this economy. So schools beware ... cash your checks immediately. 

RE: Beware of check dates

I'm the operations administrator for a small bank.  My advice to you would be to go ahead and deposit the check anyway.  Most tellers don't look at the issue date and many banks will deposit it anyway even if the check is what we call "stale dated"  Most of these stale dated checks are honored so go ahead and give it a try.

RE: Beware of check dates

I am sure that it is a big dissapointment for you that your school cannot collect on these fund, however, to call General Mills policies unethical is going a bit far.  Most companies only allow 60 to 180 days before a check is void.  For General Mills to allow 18 months is far beyon the call of duty in my opnion.  This company has books to balance and financial budgets to plan.  You would also have to ask who dropped the ball in this case, was it GM or was it the school secretary?  I feel badly for the secretary but things happen, life goes on and we are made the better for it.  Let's thank God that we have this wonderful company that does great things for our school.  Wishing you the best for 09/10 collection efforts

RE: Beware of check dates

Every organizations needs to be looking for these checks.  The ccordinator of the program needs to be made aware of when the checks are received and when deposited for this very reason.  General Mills policy is fine and better than most but someone should be looking for the $$ and making sure the checks are deposited.  I try to follow up on all checks that are sent to our school that are for any program I am in charge of for this very reason.  It is a hard lesson but a good one.

RE: Beware of check dates

I think you are placing your anger in the wrong place.  At least two people at your school are the ones who dropped the ball--the secretary and the coordinator.   General Mills should not be expected to pay for checks that are three years old because your schools secretary misplaced it and then didn't see it ever again.  I would now be wondering what else she "missed".  And your coordinator should always check that the check was received and for the amount, to make sure it matches up with what she had in her records. 

And you said "cash your checks immediately".  Well I thnk most schools do because they need the money.  And General Mills gives 18 months to cash the checks, which is certainly not "immediately".

A hard lesson for your school to learn, but I am sure it won't happen to you again.

RE: Beware of check dates

I agree with some of the previous posters - I hate that this happened to your school, and I'm sure you are disappointed, but I would hardly call it "not very ethical." 18 months is an extremely generous amount of time to be allowed to cash a check. GM has accounting to do and books to balance just like everyone else. Why was it left only up to the secretary to cash the check? Why was no one else (like the BT coordinator) checking to see if the check had come in, and had been cashed? I don't think the warning to "cash your checks immediately" is necessary, as the 18 month time limit is very generous. It sounds like you're just upset that the secretary made a mistake and that your school didn't have any procedures in place to account for the checks coming in. How is this GM's fault?

RE: Beware of check dates

No one noticed that nothing had been DONE with the thousand bucks? No one in the PTA spoke up to ask "hey, what did we ever do with that money???"

Seems like a lot of people in YOUR SCHOOL missed the opportunity. GM did nothing wrong.

If you'd like to tally profits, how about all those 10c coupons that end up in the recycling center instead of in a check to a school?

Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars A DAY.

Tyler.