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I went to a restaurant on University Ave in Palo Alto and was unpleasantly surprised to find that they tack on a credit card fee, which they don't tell you abou

I went to a restaurant on University Ave in Palo Alto and was unpleasantly surprised to find that they tack on a credit card fee, which they don't tell you about. I only know about the fee because I happened to realize that the amount I was rung up for differed (by more than the sales tax amount) from the amount displayed in the subtotal. They assume everyone is paying credit so if you decide to pay cash they have to back up the transaction and re-run it without the extra charge. That tells me that virtually all of their customers pay credit, and probably very few are aware that they are paying this surcharge. I understand the desire to pass on costs to relevant customers, as this is fairer to cash purchasers. But it is not OK to hide the ball and secretly surcharge the vast majority of your customers, who pay with credit.

DwnVoteHoneyPot 4y ago
Yes, there is a balance somewhere where customer needs to know all-in cost (which includes transaction, shipping and tax costs) but also have transparency of what the all-in costs includes. At many gas stations (definitely at PetroCanada), I see the final cost on the pump, and the pump has a sticker showing a pie chart of product vs. taxes.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Pie charts are nice for gas vs taxes, just so the customer knows where the money is going. But it's a totally different situation when one of the fees (a cc surcharge) only applies if the customer chooses a certain payment method. That has to be explicitly flagged somewhere in the transaction flow. You can't expect people to do the math and realize that the total is 12% more than the subtotal, not 9% more.
ergocoder 4y ago
> I went to a restaurant on University Ave in Palo Alto and was unpleasantly surprised to find that they tack on a credit card fee I'm somewhat certain that this is against Visa's rules in US.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Apparently it has been allowed since 2013: https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/surcharging-faq-by-merchants.pdf https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/surcharging...

DwnVoteHoneyPot 4y ago

Yes, there is a balance somewhere where customer needs to know all-in cost (which includes transaction, shipping and tax costs) but also have transparency of what the all-in costs includes. At many gas stations (definitely at PetroCanada), I see the final cost on the pump, and the pump has a sticker showing a pie chart of product vs. taxes.

gnicholas 4y ago
Pie charts are nice for gas vs taxes, just so the customer knows where the money is going. But it's a totally different situation when one of the fees (a cc surcharge) only applies if the customer chooses a certain payment method. That has to be explicitly flagged somewhere in the transaction flow. You can't expect people to do the math and realize that the total is 12% more than the subtotal, not 9% more.

ergocoder 4y ago

> I went to a restaurant on University Ave in Palo Alto and was unpleasantly surprised to find that they tack on a credit card fee I'm somewhat certain that this is against Visa's rules in US.

gnicholas 4y ago
Apparently it has been allowed since 2013: https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/surcharging-faq-by-merchants.pdf https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/surcharging...