Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage
I think most people act more rationaly than you. Sure it would be nice to use Amex, but I believe most people would compare prices and if there is a significant difference in price then they would buy at the cheapest place, regardless of whether or not they take Amex.
If there is only a small difference in price or if the cardholder has other reasons (eg they don't have much free cash and they have a big Amex credit limit) then they may pay a higher price at a Amex taking store.
It is suprising to see your loyalty to Amex. I doubt they have the same loyalty towards you. Unless it is just that you have excess cash and you don't care about wasting it by purchasing at higher priced Amex non surcharging merchants.
Whilst you think you are hurting the business, it is likely that overall the amex surcharging business is better off as they are able to offer lower prices compared to their competitors and as such get more sales. I think the number of people who are prepared to pay significantly more for products as a matter or principal to boycott merchants surcharging for Amex is quite few.
People will boycott services etc. for many reasons and we can argue about the (ir)rationality of their decisions black and blue forever.
For example, some months ago, my dad noticed a small discrepancy on his newspaper delivery bill. When he called the newsagency organising the run, it took two calls for him to secure his money back. After settling his account properly and having a subdued yet heated argument about the supposed incompetence of the newsagency staff, he immediately cancelled the service in protest and just bought the paper himself. He probably spends more (time and possibly money) in getting the paper himself rather than having it delivered, but so there.
There are an infinite number of people who have had
one (that's right,
one) kerfuffle with Qantas (in many capacities and in various degrees of fault, i.e. theirs, Qantas's or a mixture of both), but have vowed never to fly the airline again. It doesn't matter how much "good" they've been served in the past, or what status they ever had with the airline. Or, for that matter, we could replace Qantas with any other airline and have a new set of cases again.
It has been well established that there are a sizeable number of people who will pay more just to obtain better (or some) service. Otherwise, every mass computer retailer would be out of business (because everyone knows it's cheaper just to walk to the nearest whitebox computer reseller/wholesaler). Let's not start with travel agents.
Not accepting Amex (or any credit card for that matter - Diners anyone?) or surcharging for it is just another reason why people make these kinds of decisions. And for you to argue that "what Amex does loyalty show you" is a folly argument. This is the same reason why people choose credit cards with rewards programs, choose to credit flights to FFPs, etc. and as a direct consequence this greatly shapes how they shop for goods and services. This kind of behaviour is one key element that businesses and marketeers rely on when positioning their products; the power of one may not hurt a business, but the underlying principle remains and if you were on the business's side do you think that is a risk you are prepared to accept? Otherwise, if every business took your view seriously, there would be no point to loyalty programs, and Amex would be out of business (if businesses realise that accepting Amex was for chumps due to the high merchant fee, wouldn't you think they'd stop accepting them so that they could maximise profits?)
The balance here is simply that some will only go so far for their preference to a loyalty program or credit card as it is measured against the price difference. In some cases, price matching or negotiation can evaporate that difference, and in other cases some people won't care because of time and effort. That 'balance' differs from person to person but the spectrum is well known to businesses, marketeers and credit card companies, so for you to define what is "rational" or not and label other people as such or otherwise is foolish.
