AMEX not accepted or surcharge

[prozac]

If this was a premium fare on a major carrier the agent should be able to process it through the airlines system for free or a max of $30. Any booking fee on top of the fare would be a separate charge on the agents own merchant system.

Not all airlines. Only sectors flown with Turkish incurred the fee.

 

[serfty]

Note that JB HiFi do charge a 1.5% AMEX surcharge.

 

[wxxnxs]

You could end up without paying any CC surcharges when book airline ticket with flight centre, as long as you can find cheap fare in somewhere else, flight centre will beat their price and take credit card without any surcharges, that includes AMEX and Diners. I just did this last week.

 

[Moopere]

Fremantle local fish n chips shop, "Sweetlips" accepted Amex until last month (OCT), now phasing it out according to them and won't accept by the end of this month. Reason quoted was its taking Amex 4-5 days to pay them.

As usual, in my view, its the small / family run type businesses who seem to mainly have a problem with Amex. Whether the reasoning is real or perceived, the smaller guys are ultimately sending me away to their bigger competition. Probably their bigger competition is also getting much better rates and terms (payment cycle?) than the small guys too, so its doubtless a self fulfilling prophecy.

I am finding it interesting that there is so much change converged around OCT this year though.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Media group in Sydney by the name Intermedia - The Intermedia Group Homepage - B2B publisher - whom we have been advertising with for 8 years and never paid merchent fee - have decided in their wisdom 1.75% for Visa / MC and 2.75% for Amex.

Fired off savage email to them this morn - no response back as yet.

 

[lovestotravel]

Media group in Sydney by the name Intermedia - The Intermedia Group Homepage - B2B publisher - whom we have been advertising with for 8 years and never paid merchent fee - have decided in their wisdom 1.75% for Visa / MC and 2.75% for Amex.

At least they are passing on both charges that's fine with me!

It annoys me when Amex is singled out over VI/MC

 

[Cruiser Elite]

At least they are passing on both charges that's fine with me!

It annoys me when Amex is singled out over VI/MC

So you think a company who you have done business with consistently for 8 years and never charged you a CC fee all of a sudden springs it on you - you think that is OK?

Are you in business? Do you spend your own money?

 

[Moopere]

I wonder if the sudden resurgence in merchant interest in surcharging both Amex and others has been triggered by recent RBA musings and the media attention it drew? Customers are probably aware, at least vaguely, that the passing on of reasonable surcharges is being discussed and merchants may be looking at this as a test to see what the reaction is to them taking an extra 1-3% without actually changing their price tickets.

That 1-3% is probably real, it probably does represent cost of acceptance (both direct charge and internal admin/etc), but my experience was that the merchants, the large ones particularly, just swallowed the charge. I wonder if this will become the status quo? Or just a passing fad until those same merchants realise its costing them business?

 

[Paddy55]

Note that JB HiFi do charge a 1.5% AMEX surcharge.

Yes... and I buy a bit from JB as well right up to a big tv a couple of months ago.

Always feel angst pulling the MC out, instead

 

[Moopere]

So you think a company who you have done business with consistently for 8 years and never charged you a CC fee all of a sudden springs it on you - you think that is OK?

I reckon you've just got to be honest with them and write a letter ... as you have done. Let them know that a charge like this could cost them the account and see if they will either reverse the new decision or make an exception in your case.

I've mentioned in other threads that our company has used Amex charge cards for several years now and whilst it certainly appeared to be a bit of a PITA at the beginning, now, by and large, the card holders have trained themselves away from doing business with companies that don't accept Amex ... and because of a heightened general awareness from the changeover period, also have a care about surcharging.

As a result, a number of businesses have been enjoying significant extra revenue, whilst others may well be wondering what happened.

 

[Simo]

Fremantle local fish n chips shop, "Sweetlips" accepted Amex until last month (OCT), now phasing it out according to them and won't accept by the end of this month. Reason quoted was its taking Amex 4-5 days to pay them.

As usual, in my view, its the small / family run type businesses who seem to mainly have a problem with Amex. Whether the reasoning is real or perceived, the smaller guys are ultimately sending me away to their bigger competition. Probably their bigger competition is also getting much better rates and terms (payment cycle?) than the small guys too, so its doubtless a self fulfilling prophecy.

I am finding it interesting that there is so much change converged around OCT this year though.

I own a small business and we accept Amex and it only takes 2 day to get paid.

The extra day over VI/MC/EFTPOS is not a big deal at all.

I would not envisage that they would have thousands of dollars per day in transactions on AMEX.

 

[yohy?!]

I complained to Amex 10 days ago that my favourite travel agent was having to pass on their 3.09% merchant fee. They emailed me back and said they were "reaching out" to the merchant. Well, I needed to book some business tickets on Friday. I asked the travel agent if Amex had "reached out" to him about the excessive fees they charged him, he said "NO". I went ahead and bought my tickets, total spend a shave under $10,000. I did not use Amex. They lied about what they said they would do, that is plain dishonest.

what exactly do you expect Amex to do? the travel agent is the one who is ripping you off - why didnt you threaten to take your 10k direct to the airline, bet they wouldve dropped the surcharge then and there...

EDIT: have read a few more of your posts whilst catching up on the last 20 pages of this thread (there were many!) and your axe to grind is obvious, unfortunately everything you're saying is not new in fact it's issues that have been around since time immemorial and is basically unwritten law: 'if you want the points pay the surcharge/change merchant/use another card'

 

[Moopere]

I own a small business and we accept Amex and it only takes 2 day to get paid.

The extra day over VI/MC/EFTPOS is not a big deal at all.

I would not envisage that they would have thousands of dollars per day in transactions on AMEX.

Yes, I think you have mentioned this before - and it crossed my mind when I was told 4-5 days ... sounded like porkies to me. I guess it won't matter by next month as by then they won't accept Amex at all .... and they will, as a result, have one less business customer whilst their direct competition, across the road, is likely to have one more business customer. I hope that business plan works out for them.

Personal indignation aside though, it does make me wonder sometimes .... are these guys margins really so thin that merchant set-up fee + 3% (if its that high) = no profit or even a loss?

 

[Simo]

Yes, I think you have mentioned this before - and it crossed my mind when I was told 4-5 days ... sounded like porkies to me. I guess it won't matter by next month as by then they won't accept Amex at all .... and they will, as a result, have one less business customer whilst their direct competition, across the road, is likely to have one more business customer. I hope that business plan works out for them.

Personal indignation aside though, it does make me wonder sometimes .... are these guys margins really so thin that merchant set-up fee + 3% (if its that high) = no profit or even a loss?

I don't pay 3% and more turn over is low on AMEX.

If your margin is under 3% IMHO you need to look to make more money or get out of the business and let someone else who can make money take over.

Yes my margins are thin on some products but it would be more than 3%

 

[Moopere]

Oh, whilst I'm in the mood

Another anecdote from today.

Had to buy some prepaid telecoms top-up. Our normal supplier for this is Dick Smith. As mentioned a few posts above, some time in the last month they have decided that profits will soar if they start charging 1.9% for Amex use. No time to argue today so handed over the card. Nope, their machine is broken. Ok, so I tried for the same product at a locally owned small newsagent ... no Amex sorry. Righto, rang up the provider to see who else retails the require pre-paid stuff... "Woolworths" I'm told. Ok, so off to Woolies, I pull the Amex, no surcharge (of course) and also copped a couple of freebie EDR points for my trouble. Ka-ching, thanks Woolies.

So:

- DSE, -1 customer from here on in as they surcharge now, hope that helps their margins
- Local small business, never got a look in and won't ever due to no Amex acceptance
- Woolies, massive business, hardly needs my sheckles, but will gain a new customer for an admittedly not ground breaking but nevertheless on-going expense.

 

[Simo]

Oh, whilst I'm in the mood

Another anecdote from today.

Had to buy some prepaid telecoms top-up. Our normal supplier for this is Dick Smith. As mentioned a few posts above, some time in the last month they have decided that profits will soar if they start charging 1.9% for Amex use. No time to argue today so handed over the card. Nope, their machine is broken. Ok, so I tried for the same product at a locally owned small newsagent ... no Amex sorry. Righto, rang up the provider to see who else retails the require pre-paid stuff... "Woolworths" I'm told. Ok, so off to Woolies, I pull the Amex, no surcharge (of course) and also copped a couple of freebie EDR points for my trouble. Ka-ching, thanks Woolies.

So:

- DSE, -1 customer from here on in as they surcharge now, hope that helps their margins
- Local small business, never got a look in and won't ever due to no Amex acceptance
- Woolies, massive business, hardly needs my sheckles, but will gain a new customer for an admittedly not ground breaking but nevertheless on-going expense.

Margin on pre paid credit is tight but you still will make money regardless of the surcharge.

I have a corp type client who uses there Amex in my store and pays for Telco recharges yes it does take a bit of margin but they also buy other stuff and it is all absorbed.

 

[Moopere]

[snip]...but they also buy other stuff and it is all absorbed.

and this is so important. Once Woolies has me in their store they have a big advantage. Suddenly, in addition to a few hundred worth of Telco/no margin stuff, I'm also, as-if-by-magic, buying office kitchen supplies, perhaps some cleaning product, toilet paper, fresh fruit for the office, etc, etc. Before you know it, we've got an agreement for monthly supply of listed items on an account.

Now, granted, Dick Smith was never going to be able to help with those extra possibilities, but its potentially a big win for Woolies to have been there, when I needed them, offering no problems for payment and supply.

 

[lovestotravel]

So you think a company who you have done business with consistently for 8 years and never charged you a CC fee all of a sudden springs it on you - you think that is OK?

Are you in business? Do you spend your own money?

Yes to all of that, thanks for your concern

You have alternatives to pay and you can shop around if you don't like it

 

[Flashback]

Fremantle local fish n chips shop, "Sweetlips" accepted Amex until last month (OCT), now phasing it out according to them and won't accept by the end of this month. Reason quoted was its taking Amex 4-5 days to pay them.

As usual, in my view, its the small / family run type businesses who seem to mainly have a problem with Amex. Whether the reasoning is real or perceived, the smaller guys are ultimately sending me away to their bigger competition. Probably their bigger competition is also getting much better rates and terms (payment cycle?) than the small guys too, so its doubtless a self fulfilling prophecy.

I am finding it interesting that there is so much change converged around OCT this year though.

I'm actually surprised to hear a fish & chip shop took card at all!

 

[Simo]

I'm actually surprised to hear a fish & chip shop took card at all!

It would depend on how good the AMEX merchant rep is in that area and how much door knocking he has done.

Also I got door knocked and was offered a special deal if we applied for a Corp Amex Card when getting merchant facility.

My partner had a corp Amex card and she worked in an area where there was many corp type businesses and all the local cafes and businesses accepted Amex. I remember her putting the milk for the office on her Amex with the Milkman.