AMEX - Shop Small November 2019

[AdMEL]

Well this week will see me clock up my 80th Shop Small transaction. I only started in mid-Nov. Initially things looked a bit thin, but then after a bit of looking I found ample business mainly within a 10 minutes drive.

Pretty much a mixed spread with:

• booze - Found some good value small liquor stores, one with a nice Pinot Noir actually cheaper than at Dan Murphy's,
• chemist purchases (I won't buy unless the price is close to what Chemist Warehouse price is),
• butchers for meat (including a Xmas Ham ordered from one butcher who was happy to split transactions,
• pub meals, - nonus here is you order you meal, and then buy a round of drinks for another transaction
• fish n chips
• bakeries
• newsagents- mainly for Myki top-ups (we do not use the traina great deal and so I limited this to $100 each on two Mykis).
• and a recent find that from the outside looked like a mini-mart, but which is actually the size of a decent sized IGA , and which had excellent prices often cheaper than my local Wooworths (Shop Small has worked in this case as I will now keep shopping here!)

One funny experience was that I walked into a newsagent and thought EUREKA when I spotted a wall full of usefuI giftcards! So I did $20 Myki purchase, and then after a quick browse bought one gift card. The giftcard was paid on a second terminal which I did not think about at the time. But on checking afterwards the Myki was on the Newsagency listed in ShopSmall, whereas the giftcard was on a different account which was a non-ShopSmall Postal Agency. Grrr my hopes of easy cash-equivalent transactions, besides Myki, were dashed

Would you mind sharing the lcoations of the places you've mentioned?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Would you mind sharing the lcoations of the places you've mentioned?

They are all in the ShopSmall Spreadheet and also in the map (remember with the map to ZOOM In as not all options are shown till you do so).

I am in the SE Suburbs in Waverley/Glen Iris area and so I mainly have shopped there.

I also went to Kirks Pub in Mornington (great bay views), Salt Fish n Chips in Dromana (near the parents). Also the Notting Hill Hotel as no far from where I live. There are many pubs in Shop Small.

Ditto for Butchets. ie PK Meats in Hamilton Place, Mt Waverley. Sams Green Grocers right next door.

Also butchers in Cobram as I was away off-grid camping on the Murray.

Many bottle shops in the map/spresadsheet. Search on Cellars.

For Myki ...follow below and look for Newsagents convenient to you...I found three.

Find a myki retailer near you
To find your nearest myki retailer, do the following from the PTV home page:

• Enter a location into the search box, or select 'Near me'
• Select 'View map' (or if you're using your phone, select 'View place')
• In the box labelled 'Stops and stations nearby' select the downward-facing arrow
• in the dropdown menu select 'myki outlets nearby'
• you can now see your closest myki retail outlet.

 

[MathNerd]

In previous years, there were a few charities for which a ≥$20 donation would trigger a Shop Small email.
Has anyone tried doing the same this year?
Of course this has the added benefit of a tax deduction come July 2020, as well as some support for a charity. A great way to also get a few points too (for what it's worth).

 

[SeaWolf]

I haven't had any for charities this year, although my union payments did trigger it.

 

[kpc]

Hsve very little motivation with Shop Small this year with only 2 out of 9 cards getting the offer...have used it 3x on each card with 2x more on each...not really going out of my way to seek Shop Small shops as my return is very low

Finished the last 2 "Shop Smalls" by having dinner at the local sushi place this evening...to rub salt in the wound, they charged 1.1% surcharge to use Amex! In fact, apart from the Chemist, all the places I used Amex for the "Shop Small" promo this year, charged a surcharge for using Amex! I'm just about done with Amex....

 

[auriga]

Barber wanted an extra $5 for paying by card, for a $30 hair cut

 

[MattA]

to rub salt in the wound, they charged 1.1% surcharge to use Amex! In fact, apart from the Chemist, all the places I used Amex for the "Shop Small" promo this year, charged a surcharge for using Amex! I'm just about done with Amex....

Under the terms of the Shop Small promotion, participating retailers are supposed to be “warmly welcoming” businesses, defined as either no surcharge, or the surcharge is no higher than other cards (page 3): https://merchantgeo.secure.force.co...sImage/apex/selectsImage&file=00P3Z00001NyeCI

Only encountered one surcharge on my shop smalls this year (and it was higher than MC/Visa). I’ve seen reports in past years that people who got hit with surcharges conplained to AMEX and got additional credits but I tried this and all I got was a “thanks for the feedback we’ll pass it on.”Not a great advert for AMEX — I certainly won’t be using AMEX at that particular retailer again (if I even go back at all...)

 

[SOPOOR]

And just another amex call centre debacle,
I did purchase numbers 4 and 5 for cashback,

4 was returned and a few days later, a $10 charge appeared on the card to offset thr $10 credit which is fine
However 5 didnt go through, and i did get a cashback from this same store on another card.

Got through to philipines, got told 24 hours, they will monitor the cb and they will call me back
Nothing after a week,
Called aus rep, same story
Nothing after a week
Called another aus rep, he tried to add a manual credit, says the system wasnt allowing him because the system must still think ive claimed all 5, and that he will need to escalate it to the appropriate department and will call me for an update.

Ive surprisngly received 2 calls in 2 days basically saying, it needs to be looked into further and will take another week.

Credit to this rep for following it up, but isnt the point of a manual credit, exactly that, a manual credit!

 

[Fatcat]

Finished the last 2 "Shop Smalls" by having dinner at the local sushi place this evening...to rub salt in the wound, they charged 1.1% surcharge to use Amex! In fact, apart from the Chemist, all the places I used Amex for the "Shop Small" promo this year, charged a surcharge for using Amex! I'm just about done with Amex....

To be fair though Ive noticed a lot of retailers are now charging surcharges to use any credit cards (and occassionally debits too), and about a third of the time the charge is higher for Amex. I thought the RBA surcharge reforms were meant to (directly or otherwise) reduce the cost for consumers, but it's actually made it a lot worse for consumers, as card benefits/earn rates get watered down significantly and consumers actually end up paying more as more merhcants than ever are now surcharging and the surcharges have not been reduced much if at all. Pretty pathetic to be honest.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Finished the last 2 "Shop Smalls" by having dinner at the local sushi place this evening...to rub salt in the wound, they charged 1.1% surcharge to use Amex! In fact, apart from the Chemist, all the places I used Amex for the "Shop Small" promo this year, charged a surcharge for using Amex! I'm just about done with Amex....

My experience was the reverse. I had not one surcharge and was most pleasantly surprised that this was so.

Previous Shop Small's I always had some.

 

[SOPOOR]

is this normal?

used my card for a small shop,

no email, and the charge is coming up as pending but dated tomorrow

01 Dec 19

CHARCOAL CHICKEN

$24.40

 

[desafinado74]

My mom tried to use her DJ AMEX card (Shop Small offer saved in the card)
at the Laurent Bakery at the Glen Shopping Centre, in Melbourne.
But the staff said that their credit card terminal does not accept DJ AMEX cards ?!
Has anyone had problems having their DJ cards accepted ?
I went to the same bakery a few weeks earlier and had no problems using my Velocity Platinum AMEX card.

 

[desafinado74]

To be fair though Ive noticed a lot of retailers are now charging surcharges to use any credit cards (and occassionally debits too), and about a third of the time the charge is higher for Amex. I thought the RBA surcharge reforms were meant to (directly or otherwise) reduce the cost for consumers, but it's actually made it a lot worse for consumers, as card benefits/earn rates get watered down significantly and consumers actually end up paying more as more merhcants than ever are now surcharging and the surcharges have not been reduced much if at all. Pretty pathetic to be honest.

I agree with the surcharge bit. What a scam. It should be banned outright. Especially when 99% of people use cards to pay for everything nowadays.

 

[DC3]

My mom tried to use her DJ AMEX card (Shop Small offer saved in the card)
at the Laurent Bakery at the Glen Shopping Centre, in Melbourne.
But the staff said that their credit card terminal does not accept DJ AMEX cards ....

Just don’t ask them. I just tap my AMEX anyway. You’d be surprised how often that it works.

Edit: Local butcher shop staff told me that AMEX is not accepted. So next time I just covered the card and tapped. Guess what. It worked.

 

[VPS]

A lot of people say that Amex is useless but I still manage to put at least $3k a month on it and I never pay a surcharge. BUPA, petrol, supermarkets, Chemist Warehouse, Physio, Pilates etc

 

[desafinado74]

Just don’t ask them. I just tap my AMEX anyway. You’d be surprised how often that it works.

Edit: Local butcher shop staff told me that AMEX is not accepted. So next time I just covered the card and tapped. Guess what. It worked.

Thanks for the tip

 

[MollyJones]

I’ve had a few merchants knock back the card after I’ve tapped it, saying it hasn’t gone through because they’ve got a new machine or something and they no longer take Amex.
TBH, I don’t believe them. But they’ve lost me as a customer. We bought some pretty exxy meat today, at a store we have always got a shop small credit and usually has no issues (or surcharge) with AMEX. Was happy to pay the price knowing we were getting the $10 credit. They knew about shop small too (suss).
After an hour of love chat with Amex and 2 conversation reference numbers I will supposedly see the $10 in 3-5 working days. I will be checking!!

Of course, this was after spending 2 hours trawling their travel site for Singapore accomodation in a triple room. Amex has nothing but booking.com and the hotels themselves all offer triple or family rooms or even connecting rooms but not Amex. Apparently people only travel in 2’s.

 

[SOPOOR]

I’ve had a few merchants knock back the card after I’ve tapped it, saying it hasn’t gone through because they’ve got a new machine or something and they no longer take Amex.
TBH, I don’t believe them. But they’ve lost me as a customer. We bought some pretty exxy meat today, at a store we have always got a shop small credit and usually has no issues (or surcharge) with AMEX. Was happy to pay the price knowing we were getting the $10 credit. They knew about shop small too (suss).
After an hour of love chat with Amex and 2 conversation reference numbers I will supposedly see the $10 in 3-5 working days. I will be checking!!

Of course, this was after spending 2 hours trawling their travel site for Singapore accomodation in a triple room. Amex has nothing but booking.com and the hotels themselves all offer triple or family rooms or even connecting rooms but not Amex. Apparently people only travel in 2’s.

Im sure many would change their spiel if you said you didnt have any credit cards or cash

 

[MollyJones]

Im sure many would change their spiel if you said you didnt have any credit cards or cash

I thought so too, but one place for stroppy so I handed back the 2kg worth of chicken and walked away. Won’t go back again either.

 

[blackcat20]

No surcharges anywhere I used my amex. Not many options where we live but I managed to use almost all the credits.