The Vent and Rant Thread

[Graham44]

Just been away for a week, I have a Caravan in the Cotswolds, there is a lovely Pottery nearby, makes mugs, cups etc and they have some very talented potters and artists. Usually buy one or two items when I visit. Went in this time browsed picked up a few things (another mug and a cup) got to the checkout, sign up, card only, I just said are the tills down got a curt reply 'No we don't accept cash anymore' oh well I guess you don't want my custom anymore, left the mug and cup on the counter and walked out.

I'm guessing the curt reply was because they had probably had a lot of comments by this point, and I understand this might get a bit tiresome. However it really p***** me off when a shop thinks it's a good idea to dictate to it's customers how they will pay for their goods, I'm sorry but if you don't want the hassle of handling cash then don't go into the retail business. I run my own gardening business and I accept cash, cheques or bank transfer, whichever is easiest for my customers (I don't accept cards because of the charges) because you know I'm actually grateful they choose to use my services!

Rant over (nearly, just want to say this whole card only business really, really annoys me)

[John F]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Just been away for a week, I have a Caravan in the Cotswolds, there is a lovely Pottery nearby, makes mugs, cups etc and they have some very talented potters and artists. Usually buy one or two items when I visit. Went in this time browsed picked up a few things (another mug and a cup) got to the checkout, sign up, card only, I just said are the tills down got a curt reply 'No we don't accept cash anymore' oh well I guess you don't want my custom anymore, left the mug and cup on the counter and walked out.

I'm guessing the curt reply was because they had probably had a lot of comments by this point, and I understand this might get a bit tiresome. However it really p***** me off when a shop thinks it's a good idea to dictate to it's customers how they will pay for their goods, I'm sorry but if you don't want the hassle of handling cash then don't go into the retail business. I run my own gardening business and I accept cash, cheques or bank transfer, whichever is easiest for my customers (I don't accept cards because of the charges) because you know I'm actually grateful they choose to use my services!

Rant over (nearly, just want to say this whole card only business really, really annoys me)

And I'll rant against businesses that don't take credit cards. I'll make an exception for a mom-and-pop type business.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Graham44

I'm guessing the curt reply was because they had probably had a lot of comments by this point, and I understand this might get a bit tiresome. However it really p***** me off when a shop thinks it's a good idea to dictate to it's customers how they will pay for their goods, I'm sorry but if you don't want the hassle of handling cash then don't go into the retail business.

Okay, I'll pay in loose pennies then.

(not really. Canada not have pennies anymore.)

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Graham44

However it really p***** me off when a shop thinks it's a good idea to dictate to it's customers how they will pay for their goods,

(I don't accept cards because of the charges)

Hypocrite much?
Just pass the fee on to the customer like everyone else does these days.

Originally Posted by John F

And I'll rant against businesses that don't take credit cards. I'll make an exception for a mom-and-pop type business.

I don't even forgive mom and pops. It's too easy to accept cards and just charge the customer the fees (or offer a cash discount, however you want to phrase it).
These days being cash only is more likely a tax dodge.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ApK

Hypocrite much?
Just pass the fee on to the customer like everyone else does these days.

I don't even forgive mom and pops. It's too easy to accept cards and just charge the customer the fees (or offer a cash discount, however you want to phrase it).
These days being cash only is more likely a tax dodge.

Sadly. many of the vendor agreements do not allow passing the cost on to the customer. Giving a cash discount is considered to be equivalent and also forbidden.

[Renate]

It used to be in the US that there was often a $10 minimum on credit card purchases.
Over time the bigger retailers loosened up on that.
I've gotten used to in Europe using cards for everything.
I've even seen some signs in stores saying no purchase is too small.
OTOH, a kiosk refused to charge 3.85 € the other day.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sadly. many of the vendor agreements do not allow passing the cost on to the customer. Giving a cash discount is considered to be equivalent and also forbidden.

Gas prices are set by the utilities board in my province. So gas stations frame around it by posting the credit card price and offering a "discount" on cash/debit.

[BetterRed]

Quite a few of our beggars accept debit card 'payments'.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by ApK

Hypocrite much?
.

I don't see how a store only accepting one form of payment and me accepting all forms except one makes me a hypocrite - but whatever

To be fair/ transparent - I have never had a customer ask to pay by card in the must be nearly 15 years I've been a sole trader, if I started to get a rash of customers asking to pay by card I may consider adding it as an option but not the only option.

And when it comes to card payment only, what about the people who cant have a card? so that will be kids under 11 (here in the UK at least) wanting to spend their pocket money or even vulnerable adults that perhaps using cards/ apps is not viable or safe.

Luckily we have in the UK an organization called Link, they look after (run?) cash machines and they have been fighting to make sure cash machines/ cash is still available to everyone

[Sirtel]

Cash is accepted absolutely everywhere here. Cards aren't accepted by some small businesses (neither my hairdresser nor my dentist accepts cards, for example). While it can be annoying, I haven't seen much complaining over it, so I guess everyone is used to the fact.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sadly. many of the vendor agreements do not allow passing the cost on to the customer. Giving a cash discount is considered to be equivalent and also forbidden.

Yeah, here it's not allowed to charge customers paying with a card more than those who pay with cash.

[Rumpelteazer]

I love messing about with technology. Yesterday I got a stand alone portable digital music player (Fiio JM21) and I'm loving it. I wanted more options than I have on my iPhone, plus the combination of Apple making it more and more difficult to copy your own music to the iPhone and my laptop and iPhone not liking each other (when I connect my iPhone and run Apple software on my laptop to sync it instead erases all my music from my phone).

But because I'm very precise with how I want things I'm now copying all my music to my Fiio for the third time in two days. With the amount of music I have that takes a while. But hopefully everything will now be as I want it to be and I can start listening to music instead of just messing about and fine tuning.

[CRussel]

@Rumpleteazer: Messing about and fine tuning is something I can well relate to!

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sadly. many of the vendor agreements do not allow passing the cost on to the customer. Giving a cash discount is considered to be equivalent and also forbidden.

Is this true? I know that MC/Visa/Amex removed this restriction long ago, and with just about everyone doing it, I'd want to see one of these agreements. Admittedly, I've not looked in years.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Graham44

I don't see how a store only accepting one form of payment and me accepting all forms except one makes me a hypocrite - but whatever

That's ok, I trust everybody else can see it. It's rather humorous to follow a complaint of a merchant dictating how customers can pay with a statement about how you dictate how your customers can pay. "All forms of payment except one" is also slightly amusing when the 'one' is the one used more widely than all the others combined*.

To be clear, I didn't mean to suggest that not accepting cash was good. The libertarian in me cringes at it.


ApK


*Source: My mind, but it feels accurate.