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Can we discuss pet peeves here? (4 Viewers)

Don Quixote said:
BeTheMatch said:
The law requiring school buses to make a complete stop at all railroad crossings. Because of a single accident in 1938.

1938.
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It sounds like the law works then if there have been no more accidents since 1938.
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damn near have to stop at them in a car anyways. going over train tracks at full speed is likely to send 38 pieces of your car into orbit around here.
 
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BLOCKED_PUNT said:
Instinctive said:
BLOCKED_PUNT said:
I still like the ramen noodles you get for 25 cents a pack
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With just a little effort you can turn them very good anyway.

A little (dark) miso paste in the bottom of bowl, and a little gochujang. A few sliced onions, even better if you have scallions around. Poach a couple eggs and slice up some leftover chicken or pork...boom.
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seems like so much effort...
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Cooking can seem like that to many.

i figure you gotta boil water for the ramen anyway. May as well boil two pots at once. While your noodles cook, your egg(s) cook(s). The other stuff goes in the bowl while the noodles cook. No extra time, just use the time not watching water boil LOL.
 
I won't name the establishment(s), but all shame has been lost when you're charging paying customers for a cup of water.

I get it, ice isn't free. But, sad that this little courtesy is on its way out. Just a matter of time until "water cup" makes its appearance on a dollar menu or 2-for-$5 selection. Gotta protect that $3 price tag on the soda.
 
Recent to earlier topics.

Typical traffic light. 2 lane road. Small left turn lane. No left arrow.

I'm literally the only car traveling one direction, sitting at red light in the left turn lane. Opposite me one car that is traveling straight. Light turns green I inch forward.
Lady opposite moves a little, stops then starts waving me to go ..... Sorry lady you're gumming up the works for no reason or b you're trying to cause an accident which I'm not falling for. Although I've just installed a dash camera so that would be nice
 
Based on the prevalence of card transactions and prices lapping the inflation rate many times over at these establishments, I have been assuming the merchant processing fee has been baked in. If anything, I appreciate the smaller ma & pa shops that are offering the cash discount / dual prices.
 
Store I work at has a cash price with a 3% upcharge for all card transactions. If you don't want to pay the 3%, pay cash. Most folks are ok with it but some have decided we are being "sneaky" as one woman put it when her total was $.60 more than what she thought it was supposed to be. She was pissed over the $.60 and said she wont shop with us anymore. Sorry to see her go.
 
Joe Schmo said:
Store I work at has a cash price with a 3% upcharge for all card transactions. If you don't want to pay the 3%, pay cash. Most folks are ok with it but some have decided we are being "sneaky" as one woman put it when her total was $.60 more than what she thought it was supposed to be. She was pissed over the $.60 and said she wont shop with us anymore. Sorry to see her go.
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It's super annoying. Anywhere that does it and I have any degree of freedom to not go to their store/restaurant/whatever, I won't go again.

And such an easy fix to take 3% off for cash instead. It just promotes this nickel and dimed BS feeling to add it as a charge. Something must have happened - AmEx and Visa I swear used to say they would remove you as a vendor if you charged through the transaction fee explicitly.

A local store by us does the cash/debit discount instead and it's just nice that the price they show is actually the price I pay. It's such garbage to add another fee.
 
sushinsky4tsar said:
Based on the prevalence of card transactions and prices lapping the inflation rate many times over at these establishments, I have been assuming the merchant processing fee has been baked in. If anything, I appreciate the smaller ma & pa shops that are offering the cash discount / dual prices.
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That's the other crazy piece - it absolutely is baked in to anything you've ever done. But then labor costs went up a little or raw materials / COGS stuff inflated and instead of actually charging the right amount for those increases, a bunch of places have decided they can get away with just adding the 3% charge.

And I was right above - it was not legal until a court case of some kind in the mid2010s it seems.
 
We instituted the 3% a few months ago when went with a new processor because they streamlined the percent we are charged by different card vendors. Amex was ridiculous in their fees, as an example. Also, we never see this charged fee in store, it goes straight to the processor and isn't a part of our revenue. So either we pay for your use of a debit/credit card or you pay for the right to use your credit/debit card. You can always pay cash and forget about any of the fees. Certainly don't want to ding cash customers to pay for your right to pay using your debit/credit cards by raising prices across the board.
 
Every swipe of every card at any shop or vendor is charged a processing fee by the card issuer or POS processor, someone has to pay for that processing and if you're small the idea of the customer bearing the brunt makes sense.
 
I can't imagine this Chipotle grievance hasn't appeared in 265 pages, but just in case....

Default tip selection options on their app for my $8.45 take-out order burrito:
  • $3.00
  • $4.00
  • $5.00
And yes, there's also a custom option and it's not difficult at all to tip whatever amount I want.

I still consider it a very passive dig at the person only tipping near 25% on a "fast casual" takeout order. Why in the world is $2 not a quick select option? Why isn't $1 for that matter? 35%+ tip? Thanks for selecting the minimum suggested tip amount, jerk.

FWIW, I have largely given in to the "tip culture" terrorism, tossing in my buck or even $2 on a slightly larger or more expensive takeout order. Nowhere near the appropriate percentage at a sit-down location with a server, but a recognition that a small amount of effort and quality control is still going into the thing. If a token amount saves me a slightly weaker quantity or quality of ingredients every 20th visit, so be it (I have recently learned the employees at this particular establishment have zero visibility).

This small "dig", in addition to the constant price increases outpacing inflation definitely has me re-thinking my willingness to just toss in the buck. I know that'll be a big loss for all service workers across the globe :wink:
 
Joe Schmo said:
We instituted the 3% a few months ago when went with a new processor because they streamlined the percent we are charged by different card vendors. Amex was ridiculous in their fees, as an example. Also, we never see this charged fee in store, it goes straight to the processor and isn't a part of our revenue. So either we pay for your use of a debit/credit card or you pay for the right to use your credit/debit card. You can always pay cash and forget about any of the fees. Certainly don't want to ding cash customers to pay for your right to pay using your debit/credit cards by raising prices across the board.
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At the end of the day, you can pay for it and I close it in the price or I can take my business elsewhere.

If you don't want to ding cash customers, offer a 3% cash discount. Like some businesses near me seem to have been doing for at least the five years I've lived here.

It's one of those things that smart businesses do differently. Because whether it's logical or not, sensible or not, etc...it only has the possibility to annoy people. And even if that's only 10% of people, I'd rather they be my customers too.


Edit: and by the way, if it's a new fee, were y'all not charging for credit card usage the entire existence of the business prior to a few months ago? Or did you lower all your prices 3% and THEN add in this back end fee? Because that's the underhanded part of this recent change to adding the fee on. The fee has always been there.
 
Joe Schmo said:
Every swipe of every card at any shop or vendor is charged a processing fee by the card issuer or POS processor, someone has to pay for that processing and if you're small the idea of the customer bearing the brunt makes sense.
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Well the customer should/will bear the brunt either way.

That's not what is at issue. What is at issue is whether a business does it in an obnoxious way or a way that comes off as underhanded or cheap, or if they just increase their average price by 3% across the board.

Just so we are all on the same page with my comments at least. The peeve is NOT the cost of using a credit card. It's being hit with it at the end without notice. ESPECIALLY at a restaurant where I've already had to mentally account for tax and tip.
 
We definitely let customers know about the credit surcharge so it isn't a surprise but as a semantics point our shelf prices are the cash price as that is really what the items cost for sale. You still get the benefit using cash but it's in the form of not paying the processing fee rather than reversing the situations.
 
Instinctive said:
Joe Schmo said:
We instituted the 3% a few months ago when went with a new processor because they streamlined the percent we are charged by different card vendors. Amex was ridiculous in their fees, as an example. Also, we never see this charged fee in store, it goes straight to the processor and isn't a part of our revenue. So either we pay for your use of a debit/credit card or you pay for the right to use your credit/debit card. You can always pay cash and forget about any of the fees. Certainly don't want to ding cash customers to pay for your right to pay using your debit/credit cards by raising prices across the board.
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At the end of the day, you can pay for it and I close it in the price or I can take my business elsewhere.

If you don't want to ding cash customers, offer a 3% cash discount. Like some businesses near me seem to have been doing for at least the five years I've lived here.

It's one of those things that smart businesses do differently. Because whether it's logical or not, sensible or not, etc...it only has the possibility to annoy people. And even if that's only 10% of people, I'd rather they be my customers too.


Edit: and by the way, if it's a new fee, were y'all not charging for credit card usage the entire existence of the business prior to a few months ago? Or did you lower all your prices 3% and THEN add in this back end fee? Because that's the underhanded part of this recent change to adding the fee on. The fee has always been there.
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No, we were not charging for the fee previously because until the recent change in processor the fees were different for every card and also could be tiered so there was no consistent way to capture that fee. Now we pay one fee for all swipes no matter the card or transaction.
 
Joe Schmo said:
Instinctive said:
Joe Schmo said:
We instituted the 3% a few months ago when went with a new processor because they streamlined the percent we are charged by different card vendors. Amex was ridiculous in their fees, as an example. Also, we never see this charged fee in store, it goes straight to the processor and isn't a part of our revenue. So either we pay for your use of a debit/credit card or you pay for the right to use your credit/debit card. You can always pay cash and forget about any of the fees. Certainly don't want to ding cash customers to pay for your right to pay using your debit/credit cards by raising prices across the board.
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At the end of the day, you can pay for it and I close it in the price or I can take my business elsewhere.

If you don't want to ding cash customers, offer a 3% cash discount. Like some businesses near me seem to have been doing for at least the five years I've lived here.

It's one of those things that smart businesses do differently. Because whether it's logical or not, sensible or not, etc...it only has the possibility to annoy people. And even if that's only 10% of people, I'd rather they be my customers too.


Edit: and by the way, if it's a new fee, were y'all not charging for credit card usage the entire existence of the business prior to a few months ago? Or did you lower all your prices 3% and THEN add in this back end fee? Because that's the underhanded part of this recent change to adding the fee on. The fee has always been there.
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No, we were not charging for the fee previously because until the recent change in processor the fees were different for every card and also could be tiered so there was no consistent way to capture that fee. Now we pay one fee for all swipes no matter the card or transaction.
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Right - so did you lower all your prices before passing the fee on (since you previously had to have accounted for it in all your costs), or have you simple added a fee that makes everything cost more to most customers?

You WERE charging it. it was just inside that $42.49 price point for Widget A, and the $22.99 price of widget B, and so on. If CC providers didn't charge a fee to the business, then you were either capturing a higher margin, or your prices would have been ~3% lower on average.

THAT is why this is a peeve (and I doubt I'm alone, i didn't even bring it up). It's yet another example of being charged for something WE WERE ALREADY BEING CHARGED FOR inside the price, that businesses are now pretending is some new fee and they're just passing it on.

In fact - you were actually overcharging cash customers from the start of your business until "a few months ago" because you had them also subsidize the fee implicit in the prices and intended for all the CC users.
 
Joe Schmo said:
We definitely let customers know about the credit surcharge so it isn't a surprise but as a semantics point our shelf prices are the cash price as that is really what the items cost for sale. You still get the benefit using cash but it's in the form of not paying the processing fee rather than reversing the situations.
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Right. I get that. Everyone gets that.

The peeve is that this approach sucks. It's annoying. it feels chintzy.

Maybe your customers don't feel that way so you don't care (I would only care if it cost me business, that's how incentives work on me). The peeve is that the reverse is far less obnoxious than another damn fee at the register. Especially when the vast majority of shopping does not randomly tack on that fee at the end, but instead correctly just prices their good accurately to begin with.
 
We were eating the fee and is the driver for why we looked around for a different way with a different processor. We set pricing on a standard % mark up for each product-beer, liquor, wine- based on our cost. How we've always done it, how we do it now. The prices have never been baked with the cc processing fee included.
 
Quite frankly, if i could wave a magic wand, the price on the shelf/menu should be inclusive of tax everywhere too. Just put the amount of money I have to pay when I leave on the display. Anythign less is just underhanded or cheap or both.

The problem is exacerbated to an extraordinary degree with healthcare too but no need to go there today...lol
 
Joe Schmo said:
We were eating the fee and is the driver for why we looked around for a different way with a different processor. We set pricing on a standard % mark up for each product-beer, liquor, wine- based on our cost. How we've always done it, how we do it now. The prices have never been baked with the cc processing fee included.
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I don't think you are listening, or understand the point. Which is fine, but I'm happy to keep trying to teach you if you're interested in this.

Because what you just said was "yes, we included the fee in our pricing. We ran a business, and so part of that standard markup for every product, which had to include all our costs, was to think about the fees we pay for transactions. We weren't complete morons who just priced all our goods pretending there were no transaction fees when somewhere close to 80% of our business had a transaction fee."

They are implicitly baked in. That's the point. You just effectively raised your markup an additional 3% to anyone using a CC now, even though you previously were happy with the resulting profits from your markup.
 
BLOCKED_PUNT said:
There's a restaurant near me where you get 3% off if you pay in cash instead of CC.
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THIS is the right way to do it. ESPECIALLY if you actually want to incentivize people to pay cash - people are more likely to try to get a discount than to try and avoid a fee, meaning they'll just be annoyed when the fee hits. It's bad customer service to do it as a surcharge. That's why you don't see a surcharge at any sophisticated business, only these mom and pops who don't actually understand these nuances but have great work ethic and/or found the right opportunity.

There's no credit card fee at Chik Fil A because they care about the customer experience, because they have the analytics to understand how much those fees cost them across their basket of goods, and they set the price accordingly. Pappa Joe and Mama jane's fried chicken down the road is fine to lose some customers because they don't understand the impact of the fee appropriately or can't identify which prices to raise to cover it and which ones to keep down as a loss leader, etc.

Just one more reason we are losing small, local businesses and chains grow every year.


Edit: or in this thread's antagonist's terms, that's why your store will get run out by a Total Wine, eventually. The extremely nuanced alcohol regs can only stave it off for so long.
 
Joe Schmo said:
It's a liquor store in Maryland, I suggest Instinctive stay dry if he visits the state to avoid the chance of being ripped off by me personally.
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Let's cool it down a bit, iFriend.

Nobody suggested you're ripping anyone off. I only suggested you don't seem to understand that you have increased prices to a majority of customers, it might annoy them, and that a better way to do so might be

1. Not raise prices when you don't face any new costs, and instead offer a discount to your cash customers
2. Decide you do in fact want that extra 3% margin, raise it by including it in your standard price setting markup, and then because you want to be fair, offer a discount to cash paying customers.

I have pointed these things out no because I think you are dishonestly ripping anyone off, but because the pass-through-add-on-fee that's new, even though the fee has existed to the business for years, absolutely comes off that way to some customers. And as a small business owner myself, the last thing I want to do on a daily basis is run off any potential long term customer when there's a much better solution.

Admittedly, in my combativeness, I did imply or outright suggest that your business does not understand these things because you are either deluding yourself or lack the sophistication to understand or act on them. The latter portion of which is uncalled for, as I do not know you, and for which I apologize.
 
Instinctive said:
Just one more reason we are losing small, local businesses and chains grow every year.
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Just so you know, my example is a small mom and pop business. I know you said "one more" and I'm not going to pretend to know that much about it but these big corporations can take much more of a hit than these mom and pop stores. Also, chick-fil-a is manna from heaven so it's hard NOT to go there. While it does work out in their favor chick-fil-a is also a Christian business (or was at least) and the no CC fee could have more to do with usury than just good solid PR.
 
DA RAIDERS said:
BeTheMatch said:
nirad3 said:
arrow1 said:
businesses adding 3-4% surcharge for paying by credit card.
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I'm actually kind of shocked it took so long for this to become a "thing".
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I lose my #### over this. Just build it into the price, morons!!!!
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But then you have to pay 3-4% on the 3-4% you built in….:lmao:
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I mean the math there is not that hard though. I've done it for major corporations on pricing engagements.
 
Instinctive said:
DA RAIDERS said:
BeTheMatch said:
nirad3 said:
arrow1 said:
businesses adding 3-4% surcharge for paying by credit card.
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I'm actually kind of shocked it took so long for this to become a "thing".
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I lose my #### over this. Just build it into the price, morons!!!!
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But then you have to pay 3-4% on the 3-4% you built in….:lmao:
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I mean the math there is not that hard though. I've done it for major corporations on pricing engagements.
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Have you done it for hundreds of transactions a day?
 
Joe Schmo said:
5% off if I like you on here, 10% up charge if I don't. The upcharge isn't advertised but now you know.
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This reminds me of some of the tourist port towns in the Philippines where the price of food and souvenirs fluctuates greatly depending on your nationality and which ship just pulled in. Still a lot of grudges held towards the Japanese in those parts from what I understand.
 
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