Guys and gals, about buying tires, what do you think this 1 star review by some person named Takimo? I came across it when exploring some tire shops in Laval on Google maps.
"They gave me a quote online, I came in the store to pick up and then the guy charge me a 3% fee if I pay credit. seriously? We're talking about a $600+ tire set, not a $2 bolt."
Would you expect a merchant to absorb credit card transaction fees or would you be OK to pay the extra 3% if it meant that your total price was lower than the competition? Maybe this consumer felt the price quoted online should be honoured at pick up time, not be subject to an extra fee?
The law says that they can charge a service fee, so example in Toronto I went to a dep to get pepsi, wanted to pay debit, the machine before paying told me there was a 25c fee, which I could accept/refuse (and pay cash then).
That type of fixed fee that the merchant chooses to be programmed into the terminal prior to payment is legal. NOT in Quebec though, the province of Quebec removed that legality quite a while ago, that's why that happened to me in Toronto but wouldn't in Montreal.
Keep in mind thats only a fixed fee, it does not vary based on the amount you spent.
What that specific shop is doing is ILLEGAL, both in the Province of Quebec and Visa/MC/Amex/Debit deem that illegal. In their case they need to increase the price of their tires when advertising or selling, to cover the cost of credit cards if they wish (that is legal since its the advertised price)
You can call the OPC and report that shop
Usually a business has to do the math below:
100k in sales last year
50k of it was credit cards
2% credit card fee
I'll increase my products price by X % (but everyone, even the people paying cash will pay the extra)
That's why more and more you'll see cash disappear and credit being used everywhere. People are points hungry and it makes CFOs/Accountants/business owners do this math and increase their prices all around.
All of above is for the B2C world... B2B is quite different since it's between two businesses. In that case they sometimes say, pay me NET10 with credit or NET30 cash/check, if you want to pay NET30 with credit, there's a 2% administration fee.
