topic Re: Report a Merchant to Amex in Credit Cards

Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:18:19 GMT

I am in process of moving into my new home (scheduled to close on Monday ), but had to be out my old house this past week.

Hired movers to try and be efficient. I got the run around on what cards they accepted, some said everything, some said just Visa/Mastercard, but was finally told they try to avoid AMEX because of the fee but would take it if they had to. I told them that was what I was paying with becasue of the cost of the move. The rep just said ok.

The movers show up, and in conversation mention that I need to pay before they unload my items into my temporary storage. I forget exactly how the conversation went but he was laughing saying if I paid with a credit card, they charged a 3% fee. I stopped smiling and was like oh really? He then, still laughing, said yep and Amex is 12%. I looked at him and said, that's what I am paying with. He pulled it together then, as we had so many unexpected fees with the move when they showed up and I kind of lost it on the guy, so he knew I was about to blow if there was one more extra anything! He said he would see what they could do about it, and were able to drop it to 3% by tht time I paid. So on top of my $572.25 move, there was a fee of $17.16.

Now its not much, but its the principle. I am fairly certain they can't do that. Has anyone ever called Amex and reported a merchant? What was the outcome? I will probably wait to do it after they move me in next Wednesday and probably charge another fee for that move since I am paying with the same card, but just want to know what to expect.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:44:45 GMT

Are you saying that they charged you a credit card surcharge of 3% by using your AMEX (same percentage as Visa, MC, Discover)?

What states are you in? Unless you are in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma or Texas they ARE ALLOWED to charge you a credit card surcharge (since Visa and MC recently agreed on credit card surcharge, and AMEX policy is equal electronic payment).

Now if they charge 12% surcharge on AMEX but 3% on Visa, MC, and Discover that IS a merchant violation and you CAN report it to AMEX. However if they charge 3% surcharge across the board it is NOT a violation unless you live in one of the ten states above.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:37:37 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
Are you saying that they charged you a credit card surcharge of 3% by using your AMEX (same percentage as Visa, MC, Discover)?

What states are you in? Unless you are in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma or Texas they ARE ALLOWED to charge you a credit card surcharge (since Visa and MC recently agreed on credit card surchagre, and AMEX policy is equal electronic payment).

Now if they charge 12% surcharge on AMEX but 3% on Visa, MC, and Discover that IS a merchant violation and you CAN report it to AMEX. However if they charge 3% surcharge across the board it is NOT a violation unless you live in one of the ten states above.

They wanted to charge my 12% but instead charged 3%...... he said that their policy was 12% for AMEX and 3% for the others, however he said he called and got them to drop it to the 3%. Perhaps they checked the paperwork and saw that they had to be equal...... but even still that sucks. I live in GA by the way.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:47:03 GMT

GA does not have state law prohibits credit card surcharge.

Next time if they want to charge 12% remind them it is a violation on AMEX policy.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

nada9188 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:01:14 GMT

Go to www.takeamex.com

https://www316.americanexpress.com/iFormsSecure/un/iforms.do?cuid=takeamex_en_US&evttype=0&evtsrc=link

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

DeadSpider — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:03:21 GMT

I think the point Chan was making thinking the TOTAL was $572.25 and $17.16 included.

$589.41 was the total they should have told you to start with.

By saying $xx + fees makes me think I'm getting ripped off.

Try to find different moving people.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

jsucool76 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:17:57 GMT

Either way i would call up and report, if they tried to charge you 12% for amex then I'm sure they've tried it on others and succeeded.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:18:35 GMT

@DeadSpider wrote:
I think the point Chan was making thinking the TOTAL was $572.25 and $17.16 included.
$589.41 was the total they should have told you to start with.

By saying $xx + fees makes me think I'm getting ripped off.
Try to find different moving people.

Yes, that was part of the problem. But they showed up and had fees for everything- tape, wrapping paper, all the time it took to inventory my stuff and load it into vaults when they were supposed to keep it at their site (I ended up having them move it into a storage when they said that all the stuff they needed to do could take 8+ hours)- all the stuff they claimed were what makes their service top notch, I chose them because they were recommended and they turned out to be the cheapest. So one more fee just to pay them for the service was it for me.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:21:17 GMT

@nada9188 wrote:
Go to www.takeamex.com

https://www316.americanexpress.com/iFormsSecure/un/iforms.do?cuid=takeamex_en_US&evttype=0&evtsrc=link

Thank you for that link!!

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:27:27 GMT

Wrong, surcharges are still a violation of the merchant agreement in all 50 states. The lawsuit settlement allowing surcharges hasn't even been accepted yet let alone taken effect.

What they are doing violates their merchant agreement with all 4 card companies. Report them.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:32:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Wrong, surcharges are still a violation of the merchant agreement in all 50 states. The lawsuit settlement allowing surcharges hasn't even been accepted yet let alone taken effect.

What they are doing violates their merchant agreement with all 4 card companies. Report them.

You are right, filling out that form for Amex right now!

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

bluewillow — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:46:40 GMT

Hmm how do gas stations get away with it....$3.48 for cash $3.58 for credit, isn't that a surcharge? Just curious

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

Open123 — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:01:15 GMT

@bluewillow wrote:
Hmm how do gas stations get away with it....$3.48 for cash $3.58 for credit, isn't that a surcharge? Just curious

I know that once there was such an agreement, but I'm not sure if it's still in place after Visa/MC's settlement with the DOJ.

So long as it is uniformly applied, my understanding is that a merchant is free to give a cash and credit price. This is no longer contra to a merchant agreement with MC and Visa. Even with Amex, the agreement allows for a merchant to practice price discrimination, but so long as it is uniformly applied throughout all credit payment spectrums.

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:48:44 GMT

@bluewillow wrote:
Hmm how do gas stations get away with it....$3.48 for cash $3.58 for credit, isn't that a surcharge? Just curious

It is not a surcharge because the way it is worded. All merchants are allowed to give a "discount" for cash customers, but they cannot surcharge to use a CC though. It's alllllllll in the wording....

Example:
You want to buy a shirt with a $20 price tag. The store says, if you pay in cash, we can give you a $1 discount, so your final purchase price is $19. What they CANNOT do is charge you $1 extra because you use you CC, so they cannot make you pay $21 for the same shirt. Therefore, all the price tags in that store (and gas stations) are "credit card" prices. If they wish to discount to use cash, they may.

Essentially, yes they are charging you more to use credit. But, because the way they word it... they can get a way with it. They are not making you pay more to use credit, they are allowing you to pay less to use cash... Tricky tricky....

Re: Report a Merchant to Amex

chan85 — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:30:36 GMT

Like a previous poster said, and I found it on google as well, the new judgement in favor of the credit companies hasn't been confirmed, so this hasn't gone into effect as of yet. So they shouldn't be charging yet.