I was out in Dallas today with the girl I am dating. We had to run a few errands and as it turns out one of them took my right past where they were holding a gun show. I needed some bulk ammo for a new gun I had recently purchased and asked her if she minded going inside for a bit (of course I promised not to stay long!).
We go inside and I tell her roughly what I am looking for and we finally find two vendors that happen to have fair prices on bulk .223 ammo. I check each vendor out and finally pick the one that has the best price on the ammo at $175 for 500 rounds. I ask the guy for a box and he whips out a calculator and I think he’s figuring tax. Then I get out my credit card and he punches in some more numbers and tells me that it will be 3% more to use a credit card.
I start to explain to the guy that it’s a violation of the merchant agreement with Visa and that he can’t do that but he won’t even listen to me and says it’s not against the law (actually, in the state of Texas it IS against the law). The price is his cash price. I asked him where the sign was that stated it was a cash price because the only signs I saw were advertised prices.
The guy was a real dickhead and I should have gotten his information, but I ended up going to the other vendor (who was much nicer) and getting the ammo.
The reason I should have gotten the guy’s information was because he was a dick. The top three violations of the cardholders / merchants agreement are:
1 – you cannot impose a minimum purchase price to use a Visa card.
2 – you cannot charge extra for using a credit card. This one is a bit tricky but it works like this. You have an advertised price, let’s say it’s $5.00. You can offer a discount against the advertised price for paying cash. You cannot charge more than the advertised price for using a credit card.
What is the difference? Quite simple. The advertised price is what gets you “into the store.” Not a big deal for me because I only had to walk a few feet in this case, but I’d be really pissed off if I pulled off the highway or drove out of my way for the advertised price only to be told it will be more with a credit card.
3 – you cannot refuse to run a credit card because the person chooses not to show you identification provided that the card is signed on the back.
Merchants violate these all the time, but I don’t think anyone does anything about it. I’m going to try to start reporting them because until someone does they’ll just keep doing it. I wrote Visa to ask what their procedure is when someone files a grievance, but I haven’t heard back. Seems silly to me if all they do is give them a warning. Who cares? That’s not going to stop someone like this dickhead from charging people.
But, as I found out today on the Attorney General’s web site for the state of TX it is in fact illegal to charge extra to use a credit card in the state of TX as it violates the Texas Finance Code. Again they can offer a cash discount, but they cannot charge extra based on the advertised price. There are some minor provisions for things like “convenience fees,” but they don’t apply for face-to-face meetings.
So I screwed up. I should have gotten that guys info and filed with both Visa and the AG. I guess if I was really smart I would have allowed him to charge my card, taken a photo of the advertised price, and then filed with Visa and the AG as well as filed a fraudulent charge for the 3% on the receipt and gotten that back, too.
PS – for those of you that like to write “please see ID” on the back of your card: That’s a violation of your agreement and a merchant may refuse to accept your credit card without penalty. It is part of your agreement to sign the back of the card.
As I am leaving the gun show with my ammo the very last vendor on the way out stops me (as he’s sitting in his chair with his gut hanging over his belt) and says “you didn’t just buy a bunch of re-loads, did you?”
I explained that I did. And he said that it was too bad because he had brand new manufacturer loads at 40-cents a piece. I explained that was more than I paid and he said “whatever…. it’s your gun.” WTF? Is everyone an asshole all of a sudden? First off, professional competition shooters use reloads – there is nothing wrong with them. Secondly, I had ½ a mind to tell this fat bastard that perhaps if he’d spring for a little extra cash he could have a better spot than right by the exit so that he could peddle his wares before people made their purchases.
I’ve never had a bad experience at a gun show and here was two back-to-back before I could get out the door. Actually, I think I’ll blame all this on my date…. She’s a liberal. I bet she was oozing liberalness and they could somehow sense it.
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