You: Hip north-end coffee shop with Interac
Me: Under-caffeinated local with debit card
I ordered a $2.50 specialty coffee. You told me minimum charge for debit was $3.00. I offered to tip you 50¢ to meet that minimum charge.
You refused. I left. Good customer service!
I walk four blocks out of my way at least twice a week to get a cup of your coffee. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore. —Disgruntled Northender
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2011.
Why don’t you just pay cash, numbnuts? I can’t believe how fucking stupid some people are – using their debit cards for small change shit and paying a $1.50 or whatever charge on top of that.
My debits on my bank account are free and I use my debit for EVERYTHING so I can keep track of my spending. Plus it rounds the value up to the nearest dollar and drops the extra into my savings account.
That being said, couldn’t you just buy something else, OP? I understand though how you’d get frustrated.
It isn’t really that ‘hip’, it just isn’t tims or robins…
TTFN: I didn’t have any cash on me and there are no banks within several blocks of the coffee shop.
Also, my testicles are not, in fact, numb.
You totally felt them to check, didn’t you sniffy?
^_^
It’s a banking ghetto in that area, you gotta choose between scotia on quinpool or over to royal on agricola. It sucks.
Admit it PK, if you had ’em, you would too. 😛
@PK: Of course. I had to ensure my post was factually accurate.
your debit account isn’t linked to your saving account?
okay….
personally, I was quite annoyed when a lady decided to pay for a coffee with her non-swipe pass visa.
I asked the bank to deactivate my savings account with my debit function of my card so I can’t access the money unless I’m at a bank machine or doing online banking.
In one month I had 40 bucks in there from my “bank the rest” plan on my chequing account. It’s quite handy. 🙂
Also, avast0: of course I would. I mean, I have boobs and I touch THEM all the time, so….
whimper
There is an RBC bank machine in the Irving, FYI. Also, if I am not at the $3 level, I just buy something else to make up for it – snack for later or whatever. The fees on those machines are expensive, which is why they don’t want every tom, dick and sally paying $2.50 with their debit card.
I worked in a coffee shop, and we had weird charges and add ons like that. You can’t just throw 50 cents into the till and call it a day. It has to be entered as part of the menu on the computer screen. Also, this cashier was probably just doing her job, and quite used to receiving such complaints. Don’t shoot the messenger, take it up with the chain owners who enforce such rules, and expect their employees to follow strictly. Believe it or not, I have known people to get written up for ignoring those types of things which totally sucks. Everyone has bills to pay, so just cut the cashier some slack next time, it’s not their fault. They didn’t design the rule that morning in an evil scheme to ruin your day, although bitching about it instead of buying an extra tea biscuit probably didn’t make theirs. If its that big a deal, bring change next time.
I don’t want to purchase anything more than a coffee. Fortunately, there’s a good new coffee shop on Quinpool who was happy to take my money.
http://atlanta.eater.com/uploads/hipster-c…
oh yeah, forgot about the irving
I would have just bought a chocolate chip banana muffin to top it up, those things are yummy.
The only thing missing from this picture is “planning ahead”. Sniffy, you know you are going to want that coffee, so keeping enough cash on supply to meet the demand is not such a big deal, hence, neither is the bitch.
Good one Sista!
By the way, sniffy, the business has to pay for every debit they put through so that could explain the minimum and the refusal to break said policy. I think tim’s can afford it on volume, but for smaller shops, it’s not so easy.
I TRY not to use my debit for things under 5 bucks, but sometimes it jsut happens.
And I agree with the poster above (I’m too lazy to look up who it was) that said that you should’ve just ordered a banana chocolate chip muffin. Those are *heavenly.* Especially heated with butter all melty on top. Mmmmm.
(PS bite me: I’m craving carbs right now. For medical reasons!).
PK you beat me to it. Businesses are charged per debit transactions which is why you’ll see signs (typically in mom and pop shops) requiring a minimum purchase for debit and mechants also pay a fee for CC transactions, which can mount up for a small operation. There is no such thing as free debit or credit transactions.
what about the suckster kitty, do i get to touch too?
The CC transactions are based on sales amounts too. That’s why a smaller gas station chain around HRM will give a discount to people paying cash or debit — because they don’t have to pay that percentage out to the credit card companies.
That being said, I remember seeing on TV that CCs actually aren’t huge money makers for banks, according to some financial analyst guy, but I call bullshit on that. People are using credit cards to pay for $3 ice cream cones at mcdicks — i.e.: people are using credit cards for STUPID purchases and the CC companies are making a percentage off of every stupid purchase.
WHen you’re using visa at mcdonalds, you may want to reevaluate your financial situation. Frig.
anyone had the ‘cake-pops’ at starsucks?
I guess they have them in other places but I’m not sure about here.
I’ve heard they’re the shit…
At the end of the night they’ll sometimes give samples of their sweets at sbux. One night they came around and gave away their cake pops. I had the double chocolate one. It was delicious!
I’m about to head there now. Mmm frappuccino!
—–what about the suckster kitty, do i get to touch too?—–
This shit is pretty fucking creepy. There’s a reason it goes unanswered. If it’s supposed to be “flirting”, I’d try a different tact.
Going to go fuck myself now, and no, you can’t join in.
1. I appreciate that small businesses have to pay for every debit transaction, which is why, in effect, I said, charge me $3 for the transaction.
2. 90% of the time I have money in my pocket for coffee. Yesterday I didn’t. There is no Bank of Montreal ATM in the neighbourhood, so withdrawing $20 from the Royal Bank ATM at Irving would set me back $23. In other words, the service charges would cost me more than the coffee itself.
3. And I don’t eat pastries.
Anyways, it’s all good. Ireland32 on Quinpool makes a good coffee and they don’t mind taking my debit card on those occasions when I don’t have enough coin in my pocket.
I would KILL for a coffee from this shop if it’s the one I’m thinking about. Like, literal smoosh a mosquito to bits or something. Man, That’s one of the top 10 things I miss about my North End hood. 🙁
NO need to justify yourself to any of us, sniffy. We’re actually just engaging in general conversation regarding the topic.
One place that’s *awesome* with customer service and debits and all that stuff is starbucks. Their debit machine wasn’t working one night and they gave me my stuff for free. Last huge rainstorm my local SB the power went out when I got there and came back on and it was taking too long for everything to reboot so they comp’d my drink and offered me a free treat of my choosing.
I hate how starbucks gets such a bad rap because it’s actually a pretty decent organization.
I disagree with the if your using visa for everything you need to reevaluate. I get a free visa card and i use it like a debit card plus every dollar i spend i get a point. Any purchase goes on visa and i pay it off that night and so far ive gotten a big screen tv and over 1000 dollars in futuresho gift cards off it. What free stuff does cash give me?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don’t pay it off right away and charge mcdonalds because they don’t have the money. These are people who likely get cash advances from one card to pay for another.
All that credit has done is allow people to live way beyond their means. Mortgage/car debt, sure, fine, but consumer debt? What the fuck ever happened to saving up for something? And if you can’t afford that 80 inch LCD tv and have to charge it through a shitty finance company that charges 354345435% in interest, perhaps you probably shouldn’t have that tv in the first place.
Also: “I disagree with the if your using visa for everything you need to reevaluate.”
please stop bastardizing the English language and spell properly kthx. I’ll give you this lesson for free: your = possessive; you’re = you are. Learn it. Use it. Love it.
I really don’t want to judge your intelligence and totally disregard your points based on your shitty use of grammar, but in the end I can’t help myself. 🙁
“And if you can’t afford that 80 inch LCD tv and have to charge it through a shitty finance company that charges 354345435% in interest, perhaps you probably shouldn’t have that tv in the first place.”
Please, PK, read carefully:
wilcox clearly states she/he redeemed points from their credit card to buy their television and gift cards. She/he also states that the purchases made to accumulate the points were paid promptly. Sounds responsible.
I see nothing wrong with this. For people who can’t afford or don’t want a car or home, having and using a credit card is one way to establish a credit history. The point is to use it responsibly.
I would say that the bigger problem here is the fact that credit cards are too easy to obtain. As an example, within a month of finishing my MA, Visa and Mastercard had offered me credit cards (I didn’t apply) with $10,000+ credit limits, even though I had a student loan of $30,000 and my starting salary was <$50,000/year. And when I was a student it was easy to get a credit card with a $2000 limit. Sounds like irresponsible lending practices or a sneaky attempt to indenture people into a lifetime of wage slavery.
PK, a lot of times CCs are losers for financial institutes. Remember they are unsecured (the secure ones are more like a debit card as you need a positive balance in them and that balance is your limit)There are many people (and I bet you know a few) that get multiple CCs, max them out, and never pay a cent on them. That said, it is the financial institutes fault for making them way too easy to get.
I know that’s what wilcox says, canned. Nowhere in my post did I accuse him/her of being someone who did what my post states, and in fact if YOU read it a little more carefully, you will find that I was stating that while wilcox may be a responsible card owner, there are many people who are not. The fact that I used a television as an example is pure coincidence. I threw in the grammar/spelling lesson as a bonus. For the good of everyone out there having to read bastardized attempts at writing.
I had 4k of credit in the form of three visa cards while I was a student. I got rid of them because wtf did/do I need 4k of credit for? Really. If I want to buy something, I pay cash. If I don’t have the cash, I, get this: don’t buy it.
In your first paragraph you refer to “most people” and in your second you refer to “you”. “You” must either be wilcox or an example of the group “most people” that you were describing. I assumed it was the former given that: A) your example of buying a television was the same as wilcox’s, except in your case it was used to support an opposing argument; and B) nowhere in your post did you say something like “while wilcox does A, most people do B”, that is, nowhere did you affirm that wilcox’s consumer choices were satisfactory – in which case I would have assumed that your criticism did not apply to his/her post.
Anyway, the point is, you weren’t clear about who “you” referred to, so I had to guess. Forcing your reader into guessing what you’re trying to say is never a sign of good writing. So think about that before being a grammar douche over simple mistakes.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS…
OP, put a review for the customer-serviceless hip shit shop on “Food & Drink.” Best to let others know to avoid that particular location.
Most people with even the slightest bit of reading comprehension would probably infer that the subject of the first paragraph (‘most people’) would extend to the second. especially since I used an 80 inch LCD tv as an example, and wilcox used a generic ‘big screen tv’ as an example.
If I was referring to wilcox, canned, would I not have used ‘big screen tv’ instead of my actual example? If you read any of my posts, you’d be aware of the fact that I tend to use other people’s specific examples while making a point that is directed to them in almost every case and in fact, I almost always put some form of quotation mark around said example and copy it word for word (often highlighting mistakes people make while writing).
So in this case (and you may want to consider this for future exercises in reading — no need to thank me for the little lesson in reading comprehension — you need all the help you can get) referring to ‘most people’ in the first paragraph and then using an example not stated by wilcox would be enough for any decent reader to infer that i was not referring to him/her, but rather expanding on a point I made earlier while addressing his/her post.
So now you differentiate between “big screen tv” and “80 inch LCD tv”. Pretty sure these are very similar examples, so much so that one might infer that you were referring to wilcox. But keep practicing your writing, PK – you’ll get better eventually, hopefully in time for your next job search.
Hello! It’s me again from the “trendy” coffee shop. 2 rants about me so far this year. Lucky me! So, what I should have said OP is “Yes of course! You can pay three dollars for your drink, but those extra 50 cents will go straight into the cash and not in the tip jar like you suggested.” I’m just trying to do my job and I didn’t make the rules. People often suggest that they will add a tip to bump up the price but that extra money goes towards paying for the machine and not to the employee serving you or making your drink. In the end its really not a big deal and this whole issue is all because of another clumsy mis-communication on my part.
Whoops. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Similar, but certainly not the same, canned.
http://images.media.nscdn.com/index.php?sr… ://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/20/129188530663294350.jpg&size=400×1000