I had a recent altercation with a business owner here in Warsaw.
My total was $9.52. The business owner proceeded to tell me that there would also be an additional charge of 50 cents because I was using my debit card, and the purchase was under $10.
Now, I remember a previous letter that you had run last summer explaining that local merchants who were assessing this extra charge were not in their legal rights to do so.
I realize that businesses are charged 3 percent for every credit card transaction they process. However, is this also the case for consumers using their debit cards, which I was going to give this business owner?
Is it in his legal right to assess me, tax payer/consumer, a 50 cents penalty because I am not spending over $10 just so he can recover, or maybe even profit from the 3 percent credit card transactions he has to lose?
This is where it went very south for me this morning that I was headed for work. I asked him to cancel that transaction because I only had $9.76 on my debit card and only $9 cash in my wallet.
Instead, only give me half of what I was buying.
This business owner rolled his eyes (I know he is the owner because I have inquired about it), cancelled the transaction, came back to the window and told me the new total of $6.89. I handed him $7 and he literally, aggressively, snatched the money from my hand.
When he brought back my 11 cents change, I said, "thank you" and he grabbed the sliding glass drive-thru window and slammed it in my face with such force that I thought it was going to break.
I reached up and slid it back open and proceeded to respectfully tell him that he would no longer be getting my business or my family, which is hundreds of dollars per month.
This man, whom should not operate a business in this fine town, slammed the glass door again, walked out of the front door of his establishment and confronted me at my vehicle. What he said to me is still flooring me today.
Within inches of my face, he said, "What do you want to do, hit me?" I told him no I didn't, but I will be contacting our fine newspaper editor about your behavior, and also find out if it's legal for you to bully money from hard-working people.
He told me to get off of his property and to never come back, in not-so-nice of language. I proceeded across the street to another local business owner to ask her if she had witnessed what had just transpired. Unfortunately, she did not.
So I write this letter to try and find out if it is indeed legal for this guy to assess this 50 cents charge.
I was going to be quiet about it and just forget about it, but maybe this business owner has treated you indifferent also. The people need to know.
Also, if he is not legally in his means to assess a 50 cents charge for purchases under $10 for people using debit/credit cards, then I feel something needs to be done to him. Whether he owes all that money back to someone, he has to pay a penalty, or at the very least stop doing it.
