Extra Laser charge for purchases below €10

grenache

puntosporting wrote: »

Even the Fine wines at that location is overpriced compared too parnell st mallow st and thomondgate!

Thats becos the clientele are of a socially more upmarket status, thus the prices are higher. Also, there's a Fine Wines in Mallow St? News to me.

Getting back to the OP, debit cards really shouldn't be used for small purchases under €5. I know, according to their website, there's no minimum charge as such, there is still nothing more annoying than seeing someone pull out a card for such a small purchase. But the 20c fee is going a little bit far, most shops just have a minimum €7 spend for laser transactions.

finbarrk

God, would you not be embarrased using a card to pay for mickey mouse purchases?
It drives me mad in shops anyway to be in a que and some people using cards paying for small priced items, as it takes twice the time to process the payment.
There should be a minimum of €25 or even €50 on their usage.

mickoneill30

finbarrk wrote: »

It drives me mad in shops anyway to be in a que and some people using cards paying for small priced items, as it takes twice the time to process the payment.

I know. 60 seconds max instead of 30 seconds. It's enough to drive anybody mad
Much better to be behind somebody who has to count out every little bit of change they have rather than pop in a card and hit 4 numbers.

metamorphosis

I don't understand this anti - laser brigade either. When i was in the states for a couple months i paid for everything with Credit card. Its the done thing over there. Pay for your taxi with the card, pay for a drink in a shop with the card - no matter how big or small - the card was used. It was because it was safer than carrying around hugh sums of cash with me. Id just go to banking online later on and transfer the cash from my account into the credit card account - safe, quick and effecient. no hasssle. Back home i had to change quickly as many places dont accept it if your purchase is below a given price.

2.80 is a bit much to be ranting about though IMO.

grenache

ULstudent wrote: »

2.80 is a bit much to be ranting about though IMO.

I disagree. In the shop i work in, we dont have broadband access, still use dial-up for the credit card machines, as do a good deal of other outlets. So every credit/debit card transaction takes around 1 minute. At busy periods, and even when its quiet, this leads to queues. Can you imagine if everyone paid for their €1.50 purchase with a card? You'd have queues going out the door and people would just leave the shop in frustration. Cards are very convenient, and we welcome them where i work but certainly not for mickey mouse purchases of €2! Thats not what they were designed for.

puntosporting

grenache wrote: »

Thats becos the clientele are of a socially more upmarket status, thus the prices are higher. Also, there's a Fine Wines in Mallow St? News to me.

.

Are you for real with that statement?
A large amount of known scumbags currently living in the area!
Mallow st should have said roches st could be wrong there to do

zuroph

grenache wrote: »

I disagree. In the shop i work in, we dont have broadband access, still use dial-up for the credit card machines, as do a good deal of other outlets. So every credit/debit card transaction takes around 1 minute. At busy periods, and even when its quiet, this leads to queues. Can you imagine if everyone paid for their ?1.50 purchase with a card? You'd have queues going out the door and people would just leave the shop in frustration. Cards are very convenient, and we welcome them where i work but certainly not for mickey mouse purchases of ?2! Thats not what they were designed for.

how about the shop sorted out its communications? EVERYWHERE has boradband access of some sort these days. The laser machines work lightning fast in places like tk maxx and penneys, places where they would be counting every last cent, if they can do it, and inflated grocery store could do it. bascially, the queues arent the customers fault, its the shops. I know theres a larger customer turnover in these places, but the costs arent so high as to be restrictive for any shop to improve its technology.

Berty

This thread is about retailers charging for a service they claim to offer as a service to customers, nothing more. :cool:

There is NO minimum transaction amount therefore there is NO charge for making a charge of €2.80.

Do not offer a service if you cannot uphold your contract with the Laser company.

4tothefloor

zuroph wrote: »

how about the shop sorted out its communications? EVERYWHERE has boradband access of some sort these days. The laser machines work lightning fast in places like tk maxx and penneys, places where they would be counting every last cent, if they can do it, and inflated grocery store could do it. bascially, the queues arent the customers fault, its the shops. I know theres a larger customer turnover in these places, but the costs arent so high as to be restrictive for any shop to improve its technology.

The business I work in recently upgraded their communications, including broadband. However they were told by AIB that the credit card machines can only use dial-up or ISDN lines, they cannot use broadband or any other medium. These are the AIB Ingenico machines, it may be different with other machines/banks. There is a high speed card service available, I think it's run by a UK third party company, but it is a premium service that costs much more than the regular bank services and is usually only used by big multi-national retailers because of the costs. It is more than likely this service that is used by the likes of TK Maxx etc

Berty wrote: »

Do not offer a service if you cannot uphold your contract with the Laser company.

Not really true. A retailer is under no obligation to accept Laser for any payment regardless of whether they offer the Laser service or not. This covers everything including security reasons, suspicion the card may be stolen, suspicious purchases or the retailers own judgement. Ditto for credit cards. Aside from cash, a retailer is under no obligation to accept cheques, debit or credit cards. As I said in an earlier post, you're going to see a lot more of this as Laser keep increasing their charges and there is nothing stopping the retailer determining the terms of payment.

grenache

puntosporting wrote: »

Are you for real with that statement?
A large amount of known scumbags currently living in the area!

Yes i'm totally for real. Why do you think they charge higher prices in their Dooradoyle shop than in Thomondgate or Parnell St? There are scumbags living in every area of the city. But there are a high concentration of them buying their drink in the latter two shops. The D'doyle shop has far more consumers from middle-class areas, hence they charge higher prices for products like Carling, Linden Village, Carlsberg, Heineken. Its simple demographics and it happens all over the place.

puntosporting wrote: »

Mallow st should have said roches st could be wrong there to do

Yes its Roches St.

zuroph wrote: »

how about the shop sorted out its communications? EVERYWHERE has boradband access of some sort these days. The laser machines work lightning fast in places like tk maxx and penneys, places where they would be counting every last cent, if they can do it, and inflated grocery store could do it. bascially, the queues arent the customers fault, its the shops. I know theres a larger customer turnover in these places, but the costs arent so high as to be restrictive for any shop to improve its technology.

You've obviously not familiar with every shop outlet in Limerick if you think they ALL have broadband. You can't compare places like TK Maxx and Penneys with smaller shops. The former two operate several stores in many countries and their profits and client numbers demand that they have up-to-date broadband access. Smallers stores with less profit often don't have that luxury, or in my employers case are unwilling to finance the installation of broadband. The company I work for are stuck in the late 20th century and are very rigid when it comes to upgrading anything. Sad but true.

zuroph

i have broadband, it costs about €40 a month. that includes the line rental.

nevertheless, apparently its not the boradband it comes in on, so, pointless.

4tothefloor

zuroph wrote: »

i have broadband, it costs about €40 a month. that includes the line rental.

nevertheless, apparently its not the boradband it comes in on, so, pointless.

You can't get broadband for a business at home broadband prices. Business broadband is way more expensive and it is usually bundled with a call plan as well. On top of all this you have your dedicated lines for fax and credit card machines, which if you are getting BB from one of the main providors, you will have to sign over all of these lines as well and pay line rental on them. Just to give you an idea, business broadband plus phone, fax and ISDN credit card lines for the company I work for is €300 to €500 per month for two stores depending on usage with BT Ireland (who have the worst customer service I have ever experienced). It is not cheap! :eek:

steveon

If shops want to charge more for laser cards transactions then let them ...just refuse the purchase if there isnt clear notice of the extra charges before approaching the till.

I dont mind the delay in people paying by credit card, what I have a problem with is that they fumble around in there bag looking for the damn thing despite queing for a cpl of mins in which time they could have it ready. I pity the staff....

I also think this applys to phone credit...if they charge more than its face value walk away...as I no longer buy in shops nemore....and as a result they have lost on any further purchases like a bottle of coke and a bar of choclate at the same time..

The way of the future will be of a cashless transactions...and should be encouraged then there will be less handbag snatches and people beggin on the streets and at traffic lights as a result...but thats my opinion on the matter...

Stab*City

4tothefloor wrote: »

You can't get broadband for a business at home broadband prices. Business broadband is way more expensive and it is usually bundled with a call plan as well. On top of all this you have your dedicated lines for fax and credit card machines, which if you are getting BB from one of the main providors, you will have to sign over all of these lines as well and pay line rental on them. Just to give you an idea, business broadband plus phone, fax and ISDN credit card lines for the company I work for is €300 to €500 per month for two stores depending on usage with BT Ireland (who have the worst customer service I have ever experienced). It is not cheap! :eek:

That is cheap i pay €40 for my broadband and im a home user! Do the math!

limerick_man

steveon wrote: »

I also think this applys to phone credit...if they charge more than its face value walk away...as I no longer buy in shops nemore....and as a result they have lost on any further purchases like a bottle of coke and a bar of choclate at the same time..

I work in a shop and most shops are part of large chains and have deals with the main networks. However, other shops (independants and those belonging to chains without such an agreement with the phone networks) are charged for the credit. Some shops can give it for face value because they buy it for less than that, others cannot because they pay more than the face value for them. You cant expect a shop to buy it at 20.15 (or so) and sell it for 20euros.

Same with the laser, the margin on the 2.80 item could be 15c, if they were charged 20c to sell it to you they would make a loss of 5c just so you can get what you want and pay by card. I know its all nice to think that shops should be giving stuff away for free, but peoples livelihoods (sp) depend on the success of these shops.

grenache

limerick_man wrote: »

I
Same with the laser, the margin on the 2.80 item could be 15c, if they were charged 20c to sell it to you they would make a loss of 5c just so you can get what you want and pay by card. I know its all nice to think that shops should be giving stuff away for free, but peoples livelihoods (sp) depend on the success of these shops.

Well said, this is very much the whole point of most shops having a minimum spend policy with regards to use of laser cards.

steveon

limerick_man wrote: »

I work in a shop and most shops are part of large chains and have deals with the main networks. However, other shops (independants and those belonging to chains without such an agreement with the phone networks) are charged for the credit. Some shops can give it for face value because they buy it for less than that, others cannot because they pay more than the face value for them. You cant expect a shop to buy it at 20.15 (or so) and sell it for 20euros.

From speaking to a number of shop owners around town that dont charge more for Phone credit they all freely admitted they made 50cents for every ten euro of credit sold, previously 1euro until the big players stood together, if a small family run shop close to marys park can sell phone credit at face value so can every other shop that are much larger and have a higher presence around the town, 2 many shops are now focusing on higher prices and less customer service satisfaction and try and be a mini supermarket but dont seem to pass on the prices, all centrea and spar stores are owned or supplied by Musgraves cash and carry and therefore have MASSIVE buying power but any I have every visited charge wall over the face value for Phone credit and as a result I now top up my phone with a tap of a button and it is payed for by my credit card for no extra fee. This has resulted in me less frequently visiting shops and therefore the shops have alleivitated themselves from many other purchases that I might have spontaneously purchased or seen that I might not have gone into the store for...

For any shop owener trying to lie about their reasoning about putting up these costs for phone credit and anything else dont as Im not the only head strong and consious consumer out there....if you charge more for a service advertise the fact which is the LAW under the Consumer act all prices must be clearly shown and I hope people do waste your time and walk away if the prices are not clearly shown .....as at least then they are giving the right to decide before heading to the till and not feel obligated to continue the transaction out of embarrasment....once again I reiterate the fact I feel sorry for the staff that are only doing their jobs and this isnt an attack of them but there greedy company boses...or owners..

Berty

Sorry Steveon:

Spar is nothing to do with Musrgaves. Spar is a brand owned by BWG Foods.

Centra & Supervalu are a brand of Musgrave.

BWG & Musgrave DO NOT own any stores in this country. They lease the brand to a shop owner and in return Musgrave/BWG receive an LTA(Lease term agreement) which is basically rent to have the name over the door.

The name over the door gives them the branding, media coverage and backup the store may need like buying power, training and opens the doors to more supplier than just their local area.

Musgrave on Park Road in Rhebogue is nothing to do with Centra and Supervalu either for example. This is called Musgrave Cash & Carry and Musgraves in Cork actually supplies these Centra & Supervalu stores directly.

Musgrave Cash & Carry is open to anybody with a VAT account and is considered a separate company.

In Limericks case, Londis & Daybreak are also members of Musrave.

BWG then is also Value Centre Cash & Carry as their anybody and everybody store for VAT customers.

They also have the brands, Spar, Eurospar, XL Stop & Shop, Mace & Spar Express.