As I’m sure most people would, I almost just hit Checkout but happened to see the text below. I am also sure I would have caught/removed it from the check-out page but maybe not. I did complete my order without ‘package protection’ but am sending an email and probably won’t order again unless their response is acceptable.
Edit: I’ll probably send the email after I get shipping confirmation :)
Yea, this is a conversation I’ve had with plenty of small businesses owners now. There was this mom and pop sandwich shop that was used to a bunch of blue collar workers and day laborers paying in cash. Their clientele shifted once big companies started moving in and a lot of people are paying with card. Then over the years the percent of card purchases climbs to 90%. People are coming in for a coffee and they’re paying in card so they eventually come up with a card minimum and everyone gets upset because they don’t carry cash so they stop going. I guess people are averse to using their debit cards due to fraud. They then just tack on a card fee instead and that’s that. I appreciate that approach because then people can still make a choice and it’s not raising prices across the board.
I mostly do B2B stuff now and ACH is pretty standard, though I still have some using checks.
I like the credit card for most purchases because I’m just going to pay it off later anyway. I don’t buy a lot of cups of coffee or sodas, so that’s not an issue. The fraud recovery is worth it for me even if I’m paying the fee.
When food trucks became a thing locally you had to have cash, and you had to at least know enough words to specify the number on the menu and what type of meat you wanted. Now that same business has a bunch of local locations all doing card transactions, and maybe doing a cash discount. I wouldn’t know since the food <-> money+card_fee transaction is worth it to me. I would wager for that type of business that they pick up more overall business than they lose, and they really should teach at least a little bit of this in school so you don’t get people weirded out by a minimum fee, but then again I was in line at a gas station that had a “minimum purchase for cards” sign, and a guy was like $5 short. The cashier explained, guy goes and gets a $2 drink. Cashier explains again, guy goes back again and still doesn’t come up to the limit. A tacked on “hidden” CC fee probably saves a lot of trouble in the long run.
I’d be more amenable to ACH if I had a dedicated business account. I use it for my current broker, but balked once before when I signed up for Robinhood and one of the later steps was “now we just need your bank account and routing number.” Nah guys, I’ll pass. I’m assuming most checks these days get filed electronically anyway.