August 10, 2008

August 10, 2008 – Credit Cards

           Recently the office has instituted a policy of accepting credit cards.  Forcing cab drivers to take credit cards against their will.  There’s a few reasons that none of the drivers like to deal with credit cards.

1.     It takes time.  Time is of the essence.  Lost time = lost wages.

2.     If they bounce then the driver is left holding the bag, not the company.  I know what you’re thinking – credit cards don’t bounce, checks bounce.  Well, that’s true, but if you have a credit card slip where you simply make an imprint of the card and a signature, well you don’t really have anything to back that when the office gets around to running them a week or so later.

3.     We have to stop in to the office, making an extra trip sometimes, to drop off our credit card slips.  We also have to see cab management, which many of the drivers don’t like all that much.  Then when the drivers redeem their credit card receipts (if you’re lucky enough to get ones from the Navy that don’t bounce) the office charges 10% to run them.  I asked the office why they charge us such a high rate when it probably only costs them 15-20% of that.  They gave me a number of explanations that simply were not true.

4.     The office will not pay the fees to set up a credit card terminal or service it.  That is expected to be done by the driver.

5.     Despite their antiquated system the office refuses to let the drivers call in the credit card over the phone so that it could be run almost instantaneously.  Although the office would have to use technology for that – the telephone.

None of this is a problem for me however because I just refuse to take them.  Every once in a while someone calls and complains, but the office is easily fooled with a good story.  Something shiny or creme filled helps too.

4 comments:

  1. Cabbies have been opposed to accepting credit cards for a very long time. A recent story tells us that a Dallas cabby tried to dissuade riders from paying with cards by displaying a sign warning that doing so could subject the cardholder's personal information to being "to being intercepted by unauthorized personnel." Cabbies can be very inventive, you have to give them that. For more: http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/cab-drivers-vs-credit-cards-data-security-concern-edition.

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  2. Thanks "DD." And, yes, surely this is nothing new, and in my mind, a gray area. An independent contractor being forced to take credit cards - no, but an independent contractor working under the name of a franchise...? At any rate the 10%, well, some might say that's criminal... I might say that...

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  3. A 10% fee? That's extortion. Someone should sue the taxi company. Greedy swine.

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    1. Outrageous isn't it. I'd love to see them sued. Let me know if you know a lawyer willing to work on contingency... As much of A-hole is, I feel "The Donald" epitomized my feelings about the owner, when talking about someone equally as disgusting - Rosie O'Donnell.

      “Probably I’ll sue her because it would be fun. I’d like to take some money out of her fat ass pockets.” — Donald Trump

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