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 ·magicjack.com
| reply to TheRogueX
Re: I said it once I'll say it...... said by TheRogueX:They'll never actually come out and say that's what they're charging you for. Exactly. They can call it an "express payment fee."
I have a credit-card provider who does this. I can pay my credit card online using an ACH transfer from a bank account. But, it takes them 5 days to process it. If I forget to schedule my payment, I can check a little box saying I'm willing to pay $18 for an "express payment" (something they'll move to the front of the line and manually process that day.).
I agree with "thender" that merchants have to be careful how they do this. But, it's also ironic that credit card companies prohibit merchants from recovering the added costs of using credit cards -- while recovering the added costs involved with ad hoc payments from customers.
I think Qwest would have been better served using a "divide and conquer" strategy. First charge a "convenience fee" for payments requiring a live operator. Most credit card users would probably go along with this. It's easy to understand that operators cost money.
After a 2-3 years of establishing that baseline, impose a "convenience fee" on credit-card customers who don't use live operators to accept their payment. It's not a fee to recover the costs charged to merchants by credit card companies. It's a fee to recover the costs of accepting credit card payments over the web site which was developed for debit/ACH payers. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.).
said by thender:Why does Qwest get away with it? Because they're a big company? Higher-volume merchants pay lower transaction fees than Bill & Ted's Bong Shop. It sounds like credit-card companies recognize that these partners have more value and clout.
Mark |
