Earlier today I got a carry-out order from a pizza place around the corner. It is kind of a dingy, dirty place (it has a B sanitation grade) and I usually avoid it but I was hungry and didn’t want to travel far for anything, so I took my chances.
The transaction was for $7.55 and I paid with a pre-paid card. There was a line for “tip” on the receipt but since I don’t generally tip a register person for a carry-out order I just drew a line through it and signed the receipt. This pre-paid card works like a debit - you put money in the account and it is deducted instantly when you make a transaction. These transactions are also instantly visible online.
Well, tonight I was going over some financial matters and I happened to take a look at my pre-paid card’s online statement. I noticed there was a debit for $9.06 from the pizza place earlier today. Since only a few hours had passed, I recognized that this wasn’t quite the right amount. I actually still had the bag sitting around and noticed that I was not given any receipt, which I would have put in the bag if it was handed to me. Since it’s literally around the corner, I decided to walk over there and ask to see my receipt. The same counter girl from earlier was still working. At first she asks me what I had and tries to print me a new slip showing the amount that item costs. I say “No, I want to see the receipt I signed”. She looks through her stack of them and finds it, sure enough it shows the amount of $7.55. I explain that my statement is available online and it is showing a charge for $9.06. She says, “Well, I don’t know what’s wrong with your statement but I charged you $7.55”. BS. I have never had a transaction show up incorrectly like this.
Anyway I did not accuse her of anything but she still got rather defensive insisting she didn’t charge me $9.06. At that point I just walked out with my receipt. I realize it’s only a buck and a half, but it was the principle - I highly suspect she added a tip for herself and just hoped I wouldn’t notice. Most people get their statements monthly and who really remembers the exact amount of small transactions you’ve made to the dollar over a month ago (if you are even scrutinizing your statement that closely to begin with)? I don’t intend to do anything more about this other than never, ever visit that establishment again (and I did shoot a little e-mail to my card’s dispute dpt. asking to have the transaction adjusted). But still, it’s all about the principle, right?
Restaurants routinely authorize 20% over the amount of the actual check. This is because many people who tip prefer to do so on their cards and the restaurant wants to know that there’s enough credit available on a card to allow for a tip. It has nothing to do with what the server rings in; it’s programmed into the restaurant’s software. A couple of days after the purchase, the actual amount you signed for will get charged to the card. I would check your account in a couple of days and see if there’s a charge for the exact amount you signed for. If not, call the restaurant. If they can’t resolve it to your satisfaction, call your credit card company for information on how to file a dispute.
Ah, well now I feel dumb. Although like I said I didn’t accuse her of anything, I know I was guilty of being a bit aggressive/confrontational in my attitude. If it finalizes correctly in a couple days like you said, I will stop by if she’s working and apologize.
Plus, if it is the first time you have ever used this card at this establishment, there may be a charge to “open the account”. This is usually $1-2, and is returned to your account once it is established that your accoumnt is “good”.
The only reason I’d worry about the extra buck fifty is knowing that if they do it to you, they probably do it many others. I’m sure that the bank would be interested in knowing about this sort of scam (and then would charge you a ‘fee’ of 5 bucks for taking care of it for you).
All this having been said, my wife and I stopped going to a restaurant in town, because they would consistently add small random amounts (usually five to thirty cents) to our debit card transactions. They were alway different, and never a fixed percentage of the bill. We only really noticed when my wife said “that’s strange, that’s the third time they’ve made a mistake” when reconciling the checkbook.
I’ve never noticed the debit card we use get an authorized amount that later changed (probably because transactions show up a day or two later for us), but these were wrong even a month later (we went back and checked).
I actually thought about whether the police would even care about repeated sub-$1 theft (we found six of them when we went looking – every single transaction with that business, all for a few cents.) I decided to save the police the trouble of laughing at me, even though I’m sure the business does it to all the cards it gets.
Well, it does just so happen that $1.51 is exactly 20% of $7.55, which leads me to believe Otto’s theory is correct. Now of course I’m going to wait the 2-3 business days and make sure it is, but I think I have learned the dangers of automatically assuming the worst. I don’t think I will feel quite whole again until I apologize to that girl.
Nah, while it does rather sound as though Otto has found the answer, well, it’s not something that everyone is going to know, is it? I can’t blame you for suspecting a bit of cheating in that case.
However, if it all turns out all right, then at least you know you won’t feel a need to boycott this place, which, if it is just around the corner, sounds as though it can be convenient at times.
I’m confused; were you charged $9.06, or was there just an authorization for $9.06 reserved on your account? Those are two different things. It sounds like you have already been charged the $9.06, in which case I’d be mad as hell, too - nobody has the right to take more money out of my bank account than I have authorized them to; not 5 cents, not 500 dollars. I don’t tip counter people, either, and I would be outraged at them handing themselves a 20% tip.
She possibly added 20% for herself, but it sounds unlikely, given the explanation by Otto and the exactness of the 20% additional charge.
I recently had to use an internet cafe for a while and whenever I inserted my charge card into the reader, the system put out $1.00 “feeler,” to ascertain whether it was valid account. It then proceeded to charge me for the computer use time.
When I looked at my bank account online for the first time, for each session there was dollar charge and the charge for that session.
I asked the cafe’s counterperson and manager what was going on re: the dollar but neither could explain it. I called my bank and the bank’s CSR was able to explain why the $1.00 “feeler” scenario occurs.
For some reason, nobody in the cafe knew it worked that way.
