One thing I like about small companies is that with the right owners you get to tell the worst customers off and once in a while tell them to get out and take their business elsewhere.
I don’t mind listening to a rant but I don’t tolerate cussing or calling the staff names. When a customer referred to a staff member as an idiot or a liar I’d remind them if they wanted to continue the conversation and actually get help they needed to not do that again.
99% of the time polite but firm is the way to go but on rare occasions “We’re done talking, GET OUT!” is very satisfying.
However, if you bought HM 1 at a small merchant who remembers you, he might be able to suggest other shows that you might enjoy.
I like the sort of comic books that are now called graphic novels. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Fables, Preacher, Bone, that sort of thing. I patronize a store that’s basically run by one man. He’s suggested several series to me, some that I like, some that I didn’t care for, but he knows his field, and he’s always more than happy to special order stuff for me. I could, maybe, order the same books from Amazon, get them at a cheaper price, but this guy knows what I’m likely to like, and he’s much more accurate than Amazon is in predicting my next favorite series. This guy has given me several freebies (small comic books that are priced at around three bucks, and snacks). He has set aside a large portion of his store for tabletop gamers. And he’s not the stereotypical comic book shop guy, he actually has some fairly good social skills and business sense. I pay a little more for each book that I buy from him, but between the freebies and the money that I don’t spend on books that I don’t like, l think that I come out ahead.
This is where small businesses can compete with WalMart and Target. OK, granted, those stores won’t carry the graphic novels, but B&N, Borders, and Amazon will. However, Amazon’s recommendation software is pretty quirky, and none of those outfits ever offer me a free sample book, just to see if I like the series. Now, when Robert Jordan’s massive series was kicked off, the bookstores DID carry a small novella/novellette, but I was under the impression that the publisher paid for this booklet, in order to get people hooked on the series. The bookstores just offered shelf space (and possibly the publisher paid for that, as well, I don’t know).
And, as bizarre as this seems to some folks, you can decide to do business with someone because you like them and simply prefer that they get your money.
One of the first rules of sales is , “sell yourself” Chances are you’re selling the same or a very similar product as your competitor. For lots of shoppers who they prefer to do business with is a part of the equation along with price and convenience.
For the record, paper check processing is far cheaper even with a service–the reason is that check processing services typically only charge a flat fee per check, while a credit/debit card service charges a percentage with a minimum.
At least, that’s the experience of my dad the small business owner–of course, he doesn’t use a check service these days, either, preferring the only-works-in-small-towns wall of shame (which has photocopies of bad checks and correspondence with the magistrate related to said checks).
Back in my days at Sears, one "customer’ came in and repeatedly opened different ink cartridges–not merely the outer boxes, which would be bad enough, but also the inner mylar bags necessary to keep the cartridges from drying immediately–because he was sure we had sold him the wrong cartridge for his printer. It turned out that he had neglected to remove the little plastic tape that covers the output holes, or whatever they’re called, because he was too lazy and stupid to read the printer manual or the cartridge packages. He went through about six cartridges before I caught him, and couldn’t be arsed to apologize (much less pay for all the waste he had created, or even clean it up) for what he had done.
Credit cards are awesome. I can download my transactions online, which saves me time budgeting and tracking expenses. I am protected against fraud, so my maximum liability if I’m carrying my card is very low. I don’t have to bother with carrying change, or keeping track of how much cash I’m carrying, or going to the bank more often to get more. Those are all major value-added services that my card provides. In addition, I get cash back. But the previous three are actually far more important to me.
Now, I understand that small businesses have to pay when I use my credit card, but, they made the decision to
Accept credit cards in the first place. They didn’t have to. I pay cash for my pizza because my favorite pizza place doesn’t take credit cards.
Keep prices the same for credit cards and cash. They’re perfectly able to bump their prices up and then offer a “cash discount”. I’m not sure what their discount (surcharge) would have to be for me to switch to cash, but it’d probably be close to what they’re paying in credit card fees.
Clearly they’ve made the decisions that they think will best help their profit. Why shouldn’t I make the decision about using the card that is the best for myself. I’d still use my credit card if I had to pay a small surcharge to do so, simply out of convenience. They could easily make me do so by properly setting their prices, but choose not to. Why should it be a moral issue for me to choose a lower quality of service for my payment process just to reduce their costs?
Cash is pretty expensive to have around for businesses. It has a habit of not quite staying in the register. I would not be surprised at all if the cost of cash was on par as the cost of credit cards. Whenever you see a sign on the register offering you something at a discount or free if you don’t get a receipt it is there to have the customer keep track of the employees. It is much harder for employees to pocket a credit transaction.
Here’s my understanding although it’s incomplete. Debit cards are a fee per transaction if run as debit. Credit Cards are fee per transaction plus a % of the transaction. Sometimes the % varies based on the average transaction so the low dollar transactions wind up costing the merchant a higher overall percentage.
Checks are evidently a cheaper fee providing there are no bounced checks.
At the last place I worked they had a check service that supposedly guaranteed the check providing we followed procedure. The problem was that when a check bounced they didn’t pay.
In TN the laws helping a merchant pursue someone who bounced a check were changed to make it much harder and more expensive for the merchant to go after the money.
That’s a good point. I think it may depend on the number of employees, cashiers, hands on the till etc.
Employees can also help their buddies make bogus charges by not checking IDs properly or letting them write a bad check.
I’m only suggesting that we might carry a few bucks to save the merchant processing fees on smaller transactions. Many customers now carry no cash and will charge $1 and $2 dollar purchases.
Cash also has the added hassle (especially at Christmas) of having to arrange for secure transport to the bank, and employee time for counting it, organising change, etc, not to mention the security issues of having thousands of dollars in folding money on the premises over weekends when the banks are closed (and sales highest).
The 2% commission taken by the Credit Card companies (that aren’t AmEx or Diner’s Club) is more than worth it (in most cases) from a business point of view, especially for “Big Ticket” items (because, let’s face it, normal people do not have $1000 or so in their wallet as “walking around money”) and also because every credit card sale is an amount of cash they don’t have to handle, securely store, count, then securely transport to the bank.
I’m sure they do but you kept saying there was NO law forcing the business to sell an item at the marked price. I was just posting one to show that there are some.
OK, you’re experience with them is a lot larger than mine. I just know that I ran into it a few times buying electronics for myself.
Heh, maybe they should have advertised it more.
I understand but it sure is misleading to advertise PRICE MATCH GUARANTEE in 30pt font and then do the lawyer speak in 6pt light grey saying it’s only valid in these very narrow, very specific circumstances. I understand why a business would do it and am not trying to say it is illegal or anything. I’m just saying that from the consumer side it really doesn’t lead to much trust for the business. Of course it’s part of my due dilligence as a consumer to know which businesses are worth going to and which ones just kinda suck.
I only pointed it out because everytime I hit “cooperative” instead of “corporate” it threw me off the train of thought you were trying for since they are practically opposites of each other and I had to start over.
This is a serious question, and it’s not just for you, because I also see similar stories on notalwaysright.com:
If a customer opens packaging or otherwise makes an item unsellable, why aren’t they made to pay for it? And if they refuse, why aren’t they arrested for property damage or theft?
If you require cash…if everyone gave up credit cards and required cash…the result will be that your company makes less profit. People have a harder time parting with cash and maybe don’t have the cash (or not as much as they need) on them so they don’t buy.
Also, do you allow checks? If you do, there will be bad checks and so some loss of revenue.
CC fees may be too high…I don’t know. However, looking at what fees your company pays and seeing that revenue as lost is not fair. Revenue wouldn’t be as high without it and you don’t have to worry about bad checks.
Sorry to go off on the price matching tangent, but their “must be in stock” policy sounds pretty reasonable given that their competitors were clearly using dishonest tactics to force them to sell at a price the competitor itself wasn’t really honoring.
Could be much, much worse. Take a look at Best Buy’s blatant scamming. Apparently, Best Buy was giving employees bonuses not to honor price matching, and mandating that price match claims that gave them too much of a profit loss should be denied altogether, whether or not they were valid. Official company policy was “aggressively discouraging and denying customers’ proper price match requests.” The full complaint linked above is a pretty interesting read.
They also told customers that they’d match their online prices in stores. When customers asked a salesperson to give them the lower BestBuy.com prices, they were directed to in-store kiosks on which they could click a button labeled “BestBuy.com” and apparently look up site prices. Instead of the actual BestBuy.com site, though, they were taken to a company intranet site (read: fake site) that showed the higher in-store prices. :smack:
Sooooo dishonest. This crosses the line from deceptive business practices to outright, no-holds-barred conning.
