Wirelessly posted (Palm850/V0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))
Originally Posted by percysmith
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))
(After reading Jamar's void slip again)
I've just noticed the my "model" specimen Grand Hyatt Taipei bill
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...hk-33.html#492 is not as "model" as first thought.
Nothing wrong with the transaction - it came out right. My NTD33,700 came out as NTD33,700/HKD9,130.07, not HKD9,256.28/HKD9,256.28 as offered by DCC.
The confusing bit is the DCC message still being printed on the statement:
"I have chosen not to use the MasterCard
currency conversion process and agree
that I will have no recourse against
Mastercard concerning the currency
conversion or its disclosure"
This is inappropriate because DCC has been *successfully* refused, so the message shouldn't appear. I *have* chosen to use the Mastercard currency conversion process, otherwise I can't get HKD9,130.07.
So the message is not conclusive of whether DCC has been applied or successfully refused. DCC implementation is so fxcked up even in the hands of experienced and honest merchants and acquirers!
My applause for Global Payments Taiwan is misplaced. Global Payments (HSBC) must have been surpised to hear there's a compliant terminal on their system, and promptly buttfxcked it.
This week I'm spending some quality time with my girlfriend in Taiwan. I'm writing this mid trip, tho most of the card-swiping (and the below DCC buttfxck) was on day 1.
Everything from the Taipei airport bus, THSR, Tu Hsiao Yueh and Eslite processed my Shacom PLK MC ($1.6/mile) correctly. Even a small little restaurant in the Sun Moon Lake took my MC without complaint. The only places that didn't take my MC is Chunghwa Telecom for my prepaid card (but for NTD50/day for unlimited 3G data it's a must buy) and 7-Eleven.
All was well until I got to the hotel (a Chinatrust hotel). I suspected hotels are a popular DCC spot (my "model" DCC transaction is Grand Hyatt Taipei). I followed the cashier to the terminal, which had a big Global Payments logo, which the cashiers blu-tacked "Hui Feng" (HSBC) in Chinese.
I was presented a DCC slip with exactly the same wording as Grand Hyatt Taipei, and I even started signing it, looking up to remind the cashier "and you will charge NTD, won't you?".
"No choice" came the reply. She already was printing the customer copy (first slip from left). Unlike the Grand Hyatt slip, no currency choice is printed.
The next thing my girlfriend must have seen me do was lean on my stomach over the counter, waving my arms and demanding the cashier do it again.
The cashier was helpful, and has probably seen this complaint before. She repeated the process step by step.
1. Stick card into EMV chip reader.
2. Key in Enter (I think) and amount followed by Enter
3. Machine starts printing out merchant copy and customer copy (third slip from left).
The machine no longer stops between merchant and customer copies then before
And when the cashier reversed the payment (twice), the following is printed (second and fourth from left):
Local AMT: -NTD1,602
FX rate: 0.2742199HKD/NTD
TXN AMT: -HKD439.30
Quite evidently, Hui Feng has decided it can dispense with the choice for merchants' customers to opt into DCC, and buttfxck everyone.
My poor cashier had the patience to transact the amount for the third time, this time using my SCB AE card...I can't complain of her persistence.
For reference, the SCB AE just posted yesterday for 428.42 or NTD3.74/HKD. The above DCC rate quoted indirectly is 3.65, the rate I got for fee-free SCB withdrawals is 3.72 and the HKAB sell rate was 3.73. So the DCC scalp is 2%. Of course I also lose the $2.5/mile earn rate on foreign spending for $8/mile normal HKD spending earn rate.
Having seen the reverse slip, I can better appreciate Jamar's Secrep Recipe slip now. It'll print merchant slip as if there's a choice, the customer slip without a recorded choice, whilst in the back end DCC would have applied no matter what u do.
It's not Hui Feng China that's the problem. When it comes to ripping customers off, the World's Local Bank is very global.