Originally Posted by
Newark7
I had a problem with this recently at the Hotel Novotel Paris Gare Montparnasse. They swiped my Visa card and immediately a CC signature slip printed out with the amount in USD & fine print at the bottom saying I've been offered a choice of currencies & agree to their exchange rate + 3%. I told the hotel clerk to cancel the charge and start again and only charge in Euros. She said it automatically came up in USD and there was no option to decline. She refunded the amount in Euros, but didn't refund the 3% exchange rate upcharge, so my CC statement showed a total refund of a lesser amount. When she manually keyed in my CC number instead of swiping it (on the second attempt) the signature slip came out in Euros. So it seems that swiping vs keying in the number can make a difference in regards to being charged a DCC or not (at least at Novotel branded hotels).
Purely and simply, she is a liar. Period. At some point in the transaction, she was asked whether you wished to pay in euro or in US dollars and to press the appropriate button. Also, every charge has to have provision to be voided....not credited. I don't care what they say. They are liars almost crooks when they say that (although perhaps they are simply students trying to pick up an extra euro or two). Every terminal has to have provision to void a transaction as honest mistakes do sometimes occur (you know entering 532 euro instead of 5.32 euro, the finger accidentally (note no quotation marks) off the decimal point as the amount was entered. Of course, many pos terminals print the amount off the cash register and the clerk does not enter the amount yada yada yada. There is no way in the world the clerk couldn't have voided the transaction.