I'm in a small Georgia town for the weekend, visiting my mother who remarried and retired here. I am amazed at the number of small businesses here that either don't take American Express cards at all, or that put up a fuss when you try to use one.

Yesterday, I went to the local menswear store to buy a sportcoat. I saw the Amex logo on the door, so when it came time to pay I gave the clerk my card and he said, "sorry, we don't take American Express." I said, "well, the sign on the door says you do," and he replied "okay, we'll take it if you're going to walk out the door, but don't you have a Visa or MasterCard you can use instead? American Express just charges us really high fees." I relented and ended up paying with my BA Visa card (hey, I got miles either way). But I'm never going to shop at this store again because of their hostile attitude toward accepting Amex cards. It should be my choice as to how I want to pay if the store puts an Amex sign in the door.

Later on that day, my mother, her husband, and I went into a furniture/interior design store where someone had the audacity to write in the words "with 3% fee" below the American Express logo on the door. Credit card surcharges are, of course, against the merchant agreement everywhere in the US, and prohibited by law in many states (though not in Georgia). I will be reporting this merchant violation to Amex.

While I do think American Express should lower its merchant processing fees to be more in line with Visa/Mastercard, until then if a store doesn't want to pay the higher fees, they just shouldn't accept Amex at all. Many small businesses in the South don't take Amex, but many of those that do put unreasonable conditions on customers' use of the Card.

Here are the names and addresses of the two merchants mentioned above:
R.J. Pope Menswear, 5 S Main St, Statesboro, GA 30458; 912-764-4306
Alicia Bea's, 62 E Main St, Statesboro, GA 30458-4844; (912)489-4898

Please post the names and addresses of Amex-unfriendly merchants here so we know not to patronize them.