I had a similar experience at a local merchant with a Saks Mastercard issued by HSBC. Everyone I spoke with at the issuing bank and at Mastercard's general hotline was untrained on Mastercard's policy against adding a credit card surcharge. I was shocked at their ignorance.
I reported the incident on Mastercard's website for such purposes, hoping that it would be routed to an intelligent employee, but I didn't dispute the charge for fear that it would be flagged as a fraud attempt on my end. I have just chosen to avoid this merchant in the future and to use American Express whenever possible.
Originally Posted by
tommyleo
While I was in Mexico, a restaurant added a 5% surcharge to my bill for using my US MC. This is in clear violation of the MC merchants agreement. (Also, merchants cannot require a minimum purchase for MC use. )
I called the US MC customer service line and spoke to two agents and two supervisors because I wanted to dispute the charge. Amazingly, none of them knew the rules above. In fact, they came off cocksure when telling me that merchants can set their own policies.
I still filed the dispute, making sure to include a link to the MC site that explains these policies.