- Report: #88741
Complaint Review: Wal Mart Corporation - Anytown Nationwide
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Wal Mart Corporation
Commercial Dr. New Hartford, NY Anytown, Nationwide, U.S.A.
Phone:
479-2734000
Web:
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Wal Mart Corporation, Wal*mart Sam's Club Lying to consumers, Charging Additional Fees. Nationwide
To Whom it may concern:
Recently my girlfriend and I were customers at Wal*Mart Supercenter on Commercial Dr. in the Village of New Hartford, NY. When We attempted to use a debit card with credit using a signature instead of using the PIN option it was refused and we were forced to pay using the Debit option. As a result, We were charged by Wal*Mart an additional $0.50 fee to complete this transaction.
The local management was confrontational at first fiercly stating that it was our local bank, Savings Bank of Utica (SBU) who was charging the fee. SBU said they do not charge for debit transactions and said when Wal*Mart tries to charge this fee they deny it and do not charge their customers. They have been doing this because of so many complaints from customers. When we asked the store management about this they then said it was Mastercard charging us the fee.
We contaced Mastercard Intl. They DO NOT CHARGE FOR ANY MERCHANT BASED PURCHASES. And they directed me to information regarding a 1996 antitrust lawsuit involving Wal*mart and other major retailers Versus credit card companies. From what I gather, the suit challenged the "Honor all Cards" policy. This is a policy that allows consumers to use their debit or credit card wherever their card is accepted. "Honor All Cards" also allows the credit card companies to stay competetive. Unfortunately It seems that the Settlement allows retailers to deny certain types of cards.
I feel that the Wal*Mart corporation should give consumers the right to use their card any way they want and not give them an option that forces them to pay a fee. I believe that Mastercard and Visa's Honor All Cards policy promotes competetion and gives consumers a better option. Wal*Mart's Customer Service, Employees and Management must be educated on how toexplain these fees to customers properly.
At this point I have not recieved a reason as to why Wal*Mart chooses to charge this fee or why they choose to refuse certain types of signature based debit cards while allowing others (They deny this happens also but I have proof of this). The representatives simply deny that they are charging any fee. As long as Wal*Mart continues to deny signature based debit cards, and forces its customers to charge a fee for pin based transactions, I will boycott Wal*Mart and ask others to do the same.
Greg
13501, New York
U.S.A.
Recently my girlfriend and I were customers at Wal*Mart Supercenter on Commercial Dr. in the Village of New Hartford, NY. When We attempted to use a debit card with credit using a signature instead of using the PIN option it was refused and we were forced to pay using the Debit option. As a result, We were charged by Wal*Mart an additional $0.50 fee to complete this transaction.
The local management was confrontational at first fiercly stating that it was our local bank, Savings Bank of Utica (SBU) who was charging the fee. SBU said they do not charge for debit transactions and said when Wal*Mart tries to charge this fee they deny it and do not charge their customers. They have been doing this because of so many complaints from customers. When we asked the store management about this they then said it was Mastercard charging us the fee.
We contaced Mastercard Intl. They DO NOT CHARGE FOR ANY MERCHANT BASED PURCHASES. And they directed me to information regarding a 1996 antitrust lawsuit involving Wal*mart and other major retailers Versus credit card companies. From what I gather, the suit challenged the "Honor all Cards" policy. This is a policy that allows consumers to use their debit or credit card wherever their card is accepted. "Honor All Cards" also allows the credit card companies to stay competetive. Unfortunately It seems that the Settlement allows retailers to deny certain types of cards.
I feel that the Wal*Mart corporation should give consumers the right to use their card any way they want and not give them an option that forces them to pay a fee. I believe that Mastercard and Visa's Honor All Cards policy promotes competetion and gives consumers a better option. Wal*Mart's Customer Service, Employees and Management must be educated on how toexplain these fees to customers properly.
At this point I have not recieved a reason as to why Wal*Mart chooses to charge this fee or why they choose to refuse certain types of signature based debit cards while allowing others (They deny this happens also but I have proof of this). The representatives simply deny that they are charging any fee. As long as Wal*Mart continues to deny signature based debit cards, and forces its customers to charge a fee for pin based transactions, I will boycott Wal*Mart and ask others to do the same.
Greg
13501, New York
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
Radford,Virginia,
U.S.A.
Wal-Mart's response was to lie and claim that a third party, not Wal-Mart, receives the extra fee
#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, April 24, 2004
They won the lawsuit so they don't have to accept your debit card with a signature. If you use a signature, it will processed through Mastercard as if it were a credit card. Mastercard does not allow additional fees to be charged because someone used a Mastercard instead of cash. But if you use the PIN number, Mastercard is not involved. Instead it goes through an ATM network like Plus. ATM networks do allow extra fees to be charged, for example the owners of most ATMs (that are not owned by your bank) will collect an extra fee when you get cash. Wal-Mart has decided to charge an extra fee, maybe purely out of greed, or they want to recoup their cost of using the ATM network. They are hoping most people won't notice or won't care. When someone does notice, Wal-Mart's response was to lie and claim that a third party, not Wal-Mart, receives the extra fee. Lying to customers is just plain wrong. You should have left the merchandise on the counter and walked out of there. And don't look back. I haven't bought anything at Wal-Mart for nearly a year now.
