I am so mad...Warning for debit/credit card users

[joats]

Just a warning out there for anyone who uses debit/credit cards at restaurants. Make sure that if you are not leaving a tip on the card to put a slash thru the tip line and/or write in the total at the bottom.

I'm sure I can't be the only one who has been trusting that a restaurant wouldn't add a tip to a bill without your permission?

I was checking my bank statements against my receipts and the local pizza place in town added a nice 30% tip for themselves to the two pizza's I picked up a few weeks ago. I am so mad!
I don't tip for take-out. 30% on a $25 dollar bill...PUH-LEASE!!

Hopefully you can learn from my mistake. This ever happen to anyone else?

 

[vald1977]

This has happened before to us (not 30 % though ). It has always been removed before the charge is finalized and only shows up as a pending charge. I hope it works out for you.

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

I hope you went to the restaurant and complained. I think I would have called the police if I were you.

 

[adamak]

Not only that, I put a $$ sign in front of the amount, the decimal and put 00 after that too. My friend once had someone added a 1 before the tips, and you can imagine the damage ($100 more!). He argued with the credit card company but his signature is there, so there isn't anything much you can do. He filed a police report, but never heard from anyone again.

 

[faithinkarma]

vald1977 is right. This happened to me a few weeks ago, and I had a hissy fit. In my case it was not even a meal purchased at a restaurant. My husband had bought cigarettes and was levied a 20% tip. Turns out it is now pretty much standard policy at many restaurants. And it is not the restaurant doing it, it is the credit card machine.

If you keep a daily eye on your account you will begin to see this more and more. And interestingly enough, different machines assign a different tip percentage.

It usually takes a maximum of 5 banking days to have the balance adjusted to remove the "tip".

Personally I think it is just one more huge bank scam. They have just found a legal way to have their hands on our money for a couple of days. Imagine the interest generated on all the restaurant tips in one day !

Let us know how this turns out joats please.

 

[joats]

Thanks everybody for your replies.

In my opinion, this is fraud and I can't wait for that restaurant to open at 4pm today. I'll be ready to speak with them I assure you.

I always save every receipt and do a thorough check with the bank statement. I've been using the debit card for years without a problem so I guess only having this one incident I am lucky.

I am curious to see next months as I just ordered pizza from the same place this past week. Wonder if they'll jack up the receipt again.

Believe me, even though it's under $10 I'll still be making a big stink about it. I just think it's a horrible way to treat your regular customers (any customer at that).

Well I learned my lesson I'll be making sure to draw a big line in the tip section or X it out when I pick up take out. As well as ad $ and decimals (thanks adamak)

faithinkarma: Is that really true a machine will just add it? I would have to think that the restaurant would have some hand in that.

 

[faithinkarma]

I doubt if you will get anywhere with the restaurant. My husband went back to the restaurant absolutely furious.

But the restaurant owner was able to show him the restaurant's copy of the receipt with no tip added. Apparently it is the operators of the bank machines responsible.

The reasoning behind it is that you could conceivable only have 100 bucks to spend, the restaurant bill is 99 bucks, they clear it, and you then add a ten dollar tip, meaning you do not have the funds to cover the total bill.

On the last thread one person told of leaving the tip on the table in cash, then the bank machine added the tip to her debit card, and since she did not have enough funds to cover the total including tip, her card got rejected.

And drawing a line through the receipt won't help. My husband always prints in big letters " tip left on table" and we are still being charged the extra each time.

I believe it is a fairly new phenomenon. I check bank balances online daily, and have only noticed it in the last month. Maybe if enough people get mad about it, it wil stop. But I doubt if enough people will care. For myself, I hate the idea of the banks profiting from any of my money for even a second.

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

What on Earth would make ANY bank think they can decide the tip for you? I think I would changing my bank if I were you. That is fraud, plain and simple.

 

[karebear1]

My DD had this happen to her wherhe she had herh hair done. they added a tip to her debit card! She called the bank a nd the palce where she had her hair done. The bank was furious! They said that the salon could be in danger of losing their ability to accept charges because of this. Be sure you make a complaint to your bank! They automatically flagged this interaction and then crdited her account and called the salon. The salon, needless to say, was very unhappy with DD, but apologized for the "misundersatnding".

 

[faithinkarma]

we complained long and loud to the bank and got nowhere. If you only see your bank account once a month, you would not notice they are doing this unless you happened to eat out within a day or two fo the statement being sent out.

But if you check it online daily, you will see it happen almost all the time.

karebear1,

It soulds like in your case that salon was actually responsible for adding the tip. that is not what happened in our case. As I said, the restaurant owner was able to show s his copy of the receipt which had no tip added.

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

So, what exactly did the bank say when you called and complained Faithinkarma?

 

[faithinkarma]

I work as a customer service rep for visa and mc gift cards. The bank has nothing to do with the extra authorization. The software in the terminals at restaurants, hotels, beauty salons, any place that there could be a tip or incidental charges automatically adds up to 20% to make sure there is enough money available if you do leave a tip on the card. Every charge transaction ( such as a debit card transactions not using your pin)

This is an answer I got on the previous thread.

Here is the link to the entire thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=533795&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

 

[faithinkarma]

So, what exactly did the bank say when you called and complained Faithinkarma?

The bank said that it was common practice now. They pretty much left me with the impression that it was the bank doing it.

But as someone said on the thread I just linked to, I was probably speaking to one of those people who will say anything to end the conversation.

And why is it that so many people who work in customer service are more interested in getting rid of you than in providing service

That same week that I had the "tip" issuue with the bank, I had another more serious issue.

I get my pension check in Canadian funds. I deposit it into my account here. They hold the check until it clears, this I completely understand. But they charge my account the exchange on the Canadian funds the day I make the deposit. In other words, I have to maintain a minimum of roughly $500 balance to cover the cost of depositing money to which I do not have access for another 5 days.

I solved the problem by depositing the money to the savings instead of the checking. But you can imagine my horror the first time they charged me this money leaving my checking acccount overdrawn !

 

[peachgirl]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why this happens.

I know they do this at gas stations or anywhere you swipe your card before the purchase. I was told that for gas stations they usually pre-authorize $50 which will show up for a short time as a $50 pending charge regardless of how much the purchase really was.

But, at a restaurant, you don't give them your card until after the bill is totaled. At that time they can see if you left a tip on the card and they know exactly how much the charge would be. Why on earth would they need to pre-authorize anything?

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by peachgirl
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why this happens.

I know they do this at gas stations or anywhere you swipe your card before the purchase. I was told that for gas stations they usually pre-authorize $50 which will show up for a short time as a $50 pending charge regardless of how much the purchase really was.

But, at a restaurant, you don't give them your card until after the bill is totaled. At that time they can see if you left a tip on the card and they know exactly how much the charge would be. Why on earth would they need to pre-authorize anything?

At a restaurant, they run your card through as a pending transaction before you total it with the tip. Then finalize it later with the tip included. They need to pre-authorize it to make sure the card is good before you leave the table.

 

[faithinkarma]

DebbieB is correct.

They total the bill, excluding the tip, get approval and return to the table for you to sign it. It is at this time that you add in a tip, after approval has already been obtained.

 

[joats]

thanks for the link to a previous post on this topic.

Wow, I wasn't aware of any of this. Makes me want to pay for everything in cash from now on...forget Disney $$! The measley 1% from Visa isn't worth this hassle.

How can it be that you are charged other than what you sign for...I just don't get it. No one has the right to screw with my money!!

The restaurant better adjust the amount when I go this afternoon.

 

[robsmom]

I don't fully understand.

peachgirl - I think that in most restaurants you give the card, they run in throught the machine and then you add the tip when they bring you the receipt. At the time they are running in thru, i can understand the restaurant machine sending a pre-authorization amount that includes an estimated tip. you are not actually paying this, they are just pre-authorizing the amount.

faithinkarma,

I am not sure that I fully understand. You give the impression that the bank is making money on this not the restaurant, but then you said you wouldn't notice it if you check your statement only monthly. So what you really are complaining about is the temporary pending charge that shows up because the restaurant is pre-authorizing a tip? On a credit card, there is really no big deal here unless you are saying that they are charging you interest for a day or two on the pending charge. I guess if you are using a debit card and they are putting a hold on your money for a few days - I could see a bit of a problem.

this is very different than what the OP is complaining about. She is actually getting the charge and being expected to pay it.

If you actually paid the charge and the restaurant says the didn't get the money and bank took it - then that is fraud. if this is a few day pending type of thing and no one got your money, i can understand no one being able to help you. if you actually lost the money like the OP, keep yelling and loudly until the bank hears you.

 

[faithinkarma]

I am not sure that I fully understand. You give the impression that the bank is making money on this not the restaurant, but then you said you wouldn't notice it if you check your statement only monthly.

You would not notice it, because the money is only out of your account for a few days. Probably replaced before you realize it is gone.

For every dollar the bank has it is making money, earning interest on its assets. They are withholding 10 dollars of mine for 3 - 5 days. They are making a pittance of interest on that money.

But they are not just holding my 10 dollars. They are holding a percentage of every one of their customers' restaurant bills at any given time. That adds up to a huge chunk of change. Money the bank is making.

I think they have found a perfect set up. Certainly I am not really losing anything significant ( interest on 10 bucks for a few days ) but the volume they deal in gives them a nice profit.

 

[TinkHappy]

I am just wondering who is getting this money??? . If a charge card is adjusted without the tip filled out in the tip line...the server doesn't know to take the tip out? I am very confused about this.

Oh Ya, I ALWAYS pay cash when I go out. I have never been confortable handing over my CC to a server. Call me paranoid, but that's just me.