ComfortDelGro refunds 10% Visa surcharge back to commuter
On 15 Mar, Straits Times (ST) published an article reporting that ComfortDelGro would be losing the payment facility for commuters to pay their cab rides via Visa (¡®Cab firm and Visa in surcharge stand-off¡¯).
It said that commuters will no longer be able to use their Visa cards to pay for cab rides in ComfortDelGro¡¯s cabs by June, unless ComfortDelGro is willing to remove its surcharges.
At present, ComfortDelGro will levy a 10% surcharge on commuters who use their Visa cards to pay for cab rides. Visa International said that this is a breach of contract terms between Visa and ComfortDelGro.
Both have been trying to resolve the issue for the past 3 years but to no avail. ComfortDelGro is standing its ground to levy the 10% surcharge. Visa International is not happy with the conduct of ComfortDelGro. Finally, it issued an ultimatum to ComfortDelGro last month to stop the surcharge or Visa will terminate the contract with ComfortDelGro.
ST reported that Visa International had said that ComfortDelGro refused to budge on the issue, and had instead informed Visa that it would stop accepting Visa cards in its cabs by May or early June.
Visa International said removing the surcharges will lower costs for consumers and encourage more people to go cashless.
The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) is behind Visa International in this matter and has urged ComfortDelGro to explain why it had imposed such a hefty 10% surcharge in the first place as typically, most merchants pay banks a 3-5% fee per credit card transaction.
After ST published this news, a reader then contacted TR Emeritus (TRE) expressing his disgusts with the behavior of ComfortDelGro.
The reader said, ¡°How did they arrive at the 10%? No where in the world people will levy a 10% surcharge for the use of Visa credit card to make payments. This is daylight robbery!¡±
He added, ¡°And to add insults, they actually have the cheek to charge another 7% GST on top of the 10% surcharge!¡±
He also said that ComfortDelGro did not put any signs in the cab to mention about the 10% surcharge for using credit cards to make payments. ¡°This is a breach of contract between the commuter and ComfortDelGro. They are not being transparent over the whole issue,¡± he explained.
He said sarcastically, ¡°In this case, why not levy a 100% surcharge C even better! ComfortDelGro can immediately double its revenue.¡±
In fact, the reader was so angry that he called up ComfortDelGro to give them a piece of his mind. In the end, his ¡°yelling¡± worked and ComfortDelGro actually refunded him the 10% surcharge plus the GST levy on top of the surcharge.
TRE hasverified the original copies of the receipt and cheque refund to confirm his story.
The reader added, ¡°If Visa or any aggrieved commuters who have been shortchanged, wish to to take appropriate legal actions against ComfordDelgro on this matter, I¡¯m prepared to stand as witness for all aggrieved parties or Visa. I have kept the original copies of receipt and cheque refund as evidence.¡±
¡°I¡¯m just angry with all kinds of bullying that have been going on in this country with no transparency and accountability at all. It is always the consumers who have to bear the blunt of such increase in cost.¡±
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Editor¡¯s note: TRE would be happy to put anyone who is serious about taking legal actions against ComfordDelgro in touch with the reader.
This post is informative but is it really helpful......???? Hmmmmm...
In this case, I should start yelling at those local cost carriers because whenever I book their flights, they will impose a service charge on my Visa !!! They say it is some kind of agent service fee or what not.....Hmmmmm....wonder why Visa did not say anything about it.....?????
Ha....Ha....I guess the amount is too huge compared to the kuching-kurat taxi fare collected by Comfort and Visa does not have the guts to touch airlines!!!!!
