so yea im working at havener again, and i get thirsty. So i head over to the food court for a cup-o-water. I have no cash on me, so i ask if i can get a free small cup of water. lady says no, so i put $.16 on my credit card for a gddam cup of water...

I got to thinking right away that chartwells just lost money on that transaction.. im not sure how much but i know they did since most places make you spend atleast a few bucks before they let u use your card.. but the cashieer insisted i payed.

So now im thinking that we could really fuck with charwells... when ever you get a chance buy a $.15 cup of water with your creditcard, i mean its only $.16 after taxes, so do it a few times.

i know for a fact that charwells will get pissy real quick.

They aren't nescasarrily (I butchered the spelling I guess) losing money, they might get charged a percentage. I used to work at a place that got charged 3%. That might be what Shitwells does...

Their policies make no sense to me. Last week, I forgot my student ID, and they wouldn't take my student number because of fraud, so I used my credit card without them checking signatures or anything.

Most places get charged $0.75 per transaction. The businesses that do fewer but higher-dollar transactions (like a gun store or a furniture store) get charged a certain percentage of each transaction.

Taco Bell charges you the $0.75 outright. Most places have a limit to cut their losses. Your idea to stick it to chartwells is excellent, and will be highly effective in approximately one month.

Likely, they will start refusing to do any sales under $5 or so. So you won't get any cups of water less'n you pay cash.

I didn't think places were allowed to pass the credit card fees on to the customer

I eat at taco bell all the time and use a credit card, they don't charge extra. I think the .75 was for their "ATM" where you could use a debit card to pay and get cash if you want to.

Actually, IIRC, anyone who accepts credit cards legally has to accept them for any amount - so I believe they could get in big trouble with CC processing companies if they say "CC for $5+ Orders"

Every bar I've been to has usually had a $10 minimum if you want to pay with a credit card. Which is why it is better to bring cash when you go out drinking.

lots of places have a minimum spent requirement, chinese places are like $10 for example, grotto is apparently $3.50.

but places like tacobell will usually pass the creditcard ability off into their prices, so even if u use cash you still pay for others to use creditcards.

but anyway you look at it i can almost gurantee $.16 is under anything crapwells is getting charged per order payed on creditcard, so even if its $.20 a transaction there still paying $.4 for me to take their gddam cup and fill it with water

plus the cups cost $.10 to $.15 a piece

Most places give free cups for water, chartwells is just trying to rip us off.

yea found a way to rip em right back

Isn't there a water fountain in Havener?

Right between the bathrooms on the atrium side (not sure about the bookstore side.

Anyways, them losing $.04 per purchase doesn't really sound like it is worth it to me.

As I've always understood it, and I may be way off base, but the widest profit margins in the restaraunt business are made from beverages, and that the only actual cost comes in the cup (so many sodas are made from the syrup canisters they get that the cost is relatively negligible), hence why Havener started charging for ice cups about halfway through the year. If that's correct, it would actually be detrimental to only get water, then pay with credit cards. It would have to be in extremely mass numbers, but, hey, you never know. Cashier's tell me too that Chartwell's keeps telling all it's employees to cut back on portions because they're losing money here.