Christi Tullis

I honestly couldn't believe it. Vendors actually wanted my company to pay “a service charge”— their way to cover their costs of taking a credit card. For those of you who are unaware, this is a complete violation of any agreement to accept credit cards.

For those of us merchants who choose to take credit cards, there is an “oath” taken with our signature stating many things, including monthly fees, percentage rates, reserve accounts, recoupment or set off.

Credit card companies send us the rule books for the cards we wish to accept — each card completely equipped with its very own set of encyclopedias. For example, let's take Visa. Visa's rules state that a merchant may imply a Convenience Fee, but only if we aren't face-to-face, the amount must be flat or fixed and not a percentage of the transaction, and the same fee must be applied to all forms of payment accepted through the alternate channel. For instance, if you can pay face-to-face, there can be no additional charges, but if you choose to make a payment online, the merchant may impose the Convenience Fee.

With a recent vendor, our company was billed for a percentage of the cost of our invoice. This is not acceptable according to credit rules and regulations. The only way that terms such as these could have been imposed would be if the vendor had a disclosure statement on a purchase order or other agreement that had been signed before the purchase was made. A disclosure statement must contain how refunds, exchanges or credits will be handled with any merchant.

Buyers, beware. Be careful what you are signing and agreeing to when purchasing products from vendors. You may be signing a fine print disclosure agreement and not even know it. If you have questions for the vendor, ask! You won't be the first or the last to ask the question, and remember that there really is no such thing as a stupid question.

Business can be difficult enough without the hassle of hidden fees, but definitely don't ignore them. Some may say, “it's not worth my time, I'll just pay the fees and go on,” and some may not even realize the fees exist. Whatever you do, don't be a sucker; it will hurt your company's profits.

Dealing with these issues is simple: If paying by check, simply short-pay the invoice and write a note on a copy to send with your check. When paying by credit card let the customer service representative know that you will be paying your invoice in full and that you refuse to pay the undisclosed charges. If the vendor charges the entire amount to your credit card, call the number on the back of the card to dispute that amount.

Eventually the rule-breaking merchants will lose; they'll realize it's not an easy, pass-the-buck situation. Some merchants may not know they're rule breakers, and you maybe the first to bring the wrong practices to their attention. Other companies could need to increase their prices, but may not have allocated funds to reprint costly price lists. If that's the case, I say N.M.P…. not my (or my company's) problem.

To learn more about Visa's rules, visit http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf.