Sunday, November 23, 2008

A worrying trend

Maverick have been doing this for ages, and it looks like Chevron have now cottoned on to the idea: screw over motorists who want to pay for petrol with credit or debit cards. This week, the Chevron nearest us changed it's sign. There's now two prices for each grade of petrol. The cash or Chevron Card price, and the credit/debit/pay at the pump price.
Of course the credit/debit price is 5¢ a gallon more.
So let me get this straight.
Because we pump the petrol ourselves, and don't have to interact with their staff, and don't give them the cost and potential fraud of cash-counting, we have to pay more?
Surely paying cash should cost more? After all, that involves infrastructure and employees which cost a lot more than a petrol pump calling up my bank and just taking the money.
Of course Chevron will argue that the credit/debit fees are so expensive they have to charge more. But wait - if you use the Chevron-branded card, apparently the fees aren't as expensive.
Here's the bottom line. If you can sell petrol for one price to people with cash, you can bloody well sell it for the same price to people who are absolving you of the cost of dealing with cash. Until that happens, may I politely suggest we all boycott Chevron.

No comments: