Ards Forum

Posted: **Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:38 pm**

Rip Off

Rip off at local children's Play Cafe On entering the premises id noticed that i was

in an dilemma no cash on me ! so approached check in and asked if an could pay by

debit card the girl said yes but you have to pay an additional Â£1.00 for

transactions under Â£9.00 id thought this was an bit cheeky so id paid the money any

way and entered, after about 10 minutes id decided to purchase some refreshments an

some sausage rolls for my self an my niece and to my horror was told that an have to

pay an extra Â£1.00 for transactions under Â£9.00 so what the F**K are they doing up

there no warning signs or notice to the above subject does anyone know if this is

legal please reply to this post to give your opinion on this subject.

Child entry fee is Â£4.50. Time allocated per child is 90 minutes.

Posted: **Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:31 pm**

i will look into it for you, did they ask you to pay the Â£1 twice

Posted: **Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:46 pm**

Yeh pay another Â£1.00 but not the same cash register the catering area is about 30 feet away

from the main desk, the girl at the catering area had went over to ask the manager because id

complained and came back and said that id have to pay the extra sum of money even though they are

no notice telling you of such transactions viable for the play cafe.

Posted: **Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:14 am**

If I spend Â£200 at Tesco. Payment costs to Tesco are Â£1.80 if I pay by credit card (assuming high volume 0.9% rate) and 10p if I pay by debit card. If I pay by cash, they earn a 25p interchange revenue, not cost. They take my cash out of the till and into their ATM where they earn an interchange fee when someone withdraws it. Otherwise they just bank it and pay 1p bank charge for so doing. Tesco earns better margin if the customer pays by cash.

If I set up a new high street store selling Nintendo DS games - average ticket price Â£25. I will pay 50p on credit card sales (if I'm lucky to get a 2% rate) and 20p on debit card sales. If the punter pays in cash I'll pay 1p in bank charges to lodge that but I wouldn't pay that for the first two years of free business banking (but note this does not extend to card processing fees). To get my business off the ground I just need a second hand cash register to start accepting cash. I will definitely also accept card payment but will find the acquirer application process daunting. Their "welcome pack" will consist of 3 pages of marketing blurb and 20 pages of card scheme rules which are totally incomprehensibly to even the most hardened payment professional. In my small business, cash is value enhancing and card payment chews into my profits.

http://digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/d ... in-tr.html

Its seems everyone is winning here, will have to look into this more

Posted: **Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:20 am**

This is also discriminating to people with one child, (two times Â£4.50 = Â£9.00)the price for 2 children would be the limit for the debit card

Posted: **Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:29 pm**

Discuss lol

Posted: **Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:57 am**

Heard anything back yet homer

Posted: **Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:06 am**

Still waiting on reply from you know who ! eg: TS

Posted: **Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:30 pm**

Reply from Trading Standards

Trading Standards Service

Dear ????????

Further to our communication of 1 August 2008 I visited the Playcafe in Newtownards Yesterday (4 August 2008). Notices referring to the charge made for debit card payments were clearly displayed at both cash points, the entrance and also in the cafe. The prices for food and drinks in the cafe were also clearly displayed. I spoke to the manager, Ms Jenna Collins, who explained that customers are normally informed that if their total expenditure, both entrance fee of Â£4.50 and the money spent in the cafe exceeds the lower limit of Â£10.00 then there would be no additional charge for alternative methods of payment. In these circumstances customers are only asked to produce their receipt from the cafe at the entrance reception desk. You should have been informed of this.

Since there is no breach of Trading Standards Legislation I am notifying you to confirm that our investigation has now been completed and that the Trading Standards Service will be taking no further enforcement action in relation to this matter, which has now been filed as `closed`.

May I,finally,thank you for bringing the matter to our attention.

Yours sincerely

K C

Area Inspector

Id thought that we the public should know about this topic, hopefully this is rectified ?
If anyone wants to comment feel free.

Posted: **Sat Aug 30, 2008 4:11 pm**

Could of been tipped off?

Posted: **Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:26 am**

Homer wrote:Reply from Trading Standards

Trading Standards Service

Dear ????????

Further to our communication of 1 August 2008 I visited the Playcafe in Newtownards Yesterday (4 August 2008). Notices referring to the charge made for debit card payments were clearly displayed at both cash points, the entrance and also in the cafe. The prices for food and drinks in the cafe were also clearly displayed. I spoke to the manager, Ms Jenna Collins, who explained that customers are normally informed that if their total expenditure, both entrance fee of Â£4.50 and the money spent in the cafe exceeds the lower limit of Â£10.00 then there would be no additional charge for alternative methods of payment. In these circumstances customers are only asked to produce their receipt from the cafe at the entrance reception desk. You should have been informed of this.

Since there is no breach of Trading Standards Legislation I am notifying you to confirm that our investigation has now been completed and that the Trading Standards Service will be taking no further enforcement action in relation to this matter, which has now been filed as `closed`.

May I,finally,thank you for bringing the matter to our attention.

Yours sincerely

K C

Area Inspector

Id thought that we the public should know about this topic, hopefully this is rectified ?
If anyone wants to comment feel free.

How can you produce a receipt for the cafe if you first of all have to pay to get in to the Play Cafe ? Do we order drink's and food at the Reception prior to going in so as not to get a additional charge for being under the Â£10 mark lol.

Or is it that you can just come of the street and go into Play Cafe for drink's and food without paying to get in to said cafe which they should then make public then the local worker's at the recycling plant and other neighbouring businesses can just enter for their lunch with their smelly clothe's and soiled work boot's etc without having to go to other shop's lol, strange this one

In trying time's a big sign saying Cafe/Play Cafe open to the public rather than Play Cafe would make more money

Could any one verify this as i am sure that's the whole idea is to pay to get in lol

Can any one verify that you can just walk in for the Cafe only !!!!!