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What's the strangest fee or service charge you've ever seen?

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macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 29, 2003
2,448
1
West Coast
I was listening to an NPR podcast to too long ago that dealt with "Gotcha Capitalism."

This is basically the art of consumers being nickel and dimed with hidden fees, services charges and the like at hotels, airlines... on their utility, internet and phone bills... from delivery services and restaurants... from banks and insurance companies... etc, etc, etc.

For example, the one that got the guest on the show really worked up was a fee most cell phone bills include that is the cost of collecting the other fees on the bill. So they charge an extra 90 cents to collect a $1.25 and 73 cent charge...

So what's the most outrageous and/or weirdest fee you've ever been charged? I guess that could probably be one in the same!
 
I won't say this is the weirdest I have come across, but it is one that I can think of now. The Eat-In Tax at McDonalds. It is something like $0.75 added to the order before the sales tax. Funny thing is I have been charged with it while going through the drive thru.
 
creator2456 said:
The Eat-In Tax at McDonalds. It is something like $0.75 added to the order before the sales tax.
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the eat in tax is the actual tax, so you don't get charged extra for eating in. you'll notice if you order take out they will charge you a take out tax, which is the same thing as the eat in tax only worded differently.
 
KompleX said:
the eat in tax is the actual tax, so you don't get charged extra for eating in. you'll notice if you order take out they will charge you a take out tax, which is the same thing as the eat in tax and you're state's tax rate.
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If they're the same thing, why differentiate?
 
KompleX said:
the eat in tax is the actual tax, so you don't get charged extra for eating in. you'll notice if you order take out they will charge you a take out tax, which is the same thing as the eat in tax only worded differently.
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Never noticed the drive-thru tax. Going to have to check next time.
 
Gotta go with Ticketmaster charging you to print out your tickets using your own paper and ink (but not charging you if you pick them up at the venue).
 
UWSpindoctor said:
Gotta go with Ticketmaster charging you to print out your tickets using your own paper and ink (but not charging you if you pick them up at the venue).
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They charge for printing? I never noticed that... I'll have to look more carefully next time.

EDIT: By coincidence, I just checked my user profile and this is my 3400th post. Haha.
 
Ticketmaster FTW. The fees that they charge on top of the ticket are ridiculous.

I also hate when restaurants charge a set percentage for tips (I've seen 18% usually) if you have a party of 6 (usually) or more. I'll tip as much as I want based on the service. If I want to tip more, as I usually do, I will. If I want to tip 18%, I will. If the service and the food sucked, why should I be forced to provide a minimum tip?
 
Surely said:
Ticketmaster FTW. The fees that they charge on top of the ticket are ridiculous.

I also hate when restaurants charge a set percentage for tips (I've seen 18% usually) if you have a party of 6 (usually) or more. I'll tip as much as I want based on the service. If I want to tip more, as I usually do, I will. If I want to tip 18%, I will. If the service and the food sucked, why should I be forced to provide a minimum tip?
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The last place I went that did that tacked on something like 10%. Granted, we were a huge group -- a party of about 75 people, though everyone was billed separately and paid on their own. I was not aware of the "auto-tip" until someone complained to me (the event organizer). I had to go around and warn everyone discreetly that the tip would be already included when they got the bill.

A lot of people shrugged and said "Hey, I would have given more, but if they're going to charge 10% - so be it." I would have too, my usual tipping range is 15-20%.

But the service fees I hate most by far are banking fees. They pay you three cents in interest and then take away $3.95 in service charges.
 
I like getting the VAT off Fish and Chips when you buy them 'cold'.

So that's not a fee, it's money off. But certainly strange.
 
Yeah, Ticketmaster is really ridiculous.

The worst thing is, not only do they charge you to print your tickets, but if you don't get them printed, there's also a free first class mail delivery option.

So it costs less to have them print the tickets AND mail them to you than for you to save them time and resources on both counts and print them yourself...
 
Unspeaked said:
Yeah, Ticketmaster is really ridiculous.

The worst thing is, not only do they charge you to print your tickets, but if you don't get them printed, there's also a free first class mail delivery option.

So it costs less to have them print the tickets AND mail them to you than for you to save them time and resources on both counts and print them yourself...
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I agree, but what is even more ridiculous is that the majority of people who use Ticketmaster end up printing their tickets...
 
While I was in Europe last week I flew from Pisa to London on RyanAir. They charged me and my fiancée €4 each to print boarding passes for the flight because we didn't check in online. Although it's bad enough that they charge this fee in the first place, what made it even more outrageous was that, 1) You can only check in online if you have a EU passport (mine is Canadian), and 2) their online checkin wasn't working that day. Yet they still wouldn't let us on the flight without paying the fee since we didn't check in online.
 
I just thought of a good one: back when I was a kid and baseball cards came with a stick of gum, Topps copyrighted the whole "gum and cards" thing so the other sports card companies had to include other things like stickers or puzzle pieces.

All of Topps packs had no tax added to them because they were considered "food" because of the stale stick of gum, while the others all had state sales tax.

Very stupid.
 
creator2456 said:
Never noticed the drive-thru tax. Going to have to check next time.
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More clarification: I know that my home state of Michigan has both an Eat-In and Take-Out tax. The drive-thru is the latter. I think all restaurants, not just fast food, have to charge it. I spent a summer in god-forsaken Ohio and they had an Eat-In tax but not a Take-Out tax, so most of us said "to go" and then ate there on the bags they gave us. No one cared.
 
If a restaurant adds a service charge directly to my bill, I won't pay it. It's simple. If you deserve a tip, you would have got it anyway. And I don't want to be paying my tips on a card, where it'll never see the people that deserve it.
 
SpookTheHamster said:
If a restaurant adds a service charge directly to my bill, I won't pay it. It's simple. If you deserve a tip, you would have got it anyway. And I don't want to be paying my tips on a card, where it'll never see the people that deserve it.
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Yeah, as far as I know that's illegal (to charge it) in the US and commonplace in many places in Europe.
 
Unspeaked said:
This is basically the art of consumers being nickel and dimed with hidden fees, services charges and the like at hotels, airlines... on their utility, internet and phone bills... from delivery services and restaurants... from banks and insurance companies... etc, etc, etc.
Click to expand...

If you consumers would not respond to "Lowest Price" marketing like you do, they wouldn't have to unbundle all these charges to be competitive. Also, why on earth shouldn't the consumer have to pay for every service and item they receive? You can bet the businesses all have to pay to provide them, even the water or salt and pepper you get for "free".
 
Toll roads. Maybe it's because I've lived in MO all my life where we don't have any toll roads, but you pay tax on fuel, sales tax on the car, registration/title fees, license renewal fees, you'd think they would have enough to not need tolls. And some of them are ridiculous. I paid like 6 bucks to cross the bridge from NJ into Manhattan. You'd think with the thousands of cars using that bridge a day, they would've more than covered the cost of the bridge and maintenance.
 
notjustjay said:
The last place I went that did that tacked on something like 10%. Granted, we were a huge group -- a party of about 75 people, though everyone was billed separately and paid on their own.
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And I'm sure they loved you for that. :p


In Australia, they charge you around $9.95 to mail you your tickets, or $6.95 if you pick them up yourself. :confused:
 
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