Mario's Pizza Shop

Mario’s should review the surcharge policies they’ve recently implemented as they are contrary to the Visa/MasterCard rules. First, debit card purchases can not be assessed a surcharge. Second, credit card surcharges can not be greater then 4% of the purchase. Third, online and phone orders must be informed as to the surcharge. Further, the credit card company has to be notified by the merchant 30 days prior to adding the surcharge and finally, the surcharge has to be a separate line item on the receipt. Mario’s has obviously decided to ignore these rules and taken upon themselves to reach into their customer’s pockets at their discretion.

We’ve been going to this pizza place for over 10 years. We’ve supported them through COVID with take outs. So, they’ve now jumped on the COVID business bandwagon to reach deeper into their customer’s pockets by ramping up prices and adding a $1.00 charge if you use a credit card for the purchase. Of course it’s because of “COVID”. I didn’t realize the credit card processing costs were so high!

This is the very first time any business has done this to me that I know of. I wouldn’t have known it at Mario’s either except the receipt I signed just had a total amount not itemized. Only after asking the counter person why it seemed like a big amount for such a small order I was told about the extra charge. Which by the way was not mentioned on the phone order. The medium pizza was around $13.00 plus $1.00 plus tax and this skimpy medium pizza came to $ 14.00something. This will be the last visit to Mario’s for us and for the rest of their customers…bring cash.

I firmly believe many businesses have been and still are affected by COVID, but many businesses are just hiding behind this easy excuse to gouge complacent customers. This may seem like a small issue, but it represents today’s business environment and Mario’s attitude toward their customers. Pizza was just ok….

Update…..now they’re getting very creative with a “work around” the credit card policies. NOW there’s signage at the entrance and at the register “Pay with cash and get a discount”!!!!!!! Isn’t that the same thing as paying more with a credit card?….oh yeah, gas stations do it too. Why not pizza?????