See how ad's work. You saw the Wal MART name and clicked to see what's up.

I am not picking on Wal Mart or it's employees. I personally like the people that work for the store. Besides, Wal Mart is under attack from all kinds of consumer groups so although this is a true story, the employee names have been changed to protect the innocent.

If you read "dangerous receipt" on this site you are starting to get the idea that the importance of this site is culminating . Reading one "story" is not enough.  

Wal-Mart is used as an example as there are pleanty of retailer who employ similar methods. This is to make you aware.

First, click on these four receipts and look closely at the taxes.

#1     #2      #3     #4    You will notice that  receipts 1 and 2 are cash sales, # 3 is a debit card and #4 was paid by credit card.

I wanted to know why there was a total of 14.5% interest on the purchase that was made by credit card so I made the trip to Wally World which is all the way across town. Here's what I was told by management when I got there.

When I asked Beth a (CSM customer service manager)she replied with "I don't know, that's odd"  "Let's go ask Wendy." Wend's" response to the same question was " Gosh, maybe it's a mistake" "Ibet Vern will know." Well, Vern didn't know. His suggestion was that I call the home office, maybe they can answer that question.

I wasn't getting anywhers so I decided to go higher up the food chain. No difference with upper management. "I'll check on it" was about the best any one could muster, hoping it sounded logical and intelligent.

I certainly was not about to spend the next couple of days trying to find an answer. Besides, from the information they gave me I already knew the answer and it is two fold.

If I'm wrong than maybe someone from Wal Mart will contact us and let us know.

Here's how this breaks down. 

 Mom and Pop convenience stores who accept credit cards are charged a fee by the issuer ie; VISA, MASTERCARD ETC for using the card. The fee is usually from 1.5% to 3%. The fee is so the owners get their money right then and their.  To offset the cost, these smaller stores pass the cost off to the customer. Not all small stores do this but most do.

On our four receipts the "credit card purchase" shows a 3% increase tax over the two cash tickets and the one debit card ticket.

Now one of two things are happening. (1) Wal-Mart either charged me to use my own credit card or (2) If it was a mistake I still paid 3% more than I would have if I paid cash.

3% is not much to some people but lets put this in perspective. Lets say you shop at a store for 18 years while the kids are growing up and your grocery bill is $150 a week for food.

That equates to  $150 x 3%= $4.50 x 4 weeks = $18 x 12 months = $216 a year x 18 years = $3,888.00 you could have put in an account for your childs college fund  or for retirement. (see bank fees on this site)

If it is a "mistake" you are still out a good sum of money. I know that Wal Mart doesn't make mistakes like this, well maybe on my wife's receipts and the errors are always in the stores favor.

Money motivates: Wal mart has over 2300 stores in the USA. If each store only had 5000 customers a  week that would amount @ 3% to $19,440,00.00 per year and $44,712,000,000.00 (that's Billion) by the time Jr. goes to college. Somebodys getting the money.

MORAL: You need to take the time to read your receipts. (p.s. don't throw them away either. see dangerous receipt on this site)

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