GTA: Cabs with Credit Card Fees Break Bylaws #GTA

Not only is charging a fee over and above the fare a violation of local bylaws, it is also a technical violation of the Credit Card Agreement set forth by the credit card company (MasterCard) So, if you have been charged this surcharge, be sure to lodge a complaint.

Amplify’d from www.cbc.ca

Cabs with credit card fees break bylaws

Last Updated: Thursday, September 16, 2010 | 6:54 AM ET

At least three major cab companies in Toronto charge customers a user fee if they pay with a credit card, a practice that the city says violates municipal bylaws.

Three Toronto taxi companies say they ask customers who pay with credit cards to also hand over an extra fee.

CBC News contacted a number of Toronto’s largest cab companies and three admitted applying an additional charge — known either as a “network” or “transaction” fee — to bills paid with a Visa or MasterCard credit card:

Co-op Cabs charge 25 cents per credit card transaction.

Maple Leaf Taxi charges 50 cents per transaction.

Crown Taxi charges $1 per transaction.

Management at each of those three companies did not respond to queries about why they were adding those fees to metered fares.

Bruce Robertson, the director of Toronto’s licensing and standards division, said news of the fees came as a surprise to him.

“It’s not authorized under the city’s bylaws to charge anything more than what’s on the meter,” he said. “Now that it’s been brought to my attention, I’ll have my inspectors look into it. And on an individual basis we would consider that to be an overcharge.”

The general manager of Beck Taxi said her company doesn’t ask customers to pay a credit card service charge, adding it would be bad for business.

“I’ll use the analogy of going into a restaurant. If I were to pay for my meal with my Visa card and I was told there would be an extra fee for using my Visa, I would be very upset,” said Gayle Beck-Souter.

MasterCard Canada is also taking issue with the fee.

“MasterCard is unaware of this particular additional fee, however a ‘network fee’ added to a customer’s payment would be considered a surcharge,” the company said in a written statement to CBC News.

“A merchant who accepts MasterCard and then subsequently surcharges a customer who opts to pay with their MasterCard is technically violating the rules of their agreement.”

Meanwhile, Robertson is advising anyone who is charged extra to contact Toronto’s licensing department to lodge a complaint. Cab companies who are found to be taking in more than the fare as indicated on the meter could be fined, he said. Read more at www.cbc.ca

 

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When moving around a heavy truck whether you are changing lanes, or turning a corner, use your turn signal. Heavy truck drivers need to know your intentions as they cannot move suddenly. Protect your safety and others’ safety too. #TruckSafetyTip http://bit.ly/cvUhzb

Truck Safety Tip

Throughout Kentucky Interstates, you will see these signs:

It is one of the safest things a motorist can do around a heavy truck.  Most motorists do not understand just how long it takes a fully loaded 18 wheeler to stop. If you leave a single car length or less (personally observed) and you find yourself needing to brake suddenly and come to a stop, you are guaranteed to be hit by the truck you just cut off. (This is at highways speeds). Your car can stop four times faster than a fully loaded tractor trailer. (which can weight up to 80,000 lbs)

It is as much the responsibility of the average motorist to operate safely around commercial motor vehicles as it is the CMV operator.

Be safe this holiday weekend and leave plenty of space around those big rigs.

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Hello from near Sudbury, ON

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NYC Subway Driver Stops Train Just in Time to Avoid Woman

One very lucky woman. This comes close to home because my wife recently fell and had a seizure in a department store.

Amplify’d from www.foxnews.com

Published August 29, 2010

| Associated Press

A New York City subway driver with sharp vision and even sharper reflexes was able to bring his train to a halt just short of a woman who had fallen on the tracks.

Driver Francis Lusk was bringing a train into the station at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street around 7 a.m. Saturday when he saw the woman fall into a drainage ditch between the tracks. Other travelers frantically waved and screamed to get him to stop.

He slammed on the brakes and sounded the horn to keep anyone else from jumping onto the electified rails. Lusk was able to stop the train about 70 feet from the woman.

The woman told Lusk she was feeling dizzy. She was taken to the hospital. Read more at www.foxnews.com

 

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TheStar.com: How panhandlers use free credit cards

This is a great article with a cross section of the homeless in Toronto. Being homeless does not always equal being dishonest.

Amplify’d from www.thestar.com

How panhandlers use free credit cards

Published On Sat Aug 28 2010

Joanne Mitchell, 60, and an acquaintance panhandle at a subway entrance at Union Station.

Jim Rankin

Staff Reporter

What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a person in need the means to shop for whatever they needed? What would they buy? Can you spare your credit card, sir?

In New York City, an advertising executive recently handed over her American Express Platinum Card to a homeless Manhattan man after he had asked her for change. The man, who had been without home after losing a job, used the card to buy $25 worth of deodorant, water and cigarettes. And then he returned the card.

Concerns over the wisdom of sharing of credits cards and credit card fraud aside, the unlikely encounter became a talking point — a feel-good story about, as the New York Post put it in a headline: “A bum you can trust — honest!”

Is that such a surprise?

Over the past two weeks, I wandered Toronto’s downtown core with five prepaid Visa and MasterCard gift cards, in $50 and $75 denominations, waiting for people to ask for money.

When they did, I asked them what they needed. A meal at a restaurant, groceries, a new pair of pants, they said. I handed out the cards and asked that they give them back when they’d finished shopping. I either waited at a coffee shop while they shopped or — in the case of those who could not buy what they needed nearby or were reticent about leaving their panhandling post — I said I’d return on another day to pick up the card. That’s when I would reveal that I was a journalist.

Some were unbelieving at first. All were grateful. Some declined the offer. Some who accepted didn’t come back, but those that did had stories to tell. Read more at www.thestar.com

 

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Filed Under Negative Publicity Stupidity: Facebook is trying to trademark ‘face’

Seriously?

Amplify’d from money.cnn.com

Facebook is trying to trademark ‘face’

By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporter

August 27, 2010: 3:24 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Facebook, which has gone after sites with the word “book” in their names, is also trying to trademark the word “face,” according to court documents.

But the social networking site has met with a familiar foe. As TechCrunch first reported, Aaron Greenspan has asked for an extension of time to file an opposition to Facebook’s attempt. Greenspan is the president and CEO of Think Computer, the developer of a mobile payments app called FaceCash.

“I’d bet against ‘face’ being awarded to Facebook,” said Henry Sneath, a patent and trademark lawyer based in Pittsburgh. “You cannot overtake the use of a generic word people use in everyday speech.”

Greenspan, a former Harvard classmate of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, claimed he had a hand in developing the social networking giant. The case was settled last year.

In an interview with CNNMoney.com, Greenspan said the two extensions he filed now give him until September 22 to oppose the “face” trademark attempt. The original deadline was June 23.

“If you search the patent database, there are thousands of marks that contain the word ‘face,’” Greenspan said. “I understand where Facebook is coming from, but this move has big implications for my company and for others.” Read more at money.cnn.com

 

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