Uncle Pu's Chinese Restaurant, Orange Park, FL - Amex merchant denied acceptance of Amex card, then finally accepted card when customer called Amex to make payment arrangements - proprietor called the police saying customer didn't want to pay bill

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on September 23, 2002:

From:

RE: Uncle Pu's Chinese Restaurant, Orange Park, FL - Amex merchant denied acceptance of Amex card, then finally accepted card when customer called Amex to make payment arrangements - proprietor called the police saying customer didn't want to pay bill

To whom it may concern, on the evening of September 21st, my girlfriend and I decided to dine out. We selected Uncle Pu's restaurant, where the American Express Blue Box is prominently displayed in the door, the storefront window and on the cash register at the inside entrance of the establishment. This was of particular importance to me that evening because I had left my Visa & MC cards at home, and although I was carrying cash, I realized I might not have enough to cover the cost of dinner.

As a consumer with two Amex cards in my wallet, however, I entered the restaurant with the utmost confidence in my ability to pay for the meal. When we finished our dinner and went to the register to pay our bill, I offered my Amex Optima Card for payment.

Alan, the restaurant proprietor, proceeded to decline my Amex card on the basis that his swiping machine was not accurately reading Amex cards when swiped. He then gave me the option of using another card product (non-Amex), paying by cash or writing a check. This immediately aroused my suspicion, smacking of something referred to as card suppression in the charge/credit-card industry.

I promptly informed Alan that I had no other payment options available to me at the moment, and because he had the Amex Blue Box conspicuously displayed in three different places, I would ask that he accept the card.

Furthermore, I made it abundantly clear to Alan that if he had communicated his "inability" to accept the card in an appropriate manner, I would've made alternate plans prior to ordering and eating a meal. At this point, Alan offered me an ultimatum of either finding alternate means of payment or he would telephone the authorities.

I immediately informed him that as an Amex-card displaying merchant, I would insist he find a way to accept my Amex card as a form of payment. If his machine was malfunctioning, it was his responsibility to find a solution to the problem. His "solution" was to overreact to the situation and call the police, misrepresenting the facts by telling them he had a customer who was refusing to pay his bill! Alan's behavior in this matter was extremely inappropriate; rather than making an earnest effort to resolve the problem, he seemed perfectly content to escalate it.

I quickly realized I was dealing with an individual who was either unwilling to take ownership of his business and call Amex's establishment services for an over-the-phone authorization code, or I was dealing with a man who was incapable of correctly handling the situation because he lacked the knowledge. While we waited for the police, I asked Alan if I might use his phone to call Amex's customer service in an effort to get their help. He obliged and I proceeded to call Amex and have them connect me (the consumer!) through to their establishment services line.

I was now doing Alan's job for him!! Once I got the proper representative on the telephone, I was able to hand the phone over to Alan, and he did give them his Amex merchant number and my Amex acct number for payment. Alan received an authorization code on my card, and then filled out an Amex charge slip which I signed off on. The situation was resolved.

At that point, the police arrived. We explained that we (I) had figured out a solution to the problem. I did, however, make a point of telling the officer that Alan had deliberately misrepresented the situation when he called the cops. The officer stated that he had received a call only referring to a payment problem, and that because no laws were broken, he had no real jurisdiction here. That's pretty much how the situation ended. On Monday, Sept. 23rd, I called American Express' card suppression unit and shared my story with them. What they told me was very interesting. First off, Alan was provided an establishment services number when he received his Amex kit. This is contrary to what he told me, "I have no way of contacting Amex," when he initially told me about his machine swiping dilemma.

Furthermore, Amex informed me that if he was accepting non-Amex cards for the same machine (which he was) this would indicate he might be lying about an Amex card acceptance problem as the same machine accepts all cards (it's the merchant number that provides the CC authorization).

Amex also indicated that if Alan was deliberately trying to dissuade consumers from using their Amex card products, they might terminate their contract with him. Because of the inconvenience and hassle, Amex also offered to charge the meal amount (26USD) back to the merchant and credit my account.

I agreed and thanked them for "sticking up for me." It's for consumer protection like this, that merchant's like Alan might find American Express undesirable to deal with. That's too bad, because no one is forcing any merchants or vendors to accept the card in the first place.

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I don't know what it is about Chinese, Thai and Japanese eateries be it fast food, take out, carry out, dine in, big or small in Florida, but they are all asses..My Partner and I was on International Drive visiting different shops and such, we decided to have pizza for lunch so we paid for our pizza, but the outside tables (there was none inside) were all full..the subway next door to the pizza place shared their tables with each other, we saw people from subway eating in front of the pizza place and vice versa..about 10 steps away was a Chinese or Thai maybe Japanese eatery with outdoor tables so we thought we would eat at their table, then order take out for dessert, then on our way back we would stop in there for Dinner..we were about halfway through when this little Oriental man comes racing outside and yelling at us in barely understandable english we were NOT welcome to sit at his table, WE were born in the US and WE were not welcome how ironic is that..even though his eatery had no customers either inside or outside....we informed him we would be getting a to go order of some dessert plus also return at dinner time and eat there as a thank you if he would let us finish our meal..all he kept saying was "no you must go" "go way from my table" "go shoo" we grabbed up our food and drinks and made our way to a city bench and sat down, once again here he came, but the look my Partner shot him made him think twice he turned and walked away, however he stood and stared out the window at us..as soon as an outside table in front of the pizza place was available we grabbed it up we finished our meal in peace..however he did come outside when he didn't see us on the bench.. I took that moment to say, what a jerk we wont be eating dinner there tonight as we planned! my Baby agreed then we both glared at him..he ducked his head down and went back inside the empty building! Which by the way was still empty later that evening!

To get even we gathered up our garbage my Baby peeked inside the restaurant and saw no one near the front and we left a huge unholy mess of pizza left overs including melted cheese, extra sauce, uneaten ends, bbq sauce, chicken bones and spilled drinks on the table as well as a crumpled box we did remove the name label..While we did understand he didn't want people to see us eating from a restraunt other then his, but it would have been nice and good business if he had come outside and said "oh you have nowhere to sit please use my table.." he lost all respect and two possibly 3 future paying customers! I was told later that eatery is no longer in business!