this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
700 points (97.3% liked)

Greentext

4464 readers
905 users here now

This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Not being an American the whole idea of not including tax in the stated price just seems so alien. You expect me to work out what 12.5% of my bill is on the fly as I'm shopping? Fuck you, that's your job. You are the one actually paying the tax to the government, you work it out

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

We generally tip 15% or 20%, depending on quality of service, 10% if it's bad but not atrocious. And that's pretty easy:

  • 10% - just move the decimal place once
  • 20% - move the decimal place once and double
  • 15% - in the middle of the first two (or move decimal place once, cut in half, and add that to the 10% figure)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

You are the one actually paying the tax to the government, you work it out

Also they would only have to do it once per item, shoppers have to do it every time!

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Also "They took my card". That is apparently an American thing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Canada, they have the wireless chip readers everywhere. It was nice since a large chunk of stolen credit cards are when employees scan it before charging it.

Some places in the USA is starting to do the same thing. But yes, the US is way behind.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

They have had wireless chip readers for years, but many restaurants still take your card anyway. Some places bring the payment device to you, which is nice, and some have it there always so you can see exactly what's on the bill (sometimes you order on it too).

But taking the card is a cultural thing, not a tech thing. Even back before wireless readers were a thing, they still had portable payment terminals and could have you swipe there or have you pay up front on the way out. It's not an issue at all.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hell we still sign a receipt an we only just got them chips recently

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Do you guys still do the hilarious chip & sign thing or have you finally switched to using a PIN?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

Funny thing, we didn't do chip and pin because the credit card companies thought we were too stupid to figure it out, in spite of the fact that we already used pins for debit cards... We now do have chip and pin, but only for bank/debit cards

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We just do chip, no sign unless it's over some threshold (must be pretty high since I've spent nearly $1k at a single Costco trip). I've never used a PIN on a credit card, and I haven't needed so sign anything in years unless it's a contract of sorts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, the former. This country mannnn

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You think that's hilarious? There are a lot of places in the world that still do a manual shhk-shhk of a card only a few years ago. Now that most cards don't have raised digits, they'll write it down. If they even take a card.

Places where the Internet goes down if it rains and there is no mobile service. Imagine the horror.

The other side of the coin - paying with debit (which has a pin) is stupid in the US. Unless you can't control your spending, credit card is the way to go for every legal purchase you don't mind being tied to you forever. CCs have far superior consumer protection than the law.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

Not only that but many of them give you cash back, so if you never carry a balance (and therefore never pay interest), and don't use it wherever they charge a credit card service fee, it's basically a free discount almost everywhere.