Why Your Restaurant is Paying Through the Nose...Part 1

I love going out to eat, but then I am an omnivore in the truest since. The things I don't eat on this planet can be counted on one hand not using your thumb or pinkie. One of those things is a lassie (pronounced: LOSS-ee). It's a Middle Eastern warm, thin yogurt drink traditionally served salty. I have had one (mark that: ONE). I am not a fan.

But I digest...

I love restaurants and have consulted with more than I have ever eaten at and it still stuns me how they are taken advantage of and both involve payments. First and foremost, most restaurants have a POS (point of sale) system that is made to greatly boost their efficiency. One of the largest systems out there for these restaurateurs is the Micros System. Micros is wildly popular, expensive, and just like Darth Vader is big, mean, and very, very good at its job. (Unlike Lord Vader, Micros is not Luke's father.)

So then what's the problem, Will? Funny you should ask. The problem is that many processors add a surcharge to a company that uses Micros because Micros connects via the internet. Now don't tell anyone, but all systems out there connect to their respective processors via the internet one way or another. This additional fee tends to be $0.05-$0.06 per transaction and is simply often added directly into the Per Transaction Fee (read my blog: What Fees are Inescapable vs. Everything Else) so that you do not even see them.

OK, here is where you should start acting like Gollum and thinking of your hard earned money as your precious. Remember, it wants your precious. But your precious is yours. After all, you wouldn't buy a car if the dealer said that they would charge you, over and above the cost of the car and the gas prices, a Per Transaction fee every time you used the car to drive to work would you?

If you answered yes to that question, please call me on my cell. Have your credit card information, social security number and Mother's maiden name ready...

The way to avoid this is to ask. Unfortunately many on-the-street sales people are afamiliar (that's just a fancy version of unfamiliar, but with the added bonus of making me sound like a professor) with Micros fees that their ISO's and/or processors may add. In that case, and just to be sure, ask them to give you a copy of the would-be contract way ahead of time so that you can read over the fine print. this must be done as all this adds up. I have seen restaurants with a hundred credit card customers a day get charged because they used a Micros (which is like a gas station charging you more just because you are a Cadillac Man). That means they were paying around $1,500 a year in fees that were unnecessary.

There's an old saying: Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me many times a day and charge me for each one and I must run a successful restaurant that uses some of the best equipment money can buy because you slipped something in on me.

There's something rotten here, and it ain't from the kitchen...

See you next time in the further misadventures of people's restaurants getting fleeced in... Why Your Restaurant... Part 2.