"Fraud Prevention" surcharge

Separate line item at checkout.

[Automan Empire]

I saw this for the very first time ever today. It was a mandatory $1.95 "Fraud Prevention" line item that appeared at checkout.

This was on the site of a Very Large banking supplies company, where security is obviously paramount.

Clicking on the link popped a box detailing the extra security precautions they take including manually checking suspect orders. All well and good, but it kind of fell on its face at the very end where they disclaimed that the service would NOT prevent all cases of fraud, nor bestow any extra protection upon the purchaser.

I get the impression that this applies to the "business services" part of the site; I didn't look but it wouldn't surprise me if this hasn't yet been implemented on the "consumer/individual services" parts of the site. I know many local businesses that deliver tried adding a "fuel surcharge" to their invoices; it seemed unpopular because most companies dropped it, even though it should be obvious to all that fuel prices are high. Since this was less than 2% of the price, I just went ahead and bought after a short pause; it is a business expense after all.

Has anyone seen this before or implemented it? Do you think it will become commonplace in Ecommerce? How would you respond to this as a consumer?

-Automan

[LifeinAsia]

So the company you bought from is charging YOU to protect themselves from fraud? Sounds like another case of trying to directly pass the cost of doing business to the consumer. If they want to do it, fine- hide the extra amount in their markup.

That's sort of like charging the consumer a credit card surcharge to pay with a credit card, when paying with a credit card is the only option.

I'd definitely complain to the manager. Then again, I'd probably refused to buy anything from them.

[RailMan]

anyone who knows how to run a business properly knows that basically
sale price = cost price + overheads + profit margin + tax

essentially, all costs / overheads must be passed on to the customer in one way or another - costs must not be taken out of profit or the business will fail

how the costs are passed on is another matter entirely - some companies lump everything together in the sale price and offer "free shipping" etc - others break it down to show a low sale price, then add shipping / tax / other costs afterwards

i prefer the former as it makes it easy for the customer to see the total cost - the less the customer has to think about, the more likely they are to buy - remember, 50% of the world's population are below average intelligence ....

so that fraud prevention cost may be just another way of keeping the initial sale value down - to me, having it as a separate cost is a deterrent ....

[moltar]

These kind of tricks really piss me off. One of the registars for .ca domains has a "banking surcharge" of something like 14 cents. Which also comes only at the very end when you went through all the screens and ready to pay. It just looks like they "snuck one in".