Credit card rejected

Credit card rejected

On Oct. 10, my friend and I had lunch at Gunung Mas Restaurant
which serves Chinese and Japanese food in the basement of Wisma
Danamon Aetna Life. As soon as we were seated, a waiter gave us
the menu. Upon seeing the prices, we both thought that the food
was quite expensive for such a restaurant, but we didn't care
about it at the time. The names of many of the dishes were also
not familiar to us, so we asked the waiter for descriptions.
Unfortunately, he could not answer promptly and had to ask other
waiters for explanations as he apparently did not know anything.
Finally, we just ordered some food that in our opinion was not
too expensive.

I intended to pay the bill with my BII Master Card, as I was
pretty sure that the restaurant would accept my credit card since
they put Visa and Master Card stickers on the front door.
Nevertheless, I was quite disappointed when the waiter rejected
my credit card because they would not accept a credit card for a
purchase below Rp 50,000.

Since our bill was Rp 48,400 -- only Rp 1,600 less than the
set price -- I became really angry over the issue. My friend
intervened and paid the bill in cash, as I swore I would not pay
it.

The credit card center has told me that there is no rule or
agreement regarding minimum purchase requirements. When I stayed
in the United States, my credit card was accepted in most places
without a minimum purchase price being set. It was perfectly
acceptable to use my credit card when I bought gas for only US$7
or when I made a $5 purchase in a supermarket.

JULIUS HAYADI

Jakarta