Surcharge at Shell Deli Stores for Buying Groceries

[SmartSave]

So as we know payments made via CC for fuel incurs surcharges which is fine but Shell Deli stores share the same MCC code or something due to which even purchases made at their store results in payment for Fuel which ends up imposing surcharges for such transactions. I made a small payment for Coffee and some snacks using my Amex card and today I see a surcharge.

I wonder if this is even legal considering it wasn't a fuel purchase at all. I didn't even fill the fuel...lol.

I wanna escalate this, not to get a refund of that small amount but to fix this once and for all for everyone's benefit because obviously if this is left as is, then they would continue to enjoy such unethical charges which doesn't seem right morally and I'm having an itch to fix things as I'm regular here.

If it turns out to be legal, then I wouldn't mind obviously but it doesn't look like it. I wanna know where I can escalate this tho. They use PayTM machines (and this company's own faith is uncertain, so I don't wanna poke them...lol poor folks are busy trying to save themselves). Anyone got Shell's reliable contact?

 

[SmartSave]

Update: Sent an email to their support. Found it on their official site. Got response that they have forwarded to relevant folks and will update soon. Let's see!

 

[panchabhut]

Get a Indie acct and use the indie card/UPI - you get 3% cash back.

 

[SmartSave]

Get a Indie acct and use the indie card/UPI - you get 3% cash back.

That's not the solution buddy. Not everyone can get an Indie account or carry that card. This needs to be separated.

 

[ashwink]

Get a Indie acct and use the indie card/UPI - you get 3% cash back.

Delights DC offers 5% without surcharge 🥸

 

[sourpai]

Same thing happened with me once, when I used Amex card at a Children's hospital. Got no reward points. Later when I checked it came out to be utilities MCC. Raised the request with Amex. They asked for all the bills / invoices which I sent. Fortunately Amex credited the reward points later on.

Lot of establishments use Insurance, Utilities etc MCC to get lower MDRs

 

[sxchzy]

apart from amex i dont think any bank would even give points for valid transactions done on merchants using fake mccs to save mdr

 

[SmartSave]

So who is actually responsible to penalize such merchants that are faking it?

Our card issuer has nothing to do with the merchant. It's either the payment processor/terminal issuer or RBI I suppose.

I'll see what Shell has to say about this. If they are genuine, they'll fix things. If not, then this shall be escalated further. It'll clear things for us on whether such practices are permissible or they're asked to fix.

 

[sxchzy]

WELL merchants self-identify themselves to card networks and data aggregators such as Fiserv and pine labs
so when they provide documents for a lower MDR and in cases such as shell it gets easily approved because shell is a petrol company