Melbourne coffee shop’s sign angers customer

A popular Melbourne cafe has sparked an uproar after refusing to accept cash payments – while hitting customers with a surcharge for card purchases. 

A customer shared a picture of a sign on the counter of Puzzle Coffee at Southern Cross Station near the cash register.

‘Card payment only,’ one sign said, while another listed a 1.2 per cent surcharge on debit cards, credit cards and Liven.

In a statement, the coffee shop apologised and said the error was unintentional.

‘We acknowledge that we made an accidental oversight and we sincerely apologise to any customers affected,’ Puzzle Coffee said. 

The business said it went cashless during Covid to protect staff and to reduce theft risk, being located near a busy train station.

‘The surcharges were always prominently displayed at the counter prior to the customer making their orders.’ 

‘Our customers mean everything to us and we apologise and will ensure we do what we can to get this right and always take on board customer feedback which is what we did instantly upon receiving an email from this customer yesterday.’ 

The customer who shared the pictured complained their coffee order cost more than the displayed price because of the surcharge.

According to the ACCC, if there is no way to pay without incurring a surcharge, it should be listed on the menu prices.

‘If there’s no way for a consumer to pay without paying a surcharge, the business must include the minimum surcharge payable in the displayed prices for its products.’

‘This occurs when a business doesn’t accept cash and it applies a surcharge to all card payment types.’

A major Commonwealth bank app outage earlier this week has underlined the dangers of an increasingly cashless society, experts warned. 

People were left paralysed by the technical glitch on Monday, unable to access their accounts, transfer funds online or use their cards to make purchases. 

The outage triggered a deluge of angry calls and social media posts from concerned customers who demanded to know why they could not use the bank’s services, including some ATMs.

The bank has remained tight-lipped on what caused the outage saying an investigation has been launched into the matter with many customers able to re-access their accounts by mid-afternoon.

Experts have warned of the dangers of an increasingly cashless society, including privacy and security fears, in addition to making life more difficult for elderly people who are less likely to be tech savvy 

Cyber security expert Ben Britton, who works as a chief information security officer, told Daily Mail Australia events like these exposed the vulnerabilities of relying too heavily on digital payments. 

‘If there’s no internet, there’s no transactions, there’s no access to your money,’ he said.

‘But if you have your money in your hand, or in your pocket, there could be no electricity and you’ll still be able to make payments to people.’

‘The huge weakness to the system is that it’s dependent on the internet, internet secuity and individual device security.

‘Whereas no one can remotely access the cash in your pocket.’

There are major security concerns with online banking too. 

Often fraudsters can pose as banks and catch unwitting customers off-guard and convince them to transfer large sums of money in a instant. 

An Australian businessman was recently conned out of $130,000 in a sophisticated text message scam after a fraudster sent him a message from the same number used by his bank.