While I agree with reporting stores that don't accept Amex back to Amex, and where applicable telling them why you won't purchase things from them, ordering food and then refusing to pay is a little bit wrong IMHO. I seriously doubt that anyone only has one card on them and no cash, or other cards, and there is always the possibility the merchant could call the police and see if they will come and have a chat. It's not the merchant's responsibility to accept Amex, it's the purchaser's responsibility to have the correct money in a form that the merchant will accept.
Police
- You really have to joking...... or living in dream world.
Firstly they wouldn't care in the slightest,
Secondly they wouldn't even come/turn up, and
Thirdly I would be long gone before they even did turn up to a case of "food ordered but not picked up please attend the takeaway shop" :shock::shock::shock:
I have walked out of many stores that don't' accept Amex after putting my purchases on the counter. The majority of stores/shops don't have signs indicating what payment they accept. So I'll get to the counter and then pull out the payment method and then walk out when told they don't accept it.
I have zero interest in paying via another means, I want to use Amex and that's it, and I will walk in 99.9% of cases if they don't accept it. It's not up to me to suit the merchants payment methods, it's a big big world out there and for every sucker that won't accept Amex, many others offer the exact same service/food and accept Amex. So it is up to the merchant if they want my money, not up to me to suit their decisions to refuse to accept Amex.
Also not my responsibility to ask first do you take Amex before going into every shop.
Although I did do that yesterday in a book store that I remember used to surcharge Amex 3%, as the answer was "yes 3%" I walked out before looking around and went to the store down the road with the same prices and no surcharge.