Great work Visa, now I hate you

#1

Post by roee » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 8:29 PM UTC

Great work Visa, now I hate you
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Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#2

Post by corin_ » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:33 PM UTC

This reads like the sort of post that so often goes on bad logic riding on emotion, but it's a completely valid point.

I'm a Visa user, plus I don't plan on going anywhere near the Olympics despite living fairly close to London, but when I heard about this marketing plan I literally thought it had to be one of those hilarious fake news stories. But it wasn't.

Stuff like the McDonalds sponsorship he mentioned (banning people from selling chips) is bad, but at least as a consumer if you want chips... you can still buy them.

But this Visa deal, what on earth are people without Visa supposed to do? I just don't see how anyone sane could think this was a good plan, either from an Olympic organiser's point of view, or Visa's.

Oh, and the OP talks as if there's a difference between how international and UK people are affected by this, but that really isn't the case. Based on my own anecdotal evidence I certainly know many more people who have at least one Visa card than people who have at least one non-Visa card (myself for example, my personal debit card, personal credit card, and company credit card, despite being from three different providers, are all Visa), but there are still plenty of people using, for example, cards from MasterCard.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#3

Post by apendleton » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:37 PM UTC

I'm not sure what the basis is for the assumption that this is a marketing move. It seems like the more obvious motivation would be to force everyone to pay with Visa to get the credit card fees from what will undoubtedly be several million dollars' worth of purchases, as a means of partially offsetting the cost of the investment in the sponsorship.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#4

Post by jonknee » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:37 PM UTC

So this is about a man with a Visa card upset that his Visa card is accepted everywhere he goes. Visa has been exclusive at the Olympics for a long time and even though I have never been I know that.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#5

Post by klausa » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:38 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #2

This reads like the sort of post that so often goes on bad logic riding on emotion, but it's a completely valid point. I'm a Visa user, plus I don't plan on going anywhere near the Olympics despite living fairly close to London, but when I heard about this marketing plan I literally thought it had to be one of those hilarious fake news stories. But it wasn't. Stuff like the McDonalds sponsorship he mentioned (banning…

>But this Visa deal, what on earth are people without Visa supposed to do? I just don't see how anyone sane could think this was a good plan, either from an Olympic organiser's point of view, or Visa's.

I think both OP and you (or me, for that matter) don't have access to important data - specifically, what's the percentage of people that have BOTH Visa and MasterCard (and what percentage of those that do not, are likely to buy ticket for games).

If it's low - then it probably was a stupid move, although I don't really feel qualified to say that.

If, on the other hand, it's very high (like 90% (which I think it is)), then it's very smart move.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#6

Post by mthoms » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:41 PM UTC

During the Vancouver Olympics not only were we not permitted to use other credit cards, we couldn't even use our bank-issued debit cards for payment (in Canada we don't have Visa Debit cards - our debit cards are issued directly from banks have been accepted everywhere for nearly two decades.)

Cash or Visa Only.

So there I was at an official Olympic souvenir shop picking up some gifts when I was told no - I'd have to walk down to the other end of the airport terminal and take out cash... come back and pay with that.

Needless to say they lost the sale. How many other sales did they lose I wonder?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#7

Post by chokolad » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:41 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #4

So this is about a man with a Visa card upset that his Visa card is accepted everywhere he goes. Visa has been exclusive at the Olympics for a long time and even though I have never been I know that.

But the fact that only Visa is accepted is not really something to be proud of, is it?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#8

Post by haeikou » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:43 PM UTC

So I'm European and everything, and not so much used to credit cards everywhere ... but is it really so hard to pay cash for a day?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#9

Post by shtylman » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:43 PM UTC

You hate them and yet will probably change nothing in your usage habits regarding their cards or make an effort to support systems that are not visa?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#10

Post by jonknee » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

mthoms wrote: post #6

During the Vancouver Olympics not only were we not permitted to use other credit cards, we couldn't even use our bank-issued debit cards for payment (in Canada we don't have Visa Debit cards - our debit cards are issued directly from banks have been accepted everywhere for nearly two decades.) Cash or Visa Only. So there I was at an official Olympic souvenir shop picking up some gifts when I was told no - I'd have to…

> Needless to say they lost the sale. How many other sales did they lose I wonder?

Surely not enough to cover the massive amount of money Visa paid to be an exclusive sponsor. In London this year that is reportedly over $100M and during the first week Visa racked up $700 million worth of charges at the games.