Great work Visa, now I hate you • Hacker News Board

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#131

Post by hartez » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC

ww520 wrote: post #130

kareemm wrote: post #85

> I discovered that McDonalds’ terms of sponsoring included that no one else in the areas of the games is allowed to sell french fries, unless they come with fried fish (because the classic dish of Fish & Chips could not be banned in the UK). But besides the Fish & Chips exception, no one is allowed to sell french fries around the games. My friend dealt with sponsorships in the venues for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.…

Why do McDonald not want to serve french fries? People love fries. And it's a big profit center for McDonald anyway.

I think they meant that no one except for McDonald's was allowed to serve french fries (or anything similar to a french fry).

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#132

Post by hrrsn » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:07 AM UTC

Cyranix wrote: post #89

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…

I've got a Visa debit card through CIBC, but it confuses every merchant I hand it to, so I'm not sure it's even worth it.

I work retail, and we're forced to charge slightly different rates to credit card users (store policy, I don't agree with it!). However most new debit cards in New Zealand these days are Visa ones, which confuse the hell out of me. Some banks don't put "debit" on the card and our machine will show "ASB Visa" for others.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#133

Post by einhverfr » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:07 AM UTC

ktizo wrote: post #128

einhverfr wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading that my first thought was "Wow, British banks are screwed." It would be interesting to see how that compares to Greece, Spain, Italy, and other more troubled EU countries. The EU situation suddenly seems a lot scarier to me financially. I should add that Steve Keen's writings on debt are absolutely must-reads for anyone interested in macroeconomic outlooks especially because he discards Neoclassical models in…

I've been following Real-World Economics Review - http://rwer.wordpress.com/ - since they were the movement for a Post-Autistic Economics - http://www.paecon.net/PAEmovementindex1.htm - Steve Keen seems to crop up there quite a bit.

Looks like a great couple of sites. Bookmarked.

Two of my favorite quotes by Keen from his presentations are:

"The one thing Neoclassical economists don't understand is Neoclassical economics."

And

"The Marxist economists hate me even more than the Neoclassicals, which is quite an achievement."

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#134

Post by dools » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:09 AM UTC

You didn't already hate Visa? I hate Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, the banks, insurance companies, the stock markets, real estate companies, mortgage brokers, you know, pretty much everything to do with finance. How could your opinion of a finance institution get any lower?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#135

Post by ww520 » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:11 AM UTC

I have Master, Visa, AE, and Discovery, just to cover all basis. And the decision to use which one is purely based on the rebate economic. The 2% rebate Master got used the most, while the 3% gas rebate on AE or Discovery got used when filling gas. Only when all else failed I would use the 1% rebate Visa. So the "marketing" campaign by Visa in Olympics have 0 effect on me to use Visa in the future.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#136

Post by unreal37 » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:17 AM UTC

einhverfr wrote: post #123

Honest question here. What implications are there under European Anti-Trust law regarding such a rule? Is such a bald-faced restraint on trade illegal? Could many vendors get into trouble here? Could the IOC be sanctioned? I ask because in the US I would expect Sherman Act lawsuits to be flying over stunts like this.

Lol. The IOC be sanctioned? Sponsor exclusivity has been a feature of the Olympics for 20+ years including the Atlanta games. Only Visa was accepted at the Atlanta Olympics. No one was sued.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#137

Post by Zenst » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

Fiscal descrimination is still descrimination. Maybe Visa broke a law, if not then the law needs to catchup.

I don't have a Visa card since a year ago when the ticketing system was announced as Visa only, I didn't attent the games or any aspect of it and it put me of the whole Olympic event that when the torch, cycle races which were going past my house I was like meh and avoided them as Visa had put me off. I don't like credit cards as it is, but bias and descrimination is something I dislike even more and in that I did what I could.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#138

Post by X-Istence » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:26 AM UTC

revelation wrote: post #107

dredmorbius wrote: post #41

It's more than just Visa -- this is the marketing arrangement for (AFAIK) ALL Olympic sponsors. The marketing agreement with the IOS is: - You get your brand prominently featured across venues, media feeds, and collateral. - All competitors are iced out. I'm OK with the first. I'm not OK with the latter. Particularly in light of the Orwellian trademark and copyright enforcement (including significant changes to corre…

This fits in nicely with the IOC WLAN police: https://twitter.com/SadaoTurner/status/230737352958566401/ph...

The device he is holding scans a MUCH larger band than just Wifi... from what I was reading a couple days ago the device goes from 27 Mhz all the way to 5 Ghz.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#139

Post by X-Istence » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:34 AM UTC

bennysaurus wrote: post #87

jiggy2011 wrote: post #14

I'm surprised Visa even needs to market, whenever I have been issued a card by my bank sometimes it's been a VISA and sometimes a Mastercard/Maestro. I assume I could get one particular type of card if I specifically requested it but I really don't understand what the difference would be to the end user. I guess perhaps if the only differentiating factor is "you can use this one if you goto the olympics" then maybe t…

You have to understand what Visa is competing against; it's not against the other card providers, it's against cash. Considering how much money they have spent to be a sponsor I don't think they count their return to happen during the Olympic period, this looks more to be a habit forming thing (when you go out their aim is you'll go for your Visa by default).

I go for the card with the highest amount of cashback for me...

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#140

Post by icegreentea » Tue, Aug 07, 2012, 1:46 AM UTC

hrrsn wrote: post #132

Cyranix wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a Visa debit card through CIBC, but it confuses every merchant I hand it to, so I'm not sure it's even worth it.

I work retail, and we're forced to charge slightly different rates to credit card users (store policy, I don't agree with it!). However most new debit cards in New Zealand these days are Visa ones, which confuse the hell out of me. Some banks don't put "debit" on the card and our machine will show "ASB Visa" for others.

I hope you guys are doing that by giving cash discount, instead of charging extra on credit (yeah, I know). That is against both visa's and mastercard's terms of service, and they will go after you for that.