
Great work Visa, now I hate you - roee
http://modern-products.tumblr.com/post/28855608626/great-work-visa-now-i-hate-you-london-olympics
======
simonw
I've been having enormous trouble understanding the thinking behind the "We
are proud to only accept Visa" marketing campaign. I simply can't understand
how it could be viewed positively by any consumer - it's such an obviously
anti-customer thing to do.

I've been trying really hard to understand why Visa would make such an
obviously unfriendly and counter-productive decision. The only theory I can
come up with is that their real customers are the banks, and this is their way
of saying to them "We're so completely ruthless that you're better off doing
deals with us than anyone else". Seems a bit far-fetched though.

~~~
dangrossman
> I simply can't understand how it could be viewed positively by any consumer

Visa's market research suggests a significant increase in Visa usage and Visa
brand value among consumers aware of their Olympic sponsorship (which has been
ongoing since 1986, and already committed through the next 4 Olympics games):

> According to the U.S. Sponsorship Tracker, a Visa commissioned study
> following the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games conducted by Performance
> Research, an independent research company, Visa cardholders who were aware
> of Visa’s Olympic Games sponsorship claimed a 16 percent and nine percent
> increase in Visa card usage in Canada and the US respectively. The same
> report found Visa’s brand equity was 32 percent and 38 percent higher among
> consumers who were aware of Visa’s sponsorship in Canada and the US
> respectively.

[http://corporate.visa.com/_media/olympic-games-media-
kit/vis...](http://corporate.visa.com/_media/olympic-games-media-kit/visa-and-
the-olympic-games.pdf)

> I've been trying really hard to understand why Visa would make such an
> obviously unfriendly and counter-productive decision

The first Olympics game where Visa was exclusively accepted was Calgary 1988.
This isn't a decision they just made.

~~~
jellicle
>According to the U.S. Sponsorship Tracker, a Visa commissioned study
following the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games conducted by Performance
Research

When a company is paying for research about its own decisions, the research
always comes back that the decision was wonderful, or that research firm
doesn't get hired again.

~~~
varikin
>or that research firm doesn't get hired again.

This is the key part. Research funded by biased parties can produce valid
research and results. There is the case of the physicist that was skeptical of
global warming that was funded by the Koch brothers to study global warming.
As a scientist, at a well known college for physics, he was skeptical but not
blinded by money/politics. His research changed is mind completely.

But, like you said, he won't be hired again by two brothers that are wealthily
through oil.

~~~
smussman
Out of curiousity, do you have a link to the study or a writeup? I'd love to
read it.

~~~
rrreese
Koch-funded climate change skeptic reverses course:

[http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-kochfunded-
climat...](http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-kochfunded-climate-
change-skeptic-reverses-course-20120729,0,7372823.story)

~~~
varikin
Thank you. I was have a really hard time finding a link I felt was credible. I
only know if it from seeing an interview on TV.

------
mthoms
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?

~~~
jonknee
> 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.

~~~
mthoms
Interesting. What you're implying is that the marketing benefits of Visa
become a sponsor are secondary to the direct revenue it generates at the
event.

This could be the most profitable marketing spend with the quickest ROI ever.

~~~
icefox
"$700 million worth of charges" Visa only gets 2-5% of the charge. Lets assume
on the high end at 5% we are talking about only 35 million in income. Even
doubling that for the second week we get 70 million (before costs). How is
that the quickest ROI ever? Sounds like a bad marketing move backed up by a
loss of profits. Maybe the real winners were the olympic committee or the
other credit card companies that bid up the price against Visa.

~~~
ars
> Visa only gets 2-5% of the charge.

Visa doesn't get that - the issuing bank does. Visa probably gets %0.1 of the
charge.

------
corin_
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.

~~~
klausa
>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.

~~~
jiggy2011
I suppose it depends on the demographic, if the olympics is mainly attended by
relatively affluent people with multiple credit cards. I know plenty of people
who don't even have a credit card beyond a bank issued Maestro debit card.

------
kareemm
> 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.

One of her tasks was getting the venue menus signed off on by the sponsors.

One of the food vendors wanted to serve potato wedges at the venue.

But because McDonald's was one of the 2010 title sponsors, and they had the
same "no french fries" clause, my friend spent ~6 months of her life
negotiating with the McD's folks over the difference between potato wedges and
french fries.

In the end, the vendor got to serve potato wedges, but McD's got a ton of
concessions in exchange (better signage location, etc etc).

~~~
ww520
Why do McDonald not want to serve french fries? People love fries. And it's a
big profit center for McDonald anyway.

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

~~~
rahoulb
That also gets me - anyone who's ever had fish and chips will know that the
chips may be fried potatoes but totally unlike McDonald's french fries.

------
dredmorbius
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 corresponding statutes) the IOC is granted.

That and the fact that Olympic athletes are no longer amateurs, but
professionals. It's a charade. An impressive one at times, but a charade all
the same.

~~~
revelation
This fits in nicely with the IOC WLAN police:
[https://twitter.com/SadaoTurner/status/230737352958566401/ph...](https://twitter.com/SadaoTurner/status/230737352958566401/photo/1/large)

~~~
kmm
How do they enforce that? It's not illegal (yet) to emit WiFi signals, or is
it?

~~~
corin_
I don't know the answer to your specific question about WiFi, but I do know
that (and I can't remember the exact legal details so this is a layman's
explanation, terminology may be wrong) they've created plenty of temporary
Olympic-related laws already, so it's not impossible they've done the same for
WiFi.

------
ewood
Maybe it is a unique marker of those who are technically minded to be
especially aggrieved by an arbitrary restriction such as this? Going through
the London2012 ticket website today I noticed the requirement to pay by Visa
and even though I was intending on using my Visa I clicked on the "What if I
don't have Visa?" link to see what alternatives were on offer:

 _If you do not have a Visa card, your bank will be able to help you select
and apply for the Visa product that best suits your needs. For more
information on how to obtain a Visa product, please visit the Visa website._

Do they seriously think I'm going to organise a new card just to buy Olympic
products? A better piece of advice might be:

 _If you do not have a Visa card, find a friend who does and get them to buy
the tickets for you. Then settle with cash and buy them a beer for their
trouble._

~~~
ars
I would rather say:

 _If you do not have a Visa card take your money elsewhere, we don't serve
your kind here._

------
Happyhippy
Visa should be reviled for what they did in the Olympics.

"Am at the GB v UAE match, and there's a serious problem with Visa. All the
cash machines are turned off as they accept non-Visa cards, and the Visa-only
card payment system has crashed. There's a lot of frustrated people here with
no money and no food for two football matches. No one wants to do anything
here. Very annoying, lots hungry and thirsty people here."

From [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-
blog/20...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-
blog/2012/jul/29/london-2012-olympics-day-two-live)

Also, pre-Olympics they had the games zones remove all non-Visa machines.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/01/visa-cuts-
atms-l...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/01/visa-cuts-atms-london-
olympics?INTCMP=SRCH)

"Visa confirmed that it was replacing the existing cash machines at various
Olympic sites with machines running on its own system as part of its
exclusivity arrangement as a sponsor. The move means people with Mastercard
credit or debit cards will not be able to use the ATMs to withdraw money."

Gold in the Corporate foot shooting event goes to.....VISA!

------
knowaveragejoe
What really gets me is the use of the term "proud" - as if the people
displaying such signage really feel anything remotely like pride about it.

In reality they likely feel indifferently(they're going to make a lot of money
anyways, just being at the Olympics). But they certainly do not think to
themselves "This is a good thing I'm doing. I'm happy to present this to my
customers."

------
brudgers
If one needs a reason to hate Visa, their suspension of payments to Wikileaks
may be a bit more robust and stand on somewhat higher moral ground, in my
opinion.

------
apendleton
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.

~~~
dangrossman
I don't think Visa Inc., which has been sponsoring the Olympics since 1986 in
whatever country it's held, gets any transaction fees from Visa card
acceptance in Europe. Visa Europe is an independent company with an
irrevocable license to the Visa brand and an interoperability agreement. That
suggests to me that the sponsorship is purely a marketing move.

~~~
apendleton
That may well be; these articles hint (without supporting evidence) that fees
are part of the motivation, but I'm not sure how much credence to lend them:
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153008/Visa-
branded...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153008/Visa-branded-
cynical-bans-rival-cards-Olympics.html) and
[http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2910799/Visa-in-
Ol...](http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2910799/Visa-in-Olympic-
Games-tickets-storm.html)

------
netaustin
The flip side of this marketing proposition (give something, not take
something) is exactly what American Express does. At last year's US Open,
American Express gave cardholders a special little radio from a booth in the
concession area. Many people had these radios, which was good marketing for
American Express, especially considering the presumably affluent audience
attending an expensive event. But they didn't actually inconvenience anyone in
the process.

------
DannyPage
I'm not surprised at all. This is a company-wide philosophy that they should
be the only CC processor.

I once did some contract work at Visa. At the time, I only had Mastercard and
American Express. Went to their work cafe, tried to get some food, but was
told (almost rudely) that they only took Visa. No cash either. I could buy a
pre-paid card that can't be reloaded at one of the nearby kiosks (for 3 dollar
fee per card). Needless to say, I went somewhere else for lunch.

------
FuzzyDunlop
What I disapprove of most with this is that it totally flies in the face of
existing competition laws, that exist to protect the consumer.

In any other situation this would not be allowed to happen, and that it
actually has happened (amongst all the other things, like the excessive
promotion and monopolisation of unhealthy food and drink) makes me resent both
the Olympics and the government that gave them so much of a free pass.

The sheer amount of corporatism and hypocrisy depresses me.

------
paulsutter
But the olympic organizers need a way to pay for their $70,000 lunches, which
totally justifies this.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/no-one-knows-who-was-
behind-t...](http://www.businessinsider.com/no-one-knows-who-was-behind-the-
official-olympic-lunch-that-created-a-70000-bill-for-15-people-2012-8)

------
rubergly
More realistically, Visa was probably hoping that many consumers would, like
the author, already have the option of and be forced into using their Visa
card.

I agree that this seems, in addition to being extremely frustrating to almost
all consumers, a silly marketing move, but I'm sure that Visa has run the
numbers and has a sound business reason for doing this. Since, judging by
mthoms's post, this seems to be a tradition at Olympics, my reasoning may be
off, but I imagine that forcing all vendors to only accept Visa must cost a
__lot __more than a sponsorship without that condition—and I really think that
they wouldn't blindly jump into that without a sound reason.

There's the obvious trade-off of how much extra money Visa makes from users
who have multiple cards and are forced into using Visa where they wouldn't
have otherwise vs. money lost from Visa-owners who who are pissed off. But
there are probably much more subtle, long-term effects. Maybe 75% of consumers
present have a Visa, and 50% of those Visa-owners feel entitled and empowered
by having the ability to use their card while others are frustrated; and then
there's the trade-off of the 'entitled' Visa-owning 37.5% of consumers
spending more with their Visa cards over the following months/years vs. the
money lost due to the 25% of consumers who didn't have a Visa at the olympics
and possibly hold a grudge and never own a Visa card because of the
experience. Not to mention the fact that a similar sponsorship would likely be
arranged if Visa decided not to do it; for all we know, MasterCard had a clear
business incentive to do this but refrained because of moral reasons, but are
we (consumers as a whole) discussing how valiant MasterCard is and how much
they respect us as consumers or have we all forgotten a little bit about
MasterCard because everyone's talking about Visa?

Again, I don't agree with this idea; I think it's bad and annoying. But I
think it's silly and a bit ignorant for all of us (many of whom have no
marketing experience, and most of whom don't on this scale) to assume we know
more than the marketers making these decisions because we're annoyed.

~~~
1337biz
The other question is if this behavior is not in the end leading people to
shift back to cash payments again. I never understood the popularity of
offline credit card payments. In fact I never used my credit card for anything
outside of online payments, except for one situation where I had to come up
with a relatively large and time sensitive on-spot payment. This minor factor
of not having to spend each week two minutes at an ATM seems almost ridiculous
in contrast to the severe privacy issues (
[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120619/04094319383/data-m...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120619/04094319383/data-
mining-exec-pays-burgers-cash-to-keep-his-insurance-company-knowing-his-bad-
diet-habits.shtml) ).

~~~
kalleboo
You buy laptops, TV, etc in cash?

As for that article, I don't need to worry about some "insurance company"
caring about my diet since I'm not American. I'm quite sure european privacy
laws also forbid sharing of my purchase history outside of the bank.

~~~
1337biz
So far almost all high priced item I bought were shipped from online stores.
Plus most even offer in-store ATMs.

------
rcavezza
This is a golden quote from the post.

"If you want people to like you, give them something. If you want people to
hate you, take something away from them. "

------
jamesbritt
Visa gets to to do this because the IOC and the sponsoring city allow it.

Hate on Visa (because they don't _have_ to do this), but hate on the IOC as
well, and on any city government that OKs this sort of shit.

------
philip1209
The author's assessment is fair; I felt offended on a road trip in Ontario
when I found out that the Tim Hortons only accepted Mastercard. An
international event like this should not accept only a single type of credit
card.

I do not understand the reasoning behind this by the Olympic committee,
because in all likelihood the big corporate sponsors are using the event to
entertain clients, and they will likely pay with company Amex cards. Imagine
being a businessperson whose company shelled out a sponsorship cost greater
than the GDP of some of the competing countries, only to be embarrassed while
buying drinks or food for a client because you have to pay for the items on a
personal card. Even more embarrassing would be if their personal card was a
Mastercard. Angering these types of visitors is not what behooves the olympic
committee.

------
einhverfr
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.

~~~
unreal37
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.

------
wilki
Don't hate Visa, hate/dislike the venue host that agreed to such terms (thus
subjecting you to said terms). Since the article talked about McDonalds - do
you hate Coca Cola for striking up an exclusivity deal with McDonalds? If you
must place blame, direct it toward the correct entity.

~~~
jlgreco
> _"Don't hate Visa, hate/dislike the venue host that agreed to such terms"_

"Both" is a perfectly valid option. My ire is not zero-sum.. far from it.

------
dools
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?

------
timrogers
The oddest thing for me was seeing a "Visa Customer Services" desk at an
Olympic venue yesterday with two exceedingly bored looking staff. I'm not at
all sure what they were meant to be doing given that all the customer service
is provided by card issuers, not the network...

------
ArbitraryLimits
On the one hand, the author makes a good point.

On the other hand, he _actually uses_ the phrase "simple folks" as if this
were a Populist meeting in the 1890s.

I'm really surprised by how much that one slip has undermined his credibility
with me.

~~~
jlgreco
I am surprised that it had that effect on you too. You even realize that it
did, and don't rationally reevaluate? How does that work?

~~~
ArbitraryLimits
Well, I mean the rational portion of my brain realizes it and tries to
compensate for it, but I don't knock myself out making sure the rational
portion is fully engaged when scanning blog posts.

------
ChuckMcM
Any thoughts on making that hate actionable? I agree with everything that has
been said about feeding it back to the company and the LCOG but I don't think
they care. Clearly the vendors hate it too, maybe NFC will help here?
Something where the vendor can claim plausible deniablilty that you didn't pay
with the sponsored card? Maybe give out $100 Mastercard gift cards in the
middle of the village and drive people nuts? I don't know, something to
escalate this kind of thing?

------
slantyyz
The Olympics as a sporting event is great (ok, if you discount women's
badminton, fencing, boxing and a few others), but the Olympics as a business..
it's just sleazy.

------
jiggy2011
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 that is enough to sway a bunch of people?

~~~
bennysaurus
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).

~~~
X-Istence
I go for the card with the highest amount of cashback for me...

~~~
bennysaurus
Yep but that's up to the banks and their bundles more than Visa/MC; the cards
company's mission is more one of convenience.

------
smsm42
I still wonder what exactly they are proud of. Of not accepting MasterCard and
AmEx? Is it some achievement one should be proud of? I should then be twice as
proud as they are - not only I don't accept non-Visa cards, I also don't
accept Visa cards either!

Really, with Visa budgets one expects they could hire somebody to express the
same sentiment in a comprehensible manner that doesn't make everybody seeing
it go "WTF?!"

------
shtylman
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?

~~~
vitalique
It seems to me that, regardless of what blogpost author is going (or not
going) to do, _we_ can draw a lesson or two here for our own
products/services: take away freedom of choice from your customer, and he may
quickly become a pissed off and lost customer to you. You have to be very
careful in estimations of potential profits and losses of your marketing
efforts. Customers may not care (nor should they, actually) about your
business or marketing strategies. (Though I'm absolutely sure that Visa is
benefiting a lot right now and will not suffer any long-term losses because of
this campaign.)

------
Shenglong
I disagree completely. Visa sponsored the event - why would they want
competitors there? When the average person sees that his or her Mastercard is
not accepted, I don't think the first response is "damn you, Visa!" Just like,
when I see an AMEX card isn't accepted, I don't say "Damn you Visa and
Mastercard for offering lower rates!"

The image that Visa is trying to promote is that they're the most commonly
accepted card. Because consumer perks vary only slightly (if at all) in home
countries, for most consumers, the question becomes permeation. If they see
lots of places accepting Visa and not Mastercard then they're more likely to
get a Mastercard.

To give you a closer-to-home example: In Canada, we have Tim Hortons - which
is a cheaper version of Starbucks (and it's very popular). They take
Mastercard, but not Visa. There have been several situations where I've been
unable to purchase food because I use Visa and I hate cash. At no point have I
said "damn you, Mastercard! I hate you!" In fact, if I actually drank coffee,
I'd probably have gotten a MC already.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Were there ATMs at the Olympics that would dispense cash from a non-Visa card?

You can always walk out of Tim Hortons and get cash out of an ATM, or go to
another coffee shop. When your options are either "have no money" or "waste
ticket by exiting venue to get cash I can not use at that venue because I
can't come back in", it's a bit different.

~~~
simonw
"Were there ATMs at the Olympics that would dispense cash from a non-Visa
card?"

Actually, no there weren't! Visa insisted that any ATMs that accepted other
cards were removed from the venues. This lead to a marvellous screw-up when
all of the Visa card machines at one venue went down and there were only 8
freshly installed Visa ATMs to handle the crowds (which replaced 27 that had
been removed): [http://news.sky.com/story/966545/olympics-anger-as-visa-
card...](http://news.sky.com/story/966545/olympics-anger-as-visa-cards-crash-
at-wembley)

------
jakeonthemove
What the? I'm surprised they could actually pull this off - they must've spent
a lot of money on it. In Europe, MasterCard is much more popular than Visa
(the latter is used mostly for credit cards, and most Europeans use debit
cards) - I'm thinking there are a whole lot of other people cursing the
company right now, too. Good going, Visa...

~~~
dangrossman
Only Visa has been accepted at the Olympics since 1988. They're a charter
member of The Olympic Partner (TOP) program.

------
damian2000
My sympathy goes to the writer, but honestly, if you turn up at any major
sporting event, anywhere in the world, without CASH, then you are asking for
trouble. Cash is still king especially with small vendors, cafes, people
selling hot dogs, etc. I'd never go anywhere like that without a plentiful
supply.

~~~
jiggy2011
Yes, and pickpockets love this fact.

------
bicknergseng
I'm curious... does anyone know where all this money from sponsors goes? The
IOC is supposed to be not for profit. I understand hosting the Olympics is
very expensive and that the LOCOG wants to recoop some costs, but this is
ridiculous. It's going against the IOC's Olympic Charter at the very least...

------
thetrb
I think this is a valid complaint, but it's nothing new.

Same thing happened to me when I tried to buy Tickets for the NFL. They also
only accepted Visa at that time (not sure if it changed since then). I wasn't
able to buy Tickets online because of that reason so I looked up the next
brick & mortar store which sold these tickets and found that Macy's sells them
(at a special counter).

So I drove to Macy's thinking that at least they should accept any credit card
- but nope, they rejected my Mastercard so I first had to get cash at an ATM.

I think Visa's point is that you feel limited by not having a Visa card and so
are more willing to get a Visa. In my opinion that's kind of similar to how
advertisement works in general. You don't see a commercial and immediately go
to buy it, but they try to build the sense in you that you actually need the
product.

------
mgkimsal
what would have been perfect to do is give 5% cash back on every purchase with
a visa made in london during the olympics. The marketing would have been far
more 'word of mouth', the benefits more direct, much happier customers, and it
may have prompted people to actually consider getting a visa card if they
didn't have one. Or a random "one person per day using their visa card at the
olympics wins $1 million".

All of these wouldn't have prevented competing currency, but likely meant
almost everyone used a visa anyway, assuming they had one. But hey, what do I
know? I'm just someone who has a visa card and would have been pissed off and
offended at this campaign had I been at the olympics, just like the OP was. I
guess we're not the target market, although I can't really determine who _is_
the target market.

------
rickmb
Although I agree it's annoying and negative marketing, it's also being
completely overblown here. This stuff is just a minor marketing gimmick.

Paying with credit card is in itself rare in most of the world outside the US,
where debit cards and cash are way more common. My guess is, 95% of all locals
and non-US visitors automatically pay with cash and don't even notice the
Visa-only signs.

Not having the local currency on you and waving your credit card in situations
where it's considered inconvenient and inappropriate is a very typically
American tourist thing to do.

And I really can't think of anything within the Olympic venue that would be
considered appropriate to pay for with credit card.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
> Paying with credit card is in itself rare in most of the world outside the
> US

I live in the UK: You're incorrect. I would say credit card payments make up
the majority of transactions (exceptions: buses, market stalls, and Greggs).

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Our Greggs has a card terminal, McDs do too now but most people appear to pay
cash.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Greggs only added that recently and I also believe there is a minimum spend
(£5?).

------
linuxhansl
Hear hear. Currently I just take whatever credit card my bank provides (which
currently is VISA, which is another story altogether), but I'll make sure that
whenever there is a reasonable choice I'll choose another provider in the
future.

There used to be a time where marketing was about awareness. The extra money
that both McDonald and VISA will make from these exclusive deals is likely
peanuts to their global revenue, but both squandered their chance of just
being visible and now mixed it with "we just spent a lot of money to keep the
competition away". Stupid it you ask me.

------
Zenst
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.

------
ghshephard
It used to be the case there were lots of places that wouldn't accept
mastercard. It's rarer these days, but I still run into them. It would never
occur to me to ever travel anywhere outside my local neighborhood without both
Mastercard and a Visa. And I realize that 50%+ of the time my Amex (which, of
course, is what I need to use for corporate travel) - won't be accepted at
smaller places. Expense Report Hell...

------
ww520
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.

------
haeikou
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?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Not really, but you have to estimate how much cash you'll need. You also run
the risk of that cash being stolen.

~~~
kaybe
It won't go bad after this day.. (but theft is a valid point)

~~~
archangel_one
If you don't live in the UK, having a fistful of sterling when you get home is
not really the ideal situation. It's not far from it going bad, in a sense.

~~~
jarek
For values of "going bad" approaching "losing 2-4% of its value." The horror.

~~~
pavel_lishin
So what's the percentage where it's acceptable to be truly annoyed at Visa?

~~~
jarek
13.7%.

I was responding to the "going bad" claim.

------
Gustomaximus
This is stupid marketing by the Visa team. But what has not been mentioned is
why would the Olympic committee allow this! And money is not the answer as I
would think Visa / Mastercard or other would still sponsor this if the
committee had said all cards must be accepted. Personally I am more
disappointed in the olympic committee than Visa.

~~~
crag
"Olympic committee allow this"

Money of course. What did you think?

------
lucisferre
I totally read that headline as "Great, work visa, now I hate you." Was
expecting an immigration rant.

~~~
smsm42
Yup, same here. Then I remembered the stories about Olympics and Visa and
realized why "Visa" is capitalized.

------
podperson
VISA did equally stupid things for the Sydney Olympics, e.g. convincing the
taxi companies to only accept VISA for the duration. It's extremely annoying
(I was a Mastercard user at the time) and surely anti-competitive.

------
donpdonp
Not having been to the olympics before, an important detail is how far this
'zone' covers. I am going to assume its a significant number of blocks, maybe
even a mile, around the olympic venues that include everyday businesses that
people use, olympics or not.

The not-selling-fries bit sounds hugely anti-competitive and way beyond the
scope of what should be possible by this event. Payment cards go a step
further. People rely on their particular card and the norm is to accept at
least two kinds of cards. Creating a temporary monopoly on payment cards is
again way beyond the reach of what is reasonable for a marketing agreement.

~~~
elemeno
It's only within the sites themselves, nowhere else.

------
babasave
Mastercard did the same thing to the 2006 WorldCup in Germany. Took this
picture back then. <http://flic.kr/p/furNp>

------
switch007
It's hard to avoid Visa now in the UK. I don't think any banks issue new
Maestro debit cards any more - they're all VISA.

------
bdunbar
This is a problem with a solution: eschew credit for debit cards.

Mine is 'visa-compatible' (and others), draws from my checking account.

~~~
peteretep
...?

Yes, Visa offer debit clearing as well as credit-card clearing. As do
Mastercard (Maestro). How switching to a debit card would help, I'm not sure,
unless it was a Visa debit ... and in which case, how's that different?

~~~
bdunbar
I was not clear enough. My debit is visa and mastercard compatible. And no
credit-card fees, I bank with a credit union.

Were I foolish enough to pay money to spectate, I wouldn't even notice the
VISA/Master Card thing.

------
JackFr
You are a customer of your bank, not Visa. Visa's customers are merchants and
financial institutions.

------
elchief
You realize they do this because they know there's absolutely nothing you can
do about it right?

------
lutorm
Can anyone explain to me why the government issues currency for free, but
doesn't provide for an electronic equivalent? Instead of having economic
transactions being controlled by a giant corporation, shouldn't this be
considered an essential function that should be handled by the state?

~~~
kalleboo
Denmark has the government-regulated Dankort, which until 2005 charged no
fees, and since then has a fixed yearly fee for merchants (rather than a per-
transaction or percentage). This can be a pain for visitors as many small
shops and restaurants will only accept Dankort.

------
pacomerh
This title can also be read as a really absurd immigration article.

------
sirfried
i thought he hated "work visa" for a second, silly me

------
peterwiese
Pay cash, moron. That's how we roll in Europe.

~~~
tonfa
s/Europe/??/ (Germany?)

I know at least a couple of European countries where debit/credit cards are
prevalent.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Like the United Kingdom, which is hosting the Olympic games...

~~~
bencoder
Compared to some European countries, the UK is far behind. Many of the smaller
retailers and pubs/bars still don't accept card or require minimum spends (£5
or £10) to be able to use cards.

In Finland it seems that absolutely everywhere accepts card and cash is very
rare. I'd guess at least 95% of the in-person transactions that I see are made
with card. Even for the smallest amounts.

~~~
christoph
This is very true. The merchant fees in the UK and therefore the minimum spend
between merchants can vary enormously.

For instance, I can buy milk at £0.49 on an American Express card in Tesco,
but in my local pub, anything under £10 (on any card other than AmEx - AmEx is
still not accepted in that many places in the UK) requires me to pay a £1
transaction fee.

There is no reason behind this, other than Tesco are so huge, they can
negotiate a much better rate than a small business, who clearly can't even
consider the huge American Express merchant fees.

The sooner somebody disrupts this 'business', the better for everyone.

~~~
polshaw
There is a reason behind this. Tesco deems it worthwhile to take a (smaller)
hit to keep your business, whereas your local pub believes you aren't going to
switch pubs, and just wants to encourage you to use cash so that they keep as
much of the price of your drinks as possible (i say this because £1 in 10 is a
'penalty' more than covering costs.. which should be closer to 30p).

IE, your choice of supermarket is more elastic than your choice of pub.

Bitcoin seems to be the closest thing we have to disrupting this, but the
chicken and egg problem isn't going anywhere.

~~~
tonfa
When I was in France I would sometimes pay in a bakery with my debit card for
a couple of euros.

Actually, I believe handling cash costs them money too and card processing
fees might be less than what cash costs them.

~~~
dagw
I've heard several small shop owners say they prefer debit cards to cash since
they claim it reduces the risk of robbery. The more people pay by card, the
less cash there is in the till and thus the less reason to try to rob a place.

------
10dpd
Did anyone else read this title thinking it was from a disillusioned
immigrant?

------
jonknee
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.

~~~
fleitz
Here's the issue, you walk into a store that you've been going to since you
were a kid, pull out the payment card that you've been using since you were an
adult, and they point you to a sign that says only Visa is accepted even
though you bought something on interac a week before.

It's not about visa being exclusive to the Olympics, its about VISA being the
only thing you can use to buy shit in your hometown. Basically, if you could
buy a quaachi in the store then it was going to be a pain in the ass.

It's a piss off, people don't like to be forced to do things for arbitrary
reasons.

~~~
jonknee
But that didn't happen. He went to an Olympic stadium, probably one built just
for this event. It's like complaining that only Coke products were for sale
(which is also the case thanks to a giant Coca Cola sponsorship).

~~~
Bud
No. It's not. It's not at all like complaining, in fact, that any given
product is not for sale.

What it is like is, complaining that normally-valid and assumed-valid payment
methods are suddenly not valid.

That's what it's "like".

