He says: Stopped in here to pick up a cheap pre-paid mobile phone while visiting Belgium. Service was fairly helpful enough until it came to payment. As someone whose first resort is to throw down a Visa, I had a rude surprise. The owner refused to take my card because it was a US card and lacked a microchip (which has been common in Europe for a couple years now). She said if I wanted the phone, I'd have to go to the ATM. I told her that I was trying to avoid that because a 3 Euro ATM fee is a hefty surcharge for a 25 Euro Phone. She replied, "Well, it is my store. I can do what I want. I lost 500 Euro when someone bought two phones once." Despite my verbal assurance that my wife and I would not be ripping her off over 25 Euros, she was quite adamant about it. While I can accept her reluctance....
Rules are rules. The VISA carrier agreement is quite strict about taking magnetic strip cards.They literally have a reporting form dedicated to it (https://usa.visa.com/merchantviolation/index.jsp). I offered to let her make a photocopy or picture of my passport. I informed her twice that she was violating the merchant agreement and once that I would report her if she didn't process my card. She dug in her heels and said, "It's my store." So, here we are. She's now reported to VISA and I feel compelled to make a quite bad review. Otherwise, the place seems like a decent mobile shop. However, if you're from the US and not willing to pay cash, I would find somewhere other than Gare du Midi to grab a phone (all the GSM shops there are sub-par). I'm not willing to be treated as a second-class customer, and neither should anyone else. All told, if this store doesn't want to take VISA, they shouldn't post it on the door. Otherwise, they should follow the rules. read more