Could your business take part in Shop Small?

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• Mark Rogers says:

  17 Nov17 November 06:45

  Many small businesses accept Amex using SumUp, Square, or similar, but they don’t seem to appear on Shop Small.

  Anyone know if this is something a shop can have enabled and if so how? As I’m not a merchant myself my ability to investigate is limited, and a shop that doesn’t already know about Shop Small isn’t going to investigate just because I mention it to them, but if I can point then to a clear set of instructions…

  • Gothbe says:

    17 Nov17 November 07:52

    My partner uses square for her business. We would be keen to know if and how she can get the promotion working and appear on the map. Does Small Shop work if using Square, SumUp?

  • Frank says:

    17 Nov17 November 07:52

    Worked for me last time

  • Sammyj says:

    17 Nov17 November 08:26

    I had a dining credit of £150 refused because the merchant (in the US) used a 3rd party mobile machine despite being registered with Amex, so I don’t think any of the 3rd party processors would work.

    • meta says:

      17 Nov17 November 08:45

      Make a formal complaint and make sure to speak to Brighton team. Amex can’t expect you to know what kind of processor a merchant on their list uses. This is false advertising, even worse as they took away your money without the intention of honouring the discount.

  • Thywillbedone says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:10

    The merchant needs to have ‘direct acceptance’ with AMEX. In short, many shops sit on platforms such as Shopify which have their own payments ecosystem (the platforms do the ‘hard work’ of setting up agreements with Visa, Mastercard etc on behalf of their underlying merchants). On those ecosystems they will of course accept the usual payment methods such as AMEX, Visa, Mastercard etc. But to get ‘direct acceptance’ with AMEX, the Merchant needs to have their own merchant agreement in place with AMEX …that may involve using a different payment system e.g. Opayo. It can be a real hassle – and for online, it may involve a new payment page being created or jumped to which (a) won’t be perfectly in tune with the brand’s website, and (b) can look a little less than trustworthy (think of those sites where is jumps to a new window with Sagepay).

    • Mark Rogers says:

      19 Nov19 November 08:13

      Maybe a journalistic website with a sponsored article from Amex on the subject could take it up with them to seek clarity and to encourage them to formally accept those who use Square/SumUp etc? Just a thought 🙂

      • Rob says:

        19 Nov19 November 08:25

        You can’t, because payments use a centralised merchant reference. All SumUp merchants are the same business to Amex.

  • Mark Bates says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:55

    Our business uses Zettle. We were asked to sign up by Zettle for the summer shop small, we received all the promo stuff in the post but were never listed online. I complained to Zettle about that but never got it resolved. As Amex don’t like to be contacted via email I sent them a letter by Snail Mail months ago, but they didn’t even have the manners to reply. I’ve just filled the form in but expect not to be listed. As our business is a pub we are looking to possibly close in the next 12 months due to lack of trade this kind of thing would potentially help us.

    • Mike Hunt says:

      17 Nov17 November 16:45

      Mark – you missed the opportunity to plug your pub. Where is it and what’s it called – or are we the wrong crowd 😁

• Mark Wheeler says:

  17 Nov17 November 07:22

  Are American Express really going to get a business set up in eight days?

• David S says:

  17 Nov17 November 08:12

  Can charities take part?

  • Rob says:

    17 Nov17 November 08:37

    Not sure. Fill in the form to Amex and ask.

• Thywillbedone says:

  17 Nov17 November 09:13

  It’s a shame AMEX don’t extend this to online small/independent businesses. Perhaps the issue is verifying that the business is UK-based?

• Kieran says:

  17 Nov17 November 10:01

  Conversely there are loads of businesses in my local town that are on the Shop Small webpage, but all claim not to accept Amex when you go in.

  Wonder if they have the ability, but really don’t want the fees.

  • lumma says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:16

    There’s a pub on Whitechapel Road that miraculously only accepts AMEX during shop small.

  • meta says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:17

    They all probably have the ability. Just use Apple Pay quickly or tap the card in a way that they don’t see the logo.

  • WillPS says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:29

    Easy way to find out – just pay using your phone. Unless the retailer sees it’s Amex and hits cancel very quickly it will go through straight away.

  • Bagoly says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:35

    Or maybe they ticked some box from E.g. Zettle without understanding what it was.

• DAYLE says:

  17 Nov17 November 10:29

  I work for a c. £250m company and have 200 sites but for some reason we still are active, probably from the years of where we we’re genuinely small!

  • lumma says:

    17 Nov17 November 14:17

    One year Harrods was on it. I suppose it’s a normal street business with less than 30 outlets.

• Scottydogg says:

  17 Nov17 November 10:37

  Looks like December is our bi annual trip to the Local Pizza restaurant that accepts Amex , family meal split over 2 cards.
  Actually works no problem in there , had a lot of problems with shop small in the past.
  One year there was a chinese takeaway on there , ordered my food and turned up the pay and was told ‘we dont accept Amex , never have’
  Another time , went to a fancy wine shop that was on there, bought a nice bottle and when i went to pay the card machine ‘wasnt accepting amex for some reason’
  Also at a barbers that was on the list , got my kids hair cut and then they didnt accept amex for payment .

  Not worth the hassle anymore

  • Dubious says:

    17 Nov17 November 11:12

    It’s not ideal but you can ask the merchant in advance of contracting their services.

    • Peter K says:

      17 Nov17 November 11:39

      For the sake of £5 it’s really not worth the hassle of doing that, unless you happen to be passing by and the first thing you do is ask if they accept amex.

• ChasP says:

  17 Nov17 November 11:14

  Tried shop small a couple of years ago Both merchants I tried didnt accept Amex. The second was a local takeaway – I walked out and left the food on the counter

  • Mike says:

    17 Nov17 November 11:36

    That’s not a very nice way to treat a small business – as you can see from the comments above it’s not obvious that the business owner has done anything wrong

  • Peter K says:

    17 Nov17 November 11:41

    Wow, that’s harsh on the business. They made the food you ordered, and actually made a verbal contract for, so surely you should have paid and sucked up the £5 yourself. A mistake by amex is not a mistake by them.

    • Nick says:

      17 Nov17 November 12:42

      I would absolutely do that if they had a sign or sticker in the window and refused to take it, as they’re using a false inducement to get you in their store. Otherwise, yes it’s unfair to punish them.

      • lumma says:

        17 Nov17 November 14:21

        I worked in a restaurant that stopped taking AMEX. (We changed PDQ supplier and it didn’t work with amex).

        The window stickers AMEX send out have some kind of ultra strong glue on them. Could not get the stickers off the window at all.

        For what it’s worth, it’s not the fees that small businesses don’t want to accept it, it’s that you have to wait longer for the money to be in your account.

    • ChasP says:

      17 Nov17 November 12:50

      But I was induced into the contract by Shop Small
      – it isnt clear that the business isnt at fault. What is clear is that AMEX dont care about our complaints so perhaps if a few more shops complained……
      Basically you get the service you deserve and you can either “suck it up” and moan on here or do something about it.

  • Stephan says:

    17 Nov17 November 12:45

    Surely should have asked if they accepted Amex? Could have also just discussed with Amex CS and claimed it back (at least you code in the past)

  • Jonathan says:

    17 Nov17 November 15:12

    A bit mean if you to go round doing things like that, even if they’ve got a sticker on the door saying they are accept Amex cards, it’s best to just swallow the cost, and report to Amex an offending retailer

  • Manya says:

    18 Nov18 November 11:53

    I personally would’ve just paid and chalked it up as a learning experience.

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