Macpac Foreign Transaction Fee

[highercountry]

What's going on?
I buy goods from the Macpac Au site. Pay in Australian Dollars and the bank charges me a Foreign Transaction Fee.
Is this normal?
It doesn't sound right to me.
As far as I am concerned I bought goods from Australia, not New Zealand.

[GPSGuided]

Were you on the correct site? Check your email confirmation and that should tell you the charged currency etc.

[highercountry]

Yep, receipt email from "[email protected]" and then a dispatch confirmation from the same address.
All charges in Australian dollars.
Not sure whether I contact the money grubbing bank or Macpac, or both.

[Moondog55]

I'm surprised you haven't done so already

[MickyB]

This happened to me about 3 years ago. I sent an email to Macpac to ask why this occured. I got no response. About a week later a PMd a forum member who used to work for Macpac. His service was brilliant and tried to work out the problem immediately. He asked for the transaction details so I had to log onto to the bank account to get banking details and I noticed Macpac had already credited the account. Problem was they didn't notify me. All good though as it was sorted out.
It's definitely worth contacting Macpac about the problem as I am sure they will also credit your account.

[highercountry]

I'm surprised you haven't done so already

I'm not sure I could be bothered.
I've just wasted the best part of half a day doing battle with Telstra, another corporation I put in the same category as the big banks, scum.

[Strider]

This happened to me about 3 years ago. I sent an email to Macpac to ask why this occured. I got no response. About a week later a PMd a forum member who used to work for Macpac. His service was brilliant and tried to work out the problem immediately. He asked for the transaction details so I had to log onto to the bank account to get banking details and I noticed Macpac had already credited the account. Problem was they didn't notify me. All good though as it was sorted out.
It's definitely worth contacting Macpac about the problem as I am sure they will also credit your account.

That member is a former owner of Macpac. It is a very different business now.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Mark F]

Typical - Macpac is repatriating AU$ to NZ and charging you for the privilege. I would expect that if they are quoting prices in AU$ then they must, by law, show the total cost of the transaction as you see on EBay, Amazon etc. ILLEGAL - Basic Australian Consumer Law especially as they are using an .au web site address.

[MeanderingFlyFisher]

This also happened to me last year and I didn't get a response from an email either.Hardly worth the hassle of trying to get $4.50 back.
I haven't ordered from them again so I guess they are the loser and the bad press they get from forums like this doesn't do their "brand" any favours.

[highercountry]

I received a prompt reply from Macpac offering a refund on the fee.
They blame the bank.
I think the site information is misleading but appreciate the fast response.

[paul_gee]

I sent an email to Macpac to ask why this occurred. I got no response.

Pro Tip - If you're on Facebook and the brand you're dealing with is active on there too, send 'em a private message. Their marketing person (though, bigger brands sometimes have their social media enquiries managed by the same people) is likely to be more responsive and less snowed under with customer service enquiries than whoever is handling the emails. And is probably more keen to impress.

[GPSGuided]

I received a prompt reply from Macpac offering a refund on the fee.
They blame the bank.

Quite plausible.

Recently we had to send a series of TTs to various Australian banks. We opted to cover all the fees and one recipient complained. As it turned out, ANZ, probably due to their routing of foreign currency, the customer got hit by an extra fee than those with NAB, CBA and Westpac. FX transaction is a murky world.

[outjb]

I had the exact same issue with a pack about 1-2 years ago. I sent them an annoyed email and they refunded the $5 right away. Nice recovery but that is a pretty bad fail when marketing it 100% as an AU site and no warnings about being charged from O/s...

[MickyB]

I sent an email to Macpac to ask why this occurred. I got no response.

Pro Tip - If you're on Facebook and the brand you're dealing with is active on there too, send 'em a private message. Their marketing person (though, bigger brands sometimes have their social media enquiries managed by the same people) is likely to be more responsive and less snowed under with customer service enquiries than whoever is handling the emails. And is probably more keen to impress.

I'm not on Facebook, paul_gee. I totally understand what you are saying but IMO it shouldn't make a difference how you contact a company (email, FB, phone, fax, snail mail) you should get a reply.

[neilmny]

I sent an email to Macpac to ask why this occurred. I got no response.

Pro Tip - If you're on Facebook and the brand you're dealing with is active on there too, send 'em a private message. Their marketing person (though, bigger brands sometimes have their social media enquiries managed by the same people) is likely to be more responsive and less snowed under with customer service enquiries than whoever is handling the emails. And is probably more keen to impress.

I'm not on Facebook, paul_gee. I totally understand what you are saying but IMO it shouldn't make a difference how you contact a company (email, FB, phone, fax, snail mail) you should get a reply.

Spot on MickyB..........all this facebook #$%*! really me off! Facebook is not the meaning of life.

[Eremophila]

Ditto re Facebook

I was charged $7.20.... hadn't bothered doing anything about it until I read this thread. I can't find the invoice now, which is really unusual for me (and nagging at the OCD part of my brain!!!) But I have the email receipt from MacPac AUSTRALIA which shows $239.99, and my credit card statement shows $247.19.

I've emailed MP, awaiting their response.

[MikeB62]

Reading this thread made me check a recent purchase. Sure enough, fee was charged. I emailed [email protected] they replied promptly and once I sent screenshot of fee transaction they refunded to my card same day. It's crazy they not advising this at checkout, only creates ill will. Never have come across an online retailer charging in AUD to do this. They blaming bank, but nearly all charge fx fees on overseas transactions. If I'd known was being charged that way I would have used my 28degrees credit card that doesn't charged FX fee, but is not my everyday card.

[terryansimon]

hey folks, just thought I chip in to this thread's discussion. may or may not apply to this particular scenario, but here goes:

my wife has been charged with some transaction fees for "international purchases" by her card's bank (Comm Bank). initially, she didn't think too much about it, as she thought she may have inadvertently selected another currency instead of Australian dollars. but when other transactions started copping the same charge from the bank (even after she was certain that she selected AUD as the currency to be billed to her card), she did a bit of digging on the internet and found out that Comm Bank started this business of charging for international transactions at a rate of 3% per transaction as of August 2016. the other banks have done likewise, and Westpac was in fact asked to refund the charges they levied initially as an adequate notification was not sent out to their customers. Comm Bank did theirs via a small notice at the bottom of their statement, and apparently that satisfies legislative requirements.

anyway, back to this charging business. it apparently is the buyer's responsibility to sort out where the billing takes place, even though the website could have a .au suffix. the information isn't that easy to find on most websites, and you would assume that if it's a .au suffix... that it's based in Australia. previous transactions with the same websites in previous years have not been affected by this international surcharge from the bank.

funnily enough, it's not consistent. we still haven't been charged by some sites (AirBnb comes to mind). but I don't want to jinx us just yet.

I on the other hand, haven't been charged with this international transaction fee nonsense. mainly because I've used PayPal, but for some purchases like Spotify/Netflix, I haven't been levied with the charge (for now, until American Express starts figuring out how to milk me for more money!)