Have you been victimized by a phantom "fuel surcharge" yet? And by "phantom" I mean you didn’t know you were going to be paying a surcharge until the pizza delivery guy or the plumber or whoever showed up and slapped the fee on you?
Apparently, according to a DMN story, it’s a growing trend for service industries faced with rising fuel costs to slap the "fuel surcharge" on bills. Certainly, a business is entitled to charge what it needs to charge to stay in business — just as customers have the tools to decide whether to pay the charge or not — but is it fair if the pizza is priced the same as a competitor’s but the surprise surcharge boosts the price by 10-15 percent? If you’re going to charge someone a fee, it seems only fair to acknowledge it up-front.
