Aussie Coffee lover charged $8.18 for a cappuccino on King’s Birthday public holiday: ‘Did they fly it in from Italy?’

A café customer was shocked by the surcharge charged for his cup of coffee on Monday.

David posted on his TikTok account: @thebearded86that his medium almond milk cappuccino from an East Melbourne cafe cost a whopping $8.18.

The Melbournian told it Yahoo he expected a surcharge for holidays, but was faced with a 15 percent increase, as well as a fee for using his card.

“Don’t get me wrong, I know almond milk costs extra, but I think 15 percent is excessive,” he said.

‘The cafe was full! There were people outside. And there weren’t that many staff. So while I recognize that they have to pay fines, I thought it was excessive.”

David asked ‘people from Melbourne’ what they thought of his medium almond milk cappuccino that cost him $8.18 on a public holiday

Aussies were quick to share their disgust at the bank holiday surcharge, with one even saying they were paying as much as ‘$9.50 in Canberra’.

“They flew him in from Italy?” wrote one.

“They grew the coffee beans before your eyes?” said another.

Another offered advice: “Better coffee at 7:11pm for $2.”

Other coffee drinkers sided with small business owners.

‘The person who helped you will be paid €50 per hour today.

“The price may seem a bit high but I’m not sure what the cafe owners can do about it,” one person wrote.

Public holidays and weekend surcharges are legal in Australia and there is no limit to what businesses can charge as long as prices are displayed

‘People forget that takeaway coffee is a luxury and not a necessity. Unfortunately, if cafes want to make a profit, they will have to raise their prices,” wrote another.

Nevertheless, David replied, “I understand. Even though it was full. People everywhere. Outside. Footy was also next. They knew how to milk it.”

To make matters worse, when asked if the coffee was at least a ‘ten out of ten’, David replied ‘No’ and called it ‘average’.

While surcharges are not a new concept for a holiday or weekend to help pay for higher staff wages, some Australian companies are charging up to 20 percent extra, according to consumer advocate Christopher Zinn.

Even though 10 to 15 percent is the norm for a surcharge, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says on their website any surcharges must be clearly shown to customers.

‘If they charge such a surcharge, they should put these words on the menu: A surcharge of [percentage] applies to [day or days],” it said.

There is no legal limit in Australia at which a business can charge a surcharge and it is also permitted to impose a charge on customers using a card, but the card surcharge cannot exceed what the business costs to process that payment type.