Is That Imperfection We Smell Brewing at Melitta?

Melitta, a maker of coffee-brewing equipment, boasts it is the “coffee perfection company.” Apparently, those lofty standards don’t apply to product labeling.

The label on a box of 50 cone-shaped coffee filters declares that you get “25% Free.” It continues, “Ten free coffee filters for even more great coffee.”

As most school kids can tell you--an eighth-grader at Arcadia’s First Avenue Junior High alerted us to the label--one-quarter of 50 is 12.5, not 10.

We couldn’t reach a Melitta representative for comment. Oh well. There’s not much you can do with half a filter anyway.

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Check-Cashing Fees: A state law taking effect Jan. 1 limits the fees that check-cashing services can charge and requires the services to obtain permits.

The law limits fees to the greater of $3 or 3% of the face value of a check, for people with identification. Check cashers can charge 3.5% of the face value of a check for people without identification. The only ID required is a California driver’s license or identification card.

This means that after Jan. 1, a person with a valid driver’s license can expect to pay up to $3 to cash a check with a face value of $100 or less.

Retail businesses that cash checks or issue money orders, such as supermarkets, cannot charge more than $2 for each transaction.

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Dropping the Fee: Health clubs usually like to talk about losing weight, not losing members. So we were startled to read in a flyer that the Arcadia All-Pro Athletic Club is offering a $99 “membership special” amid the “lowest enrollment in 12 years.”

When we called to inquire about the situation, a receptionist told us the problem wasn’t lost members but a lost word. “It should say ‘lowest enrollment fee ,’ ” she explained.

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Odds and Ends: Reindeer express: Wells Fargo is mailing about 400,000 of its best credit card customers tree ornaments shaped like stagecoaches. . . . A bigger charge: People who want to exceed the new 60,000 mileage point limit on Citibank’s AAdvantage card should get both the Visa and MasterCard versions to bump up the maximum to 120,000 mileage points, Inside Flyer reports. We reported the new limit in this space three weeks ago. . . . Up, up and away: United Airlines is boosting to 25,000 from 20,000 the number of mileage points needed to earn an airline ticket under its frequent-flier program. The change takes effect Aug. 1, 1994.