Weird Merchant Account Story

My friend Todd was using his credit card the other day and told me this interesting story. He went to Russia and purchased a ticket with his credit card. However, when his bill came he had an international exchange fee for a ticket he purchased in the United States! It turns out that the merchant account reseller coded the transaction as an international merchant account and he had to pay the fee. Even though he purchased the ticket in the United States in U.S. funds he had to pay the fee as it was an international merchant account. Crazy right?