Credit Card Machine Fails, Forcing Editor To Forgo Seltzer And Toilet Paper
So I was in the grocery store this morning buying three rolls of toilet paper and a bottle of seltzer with a credit card, as I am wont to do. (It was on my way back from the gym and I had brought a credit card just for this purpose. I didn't have any cash, I don't like to bring my wallet to the gym, and I don't like to have to futz with lockers).
After I swiped my card, I watched as a blue bar status bar creeped across the cashier's screen. After a good 30 seconds, it said something like "failed to create an ip connection." They tried again, and at another register, with the same results. We all shrugged our shoulders and made fun of the internet.
The casher said of the credit card machine, "When it works, it's great, but when it doesn't...pfft."
We're being trained to forgo cash because credit and debit cards are supposed to be more convenient. But what do in a world where most people don't carry any cash around whatsoever, and the systems break down? What if they failed on a massive scale, like a nuclear or electromagnetic attack? Your $20 bill is never going to give you a connection error.
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Bow to the TP gods, as you have angered them this morning.
i walked into my local CVS to get some stuff and was told at the register that they were not accepting any CC's at that time. so i had to do that incredible walk of shame out the door with the people behind me probably stiffling their laughter. couldn't they have, oh i don't know, put a sign on the door or something?
new rule: if CC machines break down your purchase is free.
"You're $20 bill is never going to give you a connection error."
Unless you are trying to buy an iPhone.
..."I didn't have any cash, I don't like to bring my wallet to the gym, and I don't like to have to futz with lockers)."
I was also too busy coming up with excuses for not carrying cash to grab either cash, or a debit card.
Just kidding, Ben. You're right, though. this is exactly what the credit card companies have been training and brainwashing us into - the only way to pay for purchases is with a _____ Card.
Don't be a slave to them. Carry cash. Seriously, TP and Canada Dry? Thats like $5?
What, they didn't offer to break out the old roller-receipt machine?
Cash is also less secure and easier to be robbed of. Cash that is lost or stolen is probably NEVER going to be recovered. Credit cards carry protection for that very instance.
@leftistcoast: That's what I was wondering. Every retail place I've ever worked had at least one of the old carbon copy/imprint machines, just in case.
@protest:
Even with the signs you would not believe how many people still try to swipe their cards. I've taped a 8x10 letter paper over the keyboard in both English and Spanish saying "The card reader is out of order, please pay inside or select another pump" and I watch between 3-5 people a shift remove the paper and swipe their cards then come in miffed it dosn't work for them.
I worked for a major retail chain for 2 years. Whenever we lost our cc machines, we would dig out the old-fashioned cc imprinter, and write out manual receipts with all of the customer's information, believing in good faith that if there was a problem with the cc when the machine came back online, we could contact the customer. We never had a problem.
I was in Panera recently and their CC machines were down -- they couldn't accept CCs or debit cards -- cash only (and no ATM nearby). I don't know exactly how many people left empty-handed, but it seemed like Panera missed out on a lot of sales that night.
you could always wipe your butt with your cat
Carry a fifty in your wallet if you don't want to carry a wallet ask you bank for one of their debit card protective envelopes and keep your card and cash there, it's the same size as a card but you can tuck cash in it as well.
The Whole Foods near me had a system-wide cash register failure two Saturdays ago. First they were going cash-only, then they ran out of cash and had to shut down the store, I literally had to walk away from my cart full of food. The employees were just standing around. It was crazy.
Emailed a complaint letter to WF HQ a week ago and NO response yet. I want a)an apology and b)a coupon, at the least.
On the bright side I discovered a great little privately-owned natural foods grocery the next town over. Maybe I won't need that coupon after all.
I accompanied my wife to an event at Van Andel Museum in downtown Grand Rapids, MI. We are also among the group of people who rarely carry cash (I tend to spend more if I have it with me . . . no self-control). Anyway, there was a $5 charge to enter. We asked if it was cash or check only since there were no signs of any kind. The girl said 'We'll take credit cards as a last resort.' I was pleasantly surprised since it was pouring rain, although we had to WRITE our card info on their receipt form. I guess my point is this: if a small event is able to manually accept CC and process them after-the-fact, why couldn't a large chain o' stores?? I mean, the whole purpose of a store is for someone to buy something. I agree, why wouldn't they put up a sign on the door? What a concept. Idiots.
... or try another store? :P
We had something like this happen a few years ago when either code red or some virus like that took down the main ISP in town. Only a few businesses has the ability to process card transactions because they were on different connections. For five days you could not do a card transaction most places and most of the city of almost 175,000 people had no internet.
At least our main grocery chain had lots of those roller card imprinters so they could still sell food.
So yea, the big ISP in the region sold their business service to most of the businesses in town and at the same time their NOC was too stupid to update their windows servers and did not have sufficient backups to restore all of their data after they reformatted the servers.
I understand why a lot of companies or stores don't use the old manual slide credit card machines. If computers just seem so reliable, then it just doesn't SEEM like it would be worth it. I mean, they're just collecting dust, until you actually need them because your system is down. When I worked retail we kept ours around and yeah they were dusty, but when we had problems swiping cards, we just took them out and used them without a problem. Customers weren't miffed because I think they'd be even more miffed if they had spent time shopping and couldn't actually make a purchase.
I am Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!
(sorry, couldn't resist...)
@the_mdg:
It's called the VAN ANDEL Museum now? Jeez. I hope they don't rename the Ford Museum the RICHARD DE VOS GERALD FORD Theatre. Anyway sorry off topic comment from a former GR local :)
href="#c2806379">DashTheHand: I would consider security or monetary loss as a reason not to carry cash. I carry less than $100 around, which usually gets me through the week as spending cash. If I'm robbed of my cash the loss of my green is the least of my worries - which brings me to the same situation as the writer: Needing some TP.
I think I'd RATHER lose $20-$40, than lose my CC and have to call in, wait for it, change the numbers on all my online accounts that use that CC. If you consider then time it's better to lose a small amount of cash.
Sort of makes a mockery of the VISA commercials. Be great if the US Treasury did a competing ad showcasing Ben's experience.
And Ben, exactly what were you doing last weekend that the Monday after required rolls of toilet paper and selzer water? Buying those off-market X-Lax tabs from friendly strangers at Crobar?
Next time, remember: it's X-TC not X-Lax. Jeez.
Finally, the cat - whose hindquarters are being approached with a very large (tho, recyclable - good job!) bottle - looks very worried.
If manual carbon-copy CC machines are valid backup devices, computers ought to be able to emulate this functionality by simply caching the CC charge requests until the internet connection comes back online. Although you'd still need the imprint machines for power outages.
Why were you at the gym and not at home working?
The worst is when a parking garage does not accept credit.
I never carry cash and the last time I was in Indy, I parked in a garage.
Upon leaving I hand my card and the ghetto woman gives me attitude and says they do not take credit in a mean way.
I was lucky to have toll money in the glove box, but damn. This was the parking garage for the circle center mall and the only place within 3 miles that did not take credit was the parking garage.
It was very unprofessional for that mall.
You crazy! You would rather loose money than a credit card.
If you loose your card, its a 2 minute call to cancel it and get a new one in about a week.
Then you might spend 5 minutes updating any automatic charges online.
You loose no money when you loose your credit card.
The only drawback is that it takes a week to get a new one and your stuck using cash or worse using checks for a while.
Use the cat.
Perhaps I'm paranoid, or just the product of being baby-sat a whole lot by my Depression-surviving, money-hiding grandmother, but I always carry a bit of cash around for just this purpose. In the inside pockets of all my bags I hide, then forget about, between $20 and $50 in cash, just in case.
This actually has saved me more times than I care to count.
Those minimum purchases are a pain in the ass and wrong, except for the rare occasion where I'm buying something from a tiny mom&pop store that is unfranchised. In those situations, it's understandable that they would ask for a minimum purchase amount since the charges they get from the card companies are so ludicrous that they couldn't possibly cover all of them with $1 transactions.
Why don't people carry cash? Everyone takes it for purchases (except Apple for iPhones)
My mom told me I needed to always have cash with me, because if my car broke down and I was in the middle of nowhere and needed food, I'd be SOL if the place I found didn't take credit.
There was a movie theater in my college town that was the worst place you could go. It was ghetto to the power of 10. Anyway, their CC machines were always broken so you had to walk across the shopping center parking lot to get to the Bank of America to use their ATM, which charged an arm and a leg. But you wanted to see your movie, what could you do? I went there twice and vowed never to return.
@ry81984: new card in about a week?!?!? Switch companies. Wachovia overnighted a new Visa card to me after mine got used by the VIP TUNE gang and they even left my old card active until I could receive my new one.
@liquisoft: I feel similar about the minimum purchases. I won't stand for it with any larger store, but I'm not willing to stick a Mom & Pop with anything charged unless it's >$5. Even then, I prefer to hold onto the plastic until I'm up to $10 or more with the Mom & Pops.
I was a cashier at a Toyota dealership, and our CC machine went down all the time. I felt very sketchy using the old carbon-swiping machines b/c it has the whole CC number right on there. It would have been so easy for me to steal customers' information. I wouldn't want to use those old machines for anything!
So [we were] in the grocery store this morning buying three rolls of toilet paper and a bottle of seltzer with a credit card, as [we are] wont to do. (It was on [our] way back from the gym and [we] had brought a credit card just for this purpose. [We] didn't have any cash, [we] don't like to bring [our] wallet to the gym, and [we] don't like to have to futz with lockers).
After [we] swiped [our] card, [we] watched as a blue bar status bar creeped across the cashier's screen....
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FTFY,* Ben.
*Can Gawker's commenting system please add STRIKEOUT as a style?
Hey, it happens.
I went to a Dunkin Donuts and got an iced coffee and a croissant for breakfast, the made the coffee and packed everything up.
I handed her the ATM card and she told me "Oh....our machine is down."
"I see...so now what? I have no cash."
"We have an ATM over there."
"That ATM has a $3 surcharge, I'm not going to take out $20 at a cost of $3 to pay for my breakfast that's under $4...see ya later then...I guess."
At that point, shouldn't she have at least offered me the coffee for free? I mean, it was made already, what are you going to do with it? Throw it out? She did just that.
I work as a cashier in a grocery store and I am surprised that there are not more incidents similar to Ben's. Even during slower times, it still takes awhile for the credit/debit purchase to be approved, usually about a minute, but it usually takes longer during peak times. Cash transactions are just so much faster and speeds up the line.
@liquisoft: I feel very strongly that if a merchant offers the option of using a credit card, they need to offer it across the board, without discrimination based on the amount of purchases. In the terms of their member agreements with Visa and Mastercard they are allowed to offer discounts for customers purchasing with cash (so they can basically raise prices enough to cover the cost of providing credit) but they can not have minimums.
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I never use a credit or debit card to buy stuff. "They" can track what you bought, when you bought it and where you bought it. If I ever commit a crime, I'm not going to make it easy on the cops to place me.
@Consumerist Moderator - ACAMBRAS:
If I have to start moderating my own comments for the sake of cat people, I'm not going ot be very funny
[checking profile for "ban" symbol]
so we're still cool?
The term "electromagnet attack" makes me think of a giant crane with a huge one of those horseshoe-shaped red and silver magnets on the end, shooting out cartoon lightning bolts. And that makes me happy.
In the event of a nuclear attack, I think the lack of functioning credit card machines will be the least of your problems.
Ever since my wallet was stolen (containing my return train ticket) in downtown Chicago, I routinely keep a $20 bill folded up in my shoe.
I worked in retail after high school while I started college and our system would allow you to do an override if the credit card system was down. Are general rule of thumb was anything over 50 dollars we had to call in if the system was down. Anything less then that we just do a manaul approval. When the system came back up it would process the cards it had on file. We would also imprimt the card when we had to do this.
Not sure why the store doesn't have an imprint machine as a backup. Whoever they use to process cards should have a phone number to process cards. Between that and the imprint machine they are set. For small sales like the one talked about you just imprint and be done with it. Out of the 50 people you imprint and process later what are the chances of more then 1 of them having the card not go through?
Hell if they really wanted to play it safe call in every order or call in orders say over 20 bucks.
This is news?
@anyanka323: Only rinky-dink stores. All of the big chains are virtually instant. And unless you're a 'tard, you scan your card while the cashier is ringing up the purchase. No way is cash faster, again, barring rinky-dink places with dialup. Those piss me off, too, because cash would be faster.
I keep a tiny bit of cash hidden in my car.
Oh, and try having a cart full of groceries and having the card system not work, only the cashier isn't aware that it's not working all over the store and she refuses to then take a check from you for the groceries, because if the machine refuses to let your card go through, then CLEARLY it's because you don't have any money.
Thank God I found a manager, who verified that other card machines were not working (the grocery store was not crowded and I was the only customer in line). I even had a check card for that store, so the check itself was not a problem. I was so angry, not over the inconvenience of the card system (I always keep a spare blank check on hand too), but because of the comment from the cashier, verbatim, "Well, if your card's not working, I'm certainly not going to accept a check from you."
I rarely to never carry cash, and this is something that always worries me. That, or that the store is going to have a (violating-their-terms-of-service-with-the-credit-card-companies) credit card minimum, and since I can never remember my ATM PIN, I'm completely stuck.