Have had several interesting tourists with foreign cards in the last few weeks - not all sucky, some just interesting.
American tourist - seemed a perfectly normal customer throughout the transaction, until it was time to pay. Gave me an american Visa debit card, and asked for some cashback, which I said was fine, as we can give cashback on all british debit cards, and I assumed this would be the same. I put the card in and it came straight up as a credit card and therefore we couldn't do cashback, informed the customer this and he was NOT happy. (i believe in the US you can run these sort of cards through as either credit or debit? british cards cant do that though, they are either credit OR debit.)
Him:"I told you to run it through as debit! Do it"
Me:"I'm sorry, your card has come up as a credit card, there is no way I can change that"
Him:"Jeez, people your age can never be bothered to do your job properly" (err, what? so doing my job properly would involve changing the whole British banking system so you can get your cashback? )
Me:"I'm sorry, I cannot give cashback on your card, it just isn't possible with our systems"
Him:"Why the hell did you say I could get cashback and now you can't, you need to get your facts right, do they not train you properly here"
Me:"They do sir, but as your card said "debit" on it I assumed it would be fine, we do not tend to get many american cards in here"
In the end they took the customer over to ring his bank. What a load of hassle, why not just use a ATM? And why did he keep on and on, there was no way I could give him the cashback, grrr.
French tourist - As pretty much all British cards are now chip and pin now, we don't have a problem with signatures anymore, however this ladys french card was not chip and pin. She gave me a card that wasn't signed, I pointed this out and she happily gave me her ID. As she put her cards away, she then said "I don't sign it incase it gets stolen and they forge my signature" Errr wtf? If it gets stolen they are just going to sign your card with any old signature, and be able to copy it easily. Her card was blank, didn't even say "See ID" on it. Was a bit dumbstruck by how stupid that comment sounded
Australian tourist - Gave me a card that just didn't work. Our machine would not accept the type of card she had - one I've never seen before. Had something about aeroplanes on it? And no "Visa" or "Mastercard" logo or anything I recognised. I explained that she'd have to pay with something else, and she got really really upset. Told me to try the card again - I humoured her and did, but, no it wasn't going to work. Again I said that she'd probably have to pay another way, and that her card probably wouldn't work anywhere in the UK, as it seemed to be of a format that I've just never seen before. At this point she actually started crying Said that she'd come over here travelling, and that was the only card she'd brought with her, and she had no other money, and what was she supposed to do if she couldn't buy food? I felt so so bad for her, but come on, that really is something you should check out BEFORE you travel halfway across the world!
Sorry that was so long!
American tourist - seemed a perfectly normal customer throughout the transaction, until it was time to pay. Gave me an american Visa debit card, and asked for some cashback, which I said was fine, as we can give cashback on all british debit cards, and I assumed this would be the same. I put the card in and it came straight up as a credit card and therefore we couldn't do cashback, informed the customer this and he was NOT happy. (i believe in the US you can run these sort of cards through as either credit or debit? british cards cant do that though, they are either credit OR debit.)
Him:"I told you to run it through as debit! Do it"
Me:"I'm sorry, your card has come up as a credit card, there is no way I can change that"
Him:"Jeez, people your age can never be bothered to do your job properly" (err, what? so doing my job properly would involve changing the whole British banking system so you can get your cashback? )
Me:"I'm sorry, I cannot give cashback on your card, it just isn't possible with our systems"
Him:"Why the hell did you say I could get cashback and now you can't, you need to get your facts right, do they not train you properly here"
Me:"They do sir, but as your card said "debit" on it I assumed it would be fine, we do not tend to get many american cards in here"
In the end they took the customer over to ring his bank. What a load of hassle, why not just use a ATM? And why did he keep on and on, there was no way I could give him the cashback, grrr.
French tourist - As pretty much all British cards are now chip and pin now, we don't have a problem with signatures anymore, however this ladys french card was not chip and pin. She gave me a card that wasn't signed, I pointed this out and she happily gave me her ID. As she put her cards away, she then said "I don't sign it incase it gets stolen and they forge my signature" Errr wtf? If it gets stolen they are just going to sign your card with any old signature, and be able to copy it easily. Her card was blank, didn't even say "See ID" on it. Was a bit dumbstruck by how stupid that comment sounded
Australian tourist - Gave me a card that just didn't work. Our machine would not accept the type of card she had - one I've never seen before. Had something about aeroplanes on it? And no "Visa" or "Mastercard" logo or anything I recognised. I explained that she'd have to pay with something else, and she got really really upset. Told me to try the card again - I humoured her and did, but, no it wasn't going to work. Again I said that she'd probably have to pay another way, and that her card probably wouldn't work anywhere in the UK, as it seemed to be of a format that I've just never seen before. At this point she actually started crying Said that she'd come over here travelling, and that was the only card she'd brought with her, and she had no other money, and what was she supposed to do if she couldn't buy food? I felt so so bad for her, but come on, that really is something you should check out BEFORE you travel halfway across the world!
Sorry that was so long!
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