I hate credit cards!

[smileyeagle1021]

On the wal-mart machines, my mother shops there all the time (i however avoid the place) it automatically comes up with a screen saying enter pin then on the right hand side under the enter button is a button that says credit... 7-11 is similar, you still select credit or debit, but if you select debit by mistake (sadly i've done that before... when I got my first credit card that was't a bank card) it has a similar option.

[Javarod]

I couldn't find a way to work it in my original post, but my reasoning for that speculation is thus:

Albertson's bought Shaw's, then Supervalu et al. bought Albertson's. Just recently, Shaw's underwent an overhaul where all of their registers and PIN pads were replaced; the registers now use the term "Preferred Card" instead of "Shaw's Rewards Card"; the former is, IIRC, the nomenclature Albertson's uses for their loyalty card.

Thus, I conclude that the registers/PIN pads are likely the same as Albertson's. I could still be wrong.

Nods, "My mate worked for Albertson's and was laid off during the buy out back in December. Shortly before that Albertson's had bought Shaws. The complicated part is that three groups were involved in the buy out, one that's operating as Albertsons LLC, operating basically west of the Mississippi except for half of California, Supervalu that gets the east and the other half, and CVS which got the free standing Osco and Jewel drugstores. Complicated, no?"

[MadonnaC]

Next lesson - learn your PIN! Memorize it. Keep it secret. Keep it safe. Do not think that you will save time by using your debit card as credit.

Sorry... It's just that my bank refuses to allow Debit cards to be used as Debit, even though it says Debit above the visa symbol. I have played along with cashiers that insist they have to run it as debit, even typing in my PIN, but until they run it as credit it's getting declined.

[Imogene]

I will invariably hear this line at least once a shift: "Oh, they're all different!"
No! No they're f*cking not! They're all relatively the same now. I haven't had any trouble with different machines. Particularly the ones you slide on your own. I do occasionally get confused by the ones at gas stations, where the signs can be ambiguous.
The machines that you slide from top to bottom, put your damn numbers facing up (or what's widely regarded as 'up'), and you've gotten over the biggest hurdle already! Next, check the pictogram for where the numbers are in relation to the swiping mechanism. Then swipe your damn card!
Finally, done with your transaction.
"They're all different..."
Get the hell out of my line. I just told the person ahead of you how to swipe their card, were you not listening? You seem like the kind of person who answers all twenty-five questions when you only needed to answer #5. Screw you.

Also: I only need your card if the machine over there... *points* won't read it when you swipe it. Quit f*cking trying to hand me your card before then! I get that roughly forty transactions a day. Did you not see the huge chunk of black taking up most of that little separate counter there? What the hell could it be?
Graagh! Juwl! Smash! Puny! Crafter!

[trunks2k]

I will invariably hear this line at least once a shift: "Oh, they're all different!"

I know. If you need to hold your card perpendicular to the machine, the strip is always at the bottom, and 9 times out of ten the strip should be facing in.

If you have to slide the card parallel to the machine, the strip is always on the bottom and on the inside.

If you have to insert the card, 9.9999999999 times out of 10, the strip is facing down. Most times, the strip should be on the right side.

For any given machine, at most it should take you 2 attempts to get it right (minus the ocassional insert card where the strip faces up but I haven't seen those in a long time).

[Javarod]

Actually I've seen quite a few different type of machines, they're just slightly different than each other, almost as if someone's trying to make it different just to be different. Do remember, the software can be customized, I once went to two different stores with the same machine, but different software, though the only memorable change was that the charge and debit buttons were swapped.

Speaking of PINs (PIN number is an oxymoron), why don't people use the simple way to remember it, for voice mails, pins and things like that, I don't know my PIN, so how do I use it? Simple, in one case (I ain't saying which), my PIN is fish. Remember, most keypads have letters on them, and if it doesn't, just use your cell phone to match the letters, after all, its often easier to remember a word than a number.

[trunks2k]

Speaking of PINs (PIN number is an oxymoron),

You mean redundant

"Military Intelligence" is an oxymoron.

[Aggravated Associate]

But they don't show how a credit card transactions really work. . .

That might be the funniest and/or my favorite post I've ever seen on these boards, ever. I love you.

P.S.- Yes, that is exactly how it is.

[chops]

Nods, "My mate worked for Albertson's and was laid off during the buy out back in December. Shortly before that Albertson's had bought Shaws. The complicated part is that three groups were involved in the buy out, one that's operating as Albertsons LLC, operating basically west of the Mississippi except for half of California, Supervalu that gets the east and the other half, and CVS which got the free standing Osco and Jewel drugstores. Complicated, no?"

Very...that would kinda explain why the PIN pads at Shaw's have Supervalu asset tags on them, yet all the store brand stuff would say, "Distributed by Albertson's, Inc., Boise, ID 83726."

[rentedmule]

But they don't show how a credit card transactions really work . . .
Customer: The pen is dead!

That is a trophy winning description of a credit card transaction.
I like to see that made into a commercial!

[ParkingWitch]

Gods this thread makes me feel lucky.

I work in a toll booth for airport parking. Our machines can only be run as credit and the customer has to give me the card. No worries about credit/debit PINs or customer mis-swiping the card. And sig. only at $50 or more.

But I hate having to use the rest room in the booth by the self serve credit card only lane. I can't tell how may times I've stepped out of the booth to go back to my booth and had to give lessons in how to use the damned machine.

[simplyanother]

Also: I only need your card if the machine over there... *points* won't read it when you swipe it. Quit f*cking trying to hand me your card before then! I get that roughly forty transactions a day. Did you not see the huge chunk of black taking up most of that little separate counter there? What the hell could it be?
Graagh! Juwl! Smash! Puny! Crafter!

I don't mind the "but they're ALL different" because...people are human. I mind the "I WANNA DO CREDIT CANT I DO CREDIT??? IT KEEPS ASKING FOR MY PIN!!!!!" Especially after I've given the "if it asks for a PIN and you want to do credit--press the ENTER/GREEN button" speech. Then I just want to scream.

I don't like taking the credit cards, because I hate the "omg you didn't check my signature/ask for my ID" jackasses. So, I avoid it. Yep. I'm a wimp.

For older folks (the over 70 crowd), I truly don't mind swiping their card for them. Some of my fellow cashiers do this passive aggressive thing where they'll swipe the customers card through the pin pad thing--rather than on the register. To get the customer to say "oh, I could have done that"... Seems like too much extra work to me.

One annoying thing is when the customer who just finished stands in front of the pin pad machine and wont move the hell out of the way of the customer who intends to pay NOW!

I hate people.

(But literally laughing out loud at the last sentence. Though, Christmastime craft store shoppers aren't the usual craft store shoppers...they are extra crazy people, who do not know the convoluted idiocy of the craft store. )

[Fawn]

trunks2k: OMG I'm so sorry! I can't help it Thats so awful and yet so hillarious! *dies*

[Midnight12]

it probably doesn't help to know that businesses get charged for how many times a customers wipes their card or uses their card. thats why the limit of the incorrect pin numer is only two or three cause you're charged each time. so its a good thing customers don't know? But yeah repeatedly swiping the card freezes registers because its trying to process so many swipes all at once.

[Javarod]

You mean redundant

Yeah, that too.