Customer Ran Off Before Signing Credit Slip

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, one of the checkers got a customer who took off before signing his credit card slip. The checker told the customer that he needed to sign his slip and the customer told her that it was too late. The checker reported to the coworker at the service desk and one of the baggers went after the customer and hopefully got him to sign it . The checker's next customer was very impatient and just wanted to pay for her groceries so she could leave.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, it should go through anyway. I don't think you need it for it to go through...but if they decide to contest the charge you might have a problem.

At least, I THINK that's how it works. Anyone know?

[evilhomer]

I had that once where a customer refused to sign for a final sale item (an instruction manual - he ordered it, read one page "to check something", then said he didn't want it). Argument ensued, he walked out, we put the charge through, he disputed it, we credited him.

I believe here's what can happen - the charge will go through but if he disputes it then you have to prove that he did make the transaction. An assclown like this could come up with some bs like he decided to pay cash and assumed the credit card was voided, it wasn't him using the card, or something like that.

So what I'd suggest is to contact the police and let them know that you had a customer who refused to complete his transaction and left the store with the merchandise, ignoring your orders to halt. Sounds like a case for theft in my book.

[Jester]

It is only theft, actually, if he took the merchandise and later disputed the charge. If for some reason (and there are many possibilities) a customer does not sign their credit slip, that does not void the transaction. The signature is there to protect both the customer and the vendor. It protects the customer by showing that they did, in fact sign for that charge, but if there is a charge that is signed for someone with a different signature, then the customer is protected from fraudulent charges. Make sense so far? It also protects the vendor by showing that the customer did in fact agree to said purchase.

However, if the card is run, and the customer does not dispute the charges, it is a valid sale on all ends.

I know I have gotten credit slips that have not been signed. While management prefers for them to be signed, for obvious reasons, it is usually not a huge deal if the customer simply forgot to sign it. Working in a hotel, I have had people forget to sign their room charge slip, or even leave the bar area entirely forgetting to pay their tab, but if they opened up their tab against their room, we have the right to charge that tab to their room.

Similarly, I once started a tab at a local bar and gave the bartender my credit card to keep the tab open. (Though they knew me, it was a busy night, so they required a credit card to run a tab.) That night, I forgot to close the tab, and left the credit card unwittingly with the bar. When I later found my credit card to be missing, I called said bar, and was informed (thankfully) that it was there and that (understandably) they had charged my card the amount of the tab, though they had not added any gratuity. I went down to the bar, picked up the card, left a healthy gratuity (because I am a good customer AND I felt like an idiot), and everyone was happy.

[friendofjimmyk]

Yeah, credit card stuff is a fine line. The only way there would be a problem is if he disputed, HOWEVER, you did run the card rather than manually entering it. When you manually enter it, and the customer disputes it, 9 times out of 10 it's your loss because when you enter a credit card manually, there is no electronic "imprint" of the card. When I was in the restaurant industry and our card readers would go down, some of my co-workers looked at me funny when I would turn the receipt (for the table), put the credit card under it and take a pencil and run it over the card to imprint the number and name of the credit card on the receipt, so I could at least show that the numbers I entered later came from the actual card.

I agree with Jester, it's only theft if the person disputes the charges they knew they created.

[chainedbarista]

the vet clinic i used to work at would send in slips, signed or not and the bank would still honor them; it might be a bank to bank policy on how this is handled, though.

[NightAngel]

I'm encountering more and more places that do not require you to sign anything for credit card transactions. As long as the card is slid through it should be okay.

We save signed credit card receipts for a very long time. In the almost six years I've been with the company I've never known of one incident where we've needed them. Even with credit card disputes.

Just more stuff to put through the shredder.

[Jester]

Actually, friendofjimmyk, just about every place I have ever worked at has required us to impring the card manually if we cannot get an electronic authorization for whatever reason (the machine is down, the power is out, whatever)......

[heather124]

after you put a credit card through our machine at work, it gives a prompt asking if the signature was valid, if you say yes the transaction goes through, if you say no, it reverses the transaction. One day a coworker of mine put through a card, handed the receipt to the customer to sign and turned to get a bag to put his purchase in. The customer did sign the receipt but as my coworker back was turned, hit NO on the credit card machine, reversing the transaction. Now when the button is pressed, it gives off a loud beeping sound and spits out more paper saying the sale didn't go through and as soon as my coworker heard this he asked the customer what he had done and the customer just played dumb..said he had done nothing. He was asked if he pressed the button (which we knew he did) and he said no and then tried to grab his bag and leave the store. Thankfully my coworker still had his card because he hadn't checked the signature yet so he told the customer he had to put the card through again because the last transaction had been cancelled and the customer lost it. He started yelling and screaming saying that was illegal and that he had signed the credit card slip and we were going to double charge him and he was going to call the police. We told him he was free to bring his credit card statement in when he received it and show us he was double charged and we would gladly refund BOTH charges. Never heard from him again!