Rude and Paranoid Lady

[Jade Pheonix]

I had a very paranoid and rude customer tonight on register. The credit card terminal on my register was out, so I had to ask all customers who were paying in credit/debit to hand me their cards so I could swipe it through the reader on the register's keyboard. Most of them didn't have a problem with this, except for Paranoid Lady (PL) who kept looking at me like I was going to rob her at gunpoint. It started out like this:

Cast

Me,as the cheerful and harmless cashier
Paraniod Lady, as the fancy dressed woman who must've been born with a silver spoon up her

Guest Starring: General Manager, the guy who has his employees under the impression that he can magically teloport.

Me: Hello, how are you?

PL: Ok *looks around as if uncomfortable*

Me: Do you have your <insert store name> card? All the items you have here are on sale.

PL: I left it at home.

Me: No problem *pulls up customer card search* Just tell me your phone number so I can look it up.

PL: Why do you need my phone number?

Me: If your phone number is in the database, I can use your <insert store name> card. Or you can give me your first and last name.

PL: I'd rather not. Just ring me up please.

I ring her up, the final total comes close to $300, with $55 in savings that could've come from her discount card.

Me: are you sure you don't want me to look up your card, you could save $55.

PL: No, I don't want to give you my personal information.

Me: Ok, your total is $XXX

PL: Credit *goes to swipe card in terminal*

Me: That doesn't work, you'll have to hand me your card so I can swipe it on my register.

PL: Are you sure?

Me: *nods* Yeah, it won't be fixed until tommorow. Sorry for the trouble.

PL: Well, can't I just come around and swipe it at the register?

General Manager: *popping out of nowhere as usual* We can't let you behind the counter, just hand her your card.

PL reluctantly hands me her card, I swipe it and go to hand it back, and she snatches it right out of my hand and gives me this weird fearful look.

I should mention that all through the transaction, I was cheerful and polite. And according to the customer behind her, there was nothing about me that appeared even vaguely threatening, not even my body language.

I finish the tranaction and hand her receipt to her, she snatches that and leaves just as I'm saying " Have a nice day." . I know my store isn't in the best neighborhood (1) , but I feel insulted. It was as if this lady thought I was a violent criminal who wanted to steal her credit card, rob her house, and kill her. Trust me, I'm not that sort of person .Sure, I can be harsh when people me off, but I'm not the violent type.

(1) It's not exactly a bad neighborhood either, BTW.

[Zombi]

We're not high-tech enough to have machines that you swipe your card through youself - customers have to hand over their card. This is still pretty much standard practice in Australia, so nobody kicks up a fuss about it, but I had this one woman come through the other day. I've finished ringing her stuff through, and it's time for her to pay me. She says "Cheque account" and just stands there. I'm thinking "OK, does she want to write a cheque or something, because she's not giving me her card". She says, all snotty "Well, can I have the machine, then?!"
I should have told her to get lost, actually - we have to put in the total manually, and it's a pain in the arse when they've got the machine.
I know it's entirely possible to steal credit card numbers by swiping it through a second machine, but my hands are visible to the customer at all times, so it's unlikely that I'd get away with anything like that. It wasn't even a credit card, it was linked to her cheque account, so getting the numbers off it wouldn't do me any good unless I had the card and the PIN. Stupid cow.

[draftermatt]

What did this lady do when there were no terminals to do it yourself?

You had to give the clerks the card.

[friendofjimmyk]

One of the restaurants I worked at would get a nice, lovely, peace-loving, tolerant church crowd (peace-loving, tolerant church goers - oxymoron - not all of them - but the ones that ate at this restaurant)

I was standing at one of the computer terminals next to another servers section. She handed the guy the book with his credit card slip and card back. The lady sitting next to him says, "Now, make sure your credit card numbers are not on there and you clearly write the tip and sign it - these people rip you off all the time."

My co-worker and I just look at each other and she, not really caring if she lost the job or not, and she said, rather loudly, "JESUS CHRIST!" and walked over to me at the register, still in ear shot of the table and started bitching about what the lady just said. We KNEW this woman heard.

"these people"????

[Reyneth]

Hah. That lady would have FREAKED at my store entirely. We have *one* credit card terminal. And four POS stations (it's rarely an issue that we have to wait for the terminal). Therefore, we have to walk, minimum of 5 feet, often 10, sometimes 20 and around a corner to run their card. I *always* tell them what I'm doing, but some people don't even pay attention and - oops - there goes the store employee who knows where with my credit card! I haven't had anyone complain about it yet though. Watch, now that I've said that......

However, we did have one lady bitch and complain that the full credit card # was on the reciept - not the one she kept, but the one that was signed and kept by the store to turn into the credit card company if there were any problems. Another employee brought it up to the manager, saying the customer was right, blah blah, you can have just the last four digits on and it's fine.

Guess what happened that night? We were some crazy amount over on a credit card total. I discovered that instead of putting in the sale total (around 15), the SAME employee put in the last four digits (65XX ish) of the card. (We put in the last four in our POS so we can match transactions) I needed the entire credit card number to process the return and then ring things up for the correct amount. The suggestion to only have the last four digits was DENIED. (no, I don't care for the employee in question much!)

[Jester]

The machines that list a bunch of x's and then only the last four numbers of a credit card are the ones that store all the information from the credit card within their memory/information bank/whatever the hell you want to call it, or are linked to the store's computers where such information is stored after the credit card is swiped.

The other day at the hotel, our computers were down. So the servers were running credit cards manually, i.e., on that old bulky thing where you put the card down with a slip, and manually slide the thing over it, imprinting the card's info on the slip, which the guest then signs and gets a copy of.

This being MANUAL, we need the credit card numbers to run the sale on the account. NATURALLY some overly paranoid anal asshat madea point of crossing out the CC numbers on the slip for the restaurant, so (a) the hotel was out the money for the sale, (b) the server was out the money for the tip, and (c) the overly paranoid anal asshat basically got a free meal.

Idiots.

[Getoutofmylobby]

Speaking of paranoid people...

With digital key cards having already replaced metal keys at hotels, it's a common misconception among travelers that personal information (credit card numbers and the like) gets stored on them. This just ain't so. The only things on them are the room number and the days the key will work.

I had an old man refuse to give me his room keys yesterday morning because "according to Dateline, or something," "you people put all kinds of personal crap on them." Nothing i told him could change his mind. And it wasn't like i could actually show him he was wrong. He spent a good few minutes lecturing me on identity theft.

Maybe i was tired of dealing with him, or maybe i'm tired of dealing with people in general but after his lecture started losing steam i butted in and said "You know sir, you're absolutely right. The keys contain more information about you then you think. They just tell us to lie. I suggest you keep your key, take it home, cut it into at least 10 pieces and burn them. That is the only way you can stay safe." He nodded at me and left.

This might come back to haunt me but honestly, i don't care. If this man is determined to spend the rest of his life paranoid and stupid, then i can at least get a little quiet enjoyment out of it.

[ladylabyrinth]

With digital key cards having already replaced metal keys at hotels, it's a common misconception among travelers that personal information (credit card numbers and the like) gets stored on them. This just ain't so. The only things on them are the room number and the days the key will work.

I had an old man refuse to give me his room keys yesterday morning because "according to Dateline, or something," "you people put all kinds of personal crap on them." Nothing i told him could change his mind. And it wasn't like i could actually show him he was wrong. He spent a good few minutes lecturing me on identity theft.

Snopes has something to say about that

I love Snopes.

[flybye023]

This being MANUAL, we need the credit card numbers to run the sale on the account. NATURALLY some overly paranoid anal asshat madea point of crossing out the CC numbers on the slip for the restaurant, so (a) the hotel was out the money for the sale, (b) the server was out the money for the tip, and (c) the overly paranoid anal asshat basically got a free meal.

Idiots.

I had a similar thing happen. This old man requested a paper slip to sign because his electronic signature "would just go into computer limbo where anyone could grab it". He then blacks out his cc number on the slip we kept to send to the credit card company. I wanted to smack the guy or at least have him banned for attemted theft . Luckily, since we had been able to run the card electronically we were safe unless he decided to challenge the charge with the company.

I had an old man refuse to give me his room keys yesterday morning because "according to Dateline, or something," "you people put all kinds of personal crap on them." Nothing i told him could change his mind. And it wasn't like i could actually show him he was wrong. He spent a good few minutes lecturing me on identity theft.

Please, please, please rescue me from old people lecturing me about the evils of technology .

[Zombi]

What did this lady do when there were no terminals to do it yourself?

You had to give the clerks the card.

Probably gave them the same crap I got. If it's a credit card, then fair enough, but I couldn't have done anything with her card unless I also had the PIN.
I know that in England, cashiers won't take the card, and you swipe it yourself, but in Australia only a few places like Coles and Woolworths really use the self-swiping machines, so usually you just hand over the card and keep an eye on it.