It's the green button!

[ContraCorriente]

Our debit/credit/EBT card machines cause the most headaches.

I can understand it, a little. Several customers have told me that we're the only store they know of where the magnetic strip has to face the right. But that's why there is a neon orange sign on the machine saying, 'Magnetic strip faces your right.' I mean, how much more simple can it get?

I can also understand it because usually you press one of the little gray buttons next to 'yes' or 'no' when it says, 'Is such-and-such amount OK?' But, again, there's a neon orange sign! It says "Enter = OK." And it's not like it's some little ambiguous button, hiding in the corner of the machine. It's the biggest button on the thing! And it's bright green!

Even with these two signs taped to the machine, 95% of the customers swipe their card upside down and backwards. Then when you try to give them simple instructions, like, 'Flip your card the other way,' it's like their hands go into a freaky frenzy, turning the card every OTHER way, and at a million miles an hour! I'm like, "Yes, that way--no, the--no, other side--YES! YOU'VE GOT IT!" Then when they finally get that part down-pat, you hear them pushing every OTHER button other than the 'Enter' button. I told one girl, 'Push the green button,' and she actually wiggled her finger and said, 'Okay, green, green, green button...' She couldn't identify the color green!

[Clintmax]

'Okay, green, green, green button...' She couldn't identify the color green!

Wow. You know...I've been known to reach over and press the correct button for people before.

[Phone Jockey]

I had a customer suggest we have a screen on our web-based payment site with just a huge button flashing that says "CLICK HERE TO PAY" so she didn't have to "jump thru hoops" to find the payment button. SERIOUSLY.

[powerboy]

I done that at work. We have to take the card from them, and do it our selfs. Ours is, where the strip is facing to the left, and guess what I kept on doing the other day.......Yup, upside down. Also on ours, which I never seen before until then, we can stick the card in a certain way. I never knew that before. Which I think is very cool

[Scottya21]

Two things:

1) The ATM has been all sorts of more fun lately, as New York recently starting giving out Unemployment benefits through debit cards. So, combined with the fact that only the manager can open the ATM and put more money in it, makes for all sorts of fun. I.e., "Why can't I get my entire $800 unemployment?" (limit of $200 or something on each transaction) "What do you mean it ran out of money?" etc etc

Also, the ATM machine screen has little square boxes and stuff for the options, but the actual buttons you push are located on the side of the screen. They look like touch screen buttons. Hillarity ensues.

2) People will insert their card in the exact same (wrong) way, 10 times, and then come inside and tell me that the gas pumps aren't working. >_< The problem is frequently compounded by their not speaking english. I really wish management would buy an intercom.

If I then tell them to flip the card over, they'll complain about having to come in.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I keep doing it myself, as it takes roughly twice as long for me to explain it all to people.

[Becks]

I told one girl, 'Push the green button,' and she actually wiggled her finger and said, 'Okay, green, green, green button...' She couldn't identify the color green!

There might be a slight chance that she's colorblind...

Just saying.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Doesn't colourblindness only affect men?

[Gawdzillers]

I don't know about you, but I hate those things.
I get really nervous, and can't think straight. It's almost like "beat the clock".
Maybe that's why they're acting so funny on the machines.

[Rapscallion]

Doesn't colourblindness only affect men?

Rarer for women than men.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/...ourblind.shtml

Down to genes and the like.

My google-fu is strong!

Rapscallion

[Ciarrai]

Doesn't colourblindness only affect men?

It's more common in men, but women can be colour blind as well.

[simplyanother]

Green buttons are complicated. Where I work, if you want to use your debit/credit card thingy as a credit you press ENTER when you are asked for your PIN. It's also a green button. Even with a sign that explains this in concise wording people still hit the red CANCEL button.

"I said credit, I wanna do it as a credit, did you push the credit button? I don't wanna enter my pin"...

We have ONE button on our register for credit or debit purchases. It's labeled charge. That's all I have to do. I can't make it do anything else.

Then they get mad because they have to slide their stupid cards again. Bah, it TAKES two seconds to do that. Sheesh. Stupid people.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Rarer for women than men.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/...ourblind.shtml

Down to genes and the like.

My google-fu is strong!

Rapscallion

Thanks, Raps.

[Jester]

Doesn't colourblindness only affect men?

As Raps said, it affects men far more often than women, but it can still affect women.

I speak as a semi-colorbling person (they call it "color deficient") person myself.

Amusingly enough, the only person I have ever met that is truly colorblind, that sees certain colors in black and white, was a woman in my college dorms, not a guy. Go figger.

I won't even tell you about the hot pink carpet I almost bought in those same dorms.

[Mark Healey]

Our debit/credit/EBT card machines cause the most headaches.

I can understand it, a little. Several customers have told me that we're the only store they know of where the magnetic strip has to face the right. But that's why there is a neon orange sign on the machine saying, 'Magnetic strip faces your right.' I mean, how much more simple can it get?

They could build them with clear plastic so that the read head is visible, or print a little picture of the read head right over where it is.