Yes Ma'am, the credit card machine is hooked up to the internet.

[Bex]

Ok, so where I work I occasionally have to run people's credit cards. Rather than a swipe machine, I literally have to sign onto the internet, go to a website and enter the customers information from there. I am sure that tons of places do this.

Today at work a lady wanted to purchase a membership to our facility. I tell her how much it will be and she hands over her Visa. I sit down at my computer and start to enter her information into said site. .... And then I hear this. (Please imagine the worst southern accent in the entire world.. I'm talking Scarlet from Gone with the Wind here.)

"OH MY GAWD What ARE you doing?!?! You cannot run MY credit card over the internet! I don't do that sort of thing." She then snatches the card from my hand.

I am counting to ten by this point. (I do that a lot to avoid jail time.)

She then proceeds to tell me that she cannot believe that a government facility would be so stupid as to run credit cards over the internet. How could they possibly think it was safe to do such a thing?

"Ma'am, the only difference in what I am doing and what you do at a store is that they swipe, and I type the numbers in."

-- And then she has the nerve to say "Well you all are just stupid then." And she puffs up like a rooster. I sigh.

"Ma'am, you do realize that EVERY credit card swiping machine is hooked to the internet, right?" (I might as well have slapped her.)

Needless to say, I have a middle aged rhino standing beside my desk at this point. If looks could kill, I would have been a goner. (I counted to 20 this time... it seemed like the right thing to do.)

After I made it to 20, I just calmly asked her if she had cash. She replies "No, of course not. NOBODY carries cash anymore, its not safe."

I was looking around my desk wondering if my hole punch would be heavy enough to do any real damage when she turned and walked out the front door. I am really glad she left. I like my hole punch, after all.

[superhotelworker]

LMAO you poor thing. Want some smirnoff to make up for the bitch? I'll share. <3

[MoonCat]

Oh Lord. How does she think a swipe machine gets the numbers through? Magic?

We get these, too. "Can't you bill me?" No, we haven't billed since 2002. "Don't keep my credit card number in your system!" Sorry, that's how it works, I can't change it. I can only see the last 4 digits anyway.

What's funny is that back when we billed, we had people griping that we should be able to take credit cards over the phone....and we used to have people who complained that we should be able to save their info for next time! You can't win.

Whether they like this set-up or not, that's no reason for her to call you 'stupid.' Why do people have to be insulting?

[reimero]

"Ma'am, I'm performing a manually-verified secure transaction straight to our processing center to ensure there is no chance of fraud. You'd be surprised just how insecure those magstripe readers are. Look up credit card skimming on Google sometime, and you'll be glad I'm doing things this way."

[NateTheChops]

Oh ma'am, that's nothing. Did I tell you about the hidden cameras in the showers, the steam room and the weight room? For an extra forty-dollars a month, we'll keep those videos of you off of the Internet. Otherwise, well, you know there's a website for eeeeeveryone.

[Bex]

I don't know if this lady thinks it is indeed magic, or if we notch invisible tally marks on the back of their cards when they aren't looking that only the bank can see. /shrug
I will have to post some of the things I heard when I worked at a public pool once. Lets just say that after that stint, if I turn 80 and can remember such colorful language and spout it like the burliest of sailors, someone shoot me.

[QASlave]

I know what system you're using. How?; you may ask. I know because it was my job to keep the damn thing up and running. (This was 5 years ago mind you.)

[Bex]

I know what system you're using. How?; you may ask. I know because it was my job to keep the damn thing up and running. (This was 5 years ago mind you.)

LOL... You know.. I often lock myself out of said system. When I call to get back in, they always sound exasperated. I think I am pretty much on a first name basis with them at this point. I even have which keys to push to navigate the phone system memorized. Crap...I think being outright annoying makes me a semi SC, doesn't it?

[Andara Bledin]

Ok, so where I work I occasionally have to run people's credit cards. Rather than a swipe machine, I literally have to sign onto the internet, go to a website and enter the customers information from there. I am sure that tons of places do this.

Isn't it fun?

We actually go through an internet-based processor, so we get all the fun of regular credit card transactions, plus the extra fun of banks who don't trust internet-based card processors.

Over half of all credit card failures we get are a direct result of the bank going, "who the hell is that?" and locking our processor out.

^-.-^

[Bright_Star]

What's NOT safe is dealing with people like that you just want to bitch slap...lol.

[Kristev]

Good night! What a dumbbunny.

[sweetj82]

I still remember the problems we had when the company i work for switched from papers to sign to signing the reader.....OMG the horror.
We still have a guy who refuses to sign the reader and makes the cashier print out the paper.

I remember when the pharmacy switched too. The lil old ladies hated it.
my co-worker told a lady that the world is changing and she better get used to it

[vikingchyk]

I still remember the problems we had when the company i work for switched from papers to sign to signing the reader.....OMG the horror.
We still have a guy who refuses to sign the reader and makes the cashier print out the paper.

I apologize for my husband - he's mostly gotten over that.

I kept laughing at him whenever he would rant that he didn't want "them" to have an image of his signature. "You mean that illegible scrawl that no one can decipher one letter of, and doesn't have enough squiggles to represent every letter in your name? Yah, right." Either that changed him, or it was how I kept exchanging eyerolls with the cashiers, and walking away from him, claiming not to know him.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

"Ma'am, I'm performing a manually-verified secure transaction straight to our processing center to ensure there is no chance of fraud. "

Something like this actually works quite often... probably because most suckstomers get lost at "manually".

[alcaholjunkie]

Credit card swiping machines are actually hooked up to carrier pigeons out in the back of the store. ^_^ (I bet some people would actually believe that too)