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I think this is going to be part of a series for me: complaints about one particular aspect of SCism. This time, the PIN Pads at my store.
First, the background. At my store, the PIN Pads are one large touchscreen with an ambidextrous magnetic strip reader at the top and a stylus attached to the side. For entering debit card PINs, you can use your finger or the stylus. It should be noted that the PIN screen will automatically come up when a debit card is swiped. If you wish to use it as a credit card, that's fine; simply select "CREDIT" at the bottom of the screen. After you enter your PIN, you will be asked if you want cash back (select YES or NO). If yes, you will be asked "How Much?" ($10, $20, $40, Cancel ($0)). YOu will then be asked to verify the total. This is NOT a check on me, the cashier, but on you. It is telling you that THIS is the amount to be debited with your cash back selection. If you select no, it will bring you back to "Do you want cash back?" "Yes" allows the the transaction to continue.
For electronic signature captures, use you the stylus to write in the lower portion of the screen, as defined by the nice white box (and the heavily scratched area of the protective film). The thing that sucks about our Pads is that the entire screen remains active during a signature capture even though it only allowes you to write in a small portion of it. As a result, if you stray even slightly outside the signature box, or accidentally touch another part of the screen, it stops capturing the signature and throws up a less than helpful error message "Please sign in signature box." Worse, the message automatically goes away after a moment, yet has an "OK" button in it. This can lead to a frustrating situation where you touch OK just as the message self-clears, which triggers the message again, so you press OK again, on and on in an endless loop. It aggravates the customers, and it aggravates me in turn. Plus, as I'm sure is the case with all electronic signature captures, the signature comes out terribly no matter how slowly and carefully you write.
And yet, with all the ways the PIN Pad invites screwups, people still manage to find their own ways to foul things up. Feel free to add your own that may be unique to your store's system.
Both Debit and Credit
•Do not bemoan the fact that "every store has a different system" to excuse your mistakes. If anything, this is evidence against you rather than an legitimate excuse. If you know every store has a different system, then you should not be making assumptions about ours. Instead, you should be paying closer attention.
•Attention left-handed customers: You can indeed use the stylus even though it is anchored to the right hand side of the PinPad. Guess what? I am left-handed, despite your assumptions to the contrary. The reason you are having trouble is because you are overcompensating, not because the cable is too short. Just let it hang and write. Overhanded or underhanded, there's more than enough slack. (I've even demonstrated this to people and they still can't do it.) And don't complain. As a southpaw, I have NEVER, EVER, not even once in my life complained about the fact that this is a right-handed world. I learned to accept this in the first grade. It does not bother me, because I have adapted. You can do it to, rather than waste time in a futile attempt to convert everyone and everything.
•What is so challenging about putting the stylus back where is belongs? How about returning it to the spot where you got it from? Seriously.
•The stylus is NOT a pen, so you can't use it to write a check.
Debit
•For the love of God, please do not hammer away at the screen with the stylus. It's not a keyboard, it's a touchscreen. Despite your preconceived notions, you do not need to hit the screen as hard as possible for it to work. A light touch works better, and in the event that it does not respond, then a slightly different angle will. Or, you could ASK me how to do it. Pounding away accomplishes nothing except to risk damage to the PinPad.
•If you think the machine made a mistake, you are wrong. YOU DID. Please select "clear" and enter your PIN again. Do not assume the the PinPad has any type of auto-correction, because it doesn't. Pressing on will only result in the transaction being declined for an Invalid PIN, and you'll have to start all over again, including swiping your card again. This wastes time and causes needless stress for all involved. If you are otherwise in doubt about what you entered, just clear it and try again.
•READ THE SCREEN! If you do not want cash back, do not select yes.
•In the event that you fail to read the screen and select "Yes" for cash back, yet do not want cash back, simply press "Cancel" then select "No."
•For the last time, yes, the ONLY options for cash back are $10, $20, and $40. No, you can't have $25, and no, you can't get more than $40.
•Pay attention, you have TWO selections after you enter your PIN (see above). Don't just drop the stylus and look away. And again "everyone has a different system" is no excuse at all; you should have paid better attention.
•When I tell you "two more selections" do not make only one selection then decide you are done. You aren't. Don't get all pissy with me when I then say "one more selection." If you had listened and/or read the screen, this would not be a problem.
Credit
•For the last time, if you are using a debit card and wish to run it through as credit, you MUST select the nice big red button at the bottom that clearly says CREDIT. DO. NOT. PRESS. CANCEL!!!!!!!!! Do not ask me if you should press cancel. Do not say "I wanted credit" or "I SAID CREDIT!!!!" Read the screen, or allow me to give you instructions rather than screaming. If you press cancel, it cancels the whole damn payment, which means you'll need to swipe your card again, needlessly wasting time. (This has gotten so bad that I've taken to spinning the PinPad around and doing this myself before they can even object).
•Yes, you must sign IN the signature box. That error message means you have strayed outside the box.
•For the love of God, DO NOT USE A REGULAR PEN! USE THE STYLUS!!!!!!!!! That's what it is there for.
•When you have completed your signature, press "Done" just like I instructed you to. Do NOT press "Clear!" "Clear will *gasp* CLEAR your signature! That means you now have to sign again. Yes, you do. No, I won't accept a signature I never saw. And once again, saying "everyone's system is different" is NOT an excuse!
•If you do not wish to sign on the screen, that is fine. Just ask to sign on paper. I do not give a
why, so you don't have to explain yourself.
•Attention conspiracy theorists and paranoid delusionists: electronic signature capture is NOT INSECURE. We do not store signatures; once I verify that it matches what is on the card, it goes away. Please consider that by asking to sign on paper, you are GUARANTEEING that there will be a record of your signature filed away somewhere, whereas with ESC, there is only the possibility (and then only in your mind). Please do not expound on the perceived evils of ESC. I do not care. Just ask to sign on paper and be done with it.
•Please do not bemoan the fact that your handwriting looks terrible, I KNOW!!!!! I hear this at least once per shift. Do not wonder aloud angrily at the point of verifying a signature when it looks so bad. Yes, it IS possible. Typically, the first letter of each name will stand out clearly no matter how bad the rest looks. Just let me do my job, OK?
First, the background. At my store, the PIN Pads are one large touchscreen with an ambidextrous magnetic strip reader at the top and a stylus attached to the side. For entering debit card PINs, you can use your finger or the stylus. It should be noted that the PIN screen will automatically come up when a debit card is swiped. If you wish to use it as a credit card, that's fine; simply select "CREDIT" at the bottom of the screen. After you enter your PIN, you will be asked if you want cash back (select YES or NO). If yes, you will be asked "How Much?" ($10, $20, $40, Cancel ($0)). YOu will then be asked to verify the total. This is NOT a check on me, the cashier, but on you. It is telling you that THIS is the amount to be debited with your cash back selection. If you select no, it will bring you back to "Do you want cash back?" "Yes" allows the the transaction to continue.
For electronic signature captures, use you the stylus to write in the lower portion of the screen, as defined by the nice white box (and the heavily scratched area of the protective film). The thing that sucks about our Pads is that the entire screen remains active during a signature capture even though it only allowes you to write in a small portion of it. As a result, if you stray even slightly outside the signature box, or accidentally touch another part of the screen, it stops capturing the signature and throws up a less than helpful error message "Please sign in signature box." Worse, the message automatically goes away after a moment, yet has an "OK" button in it. This can lead to a frustrating situation where you touch OK just as the message self-clears, which triggers the message again, so you press OK again, on and on in an endless loop. It aggravates the customers, and it aggravates me in turn. Plus, as I'm sure is the case with all electronic signature captures, the signature comes out terribly no matter how slowly and carefully you write.
And yet, with all the ways the PIN Pad invites screwups, people still manage to find their own ways to foul things up. Feel free to add your own that may be unique to your store's system.
Both Debit and Credit
•Do not bemoan the fact that "every store has a different system" to excuse your mistakes. If anything, this is evidence against you rather than an legitimate excuse. If you know every store has a different system, then you should not be making assumptions about ours. Instead, you should be paying closer attention.
•Attention left-handed customers: You can indeed use the stylus even though it is anchored to the right hand side of the PinPad. Guess what? I am left-handed, despite your assumptions to the contrary. The reason you are having trouble is because you are overcompensating, not because the cable is too short. Just let it hang and write. Overhanded or underhanded, there's more than enough slack. (I've even demonstrated this to people and they still can't do it.) And don't complain. As a southpaw, I have NEVER, EVER, not even once in my life complained about the fact that this is a right-handed world. I learned to accept this in the first grade. It does not bother me, because I have adapted. You can do it to, rather than waste time in a futile attempt to convert everyone and everything.
•What is so challenging about putting the stylus back where is belongs? How about returning it to the spot where you got it from? Seriously.
- No, it doesn't bloody fit in the card slot.
- No, there isn't a hidden hole for it underneath the PinPad.
- Just LOOK. If you used your eyes, you'd find the spot where it goes. Trust me.
•The stylus is NOT a pen, so you can't use it to write a check.
- On a closely related note, the pens in the displays on my register, with the price tags are NOT for general use. They are only for sale. Don't just grab one and start using it. I have my own personal cache of nice pens for check-writing. Please ask instead of stealing.
Debit
•For the love of God, please do not hammer away at the screen with the stylus. It's not a keyboard, it's a touchscreen. Despite your preconceived notions, you do not need to hit the screen as hard as possible for it to work. A light touch works better, and in the event that it does not respond, then a slightly different angle will. Or, you could ASK me how to do it. Pounding away accomplishes nothing except to risk damage to the PinPad.
•If you think the machine made a mistake, you are wrong. YOU DID. Please select "clear" and enter your PIN again. Do not assume the the PinPad has any type of auto-correction, because it doesn't. Pressing on will only result in the transaction being declined for an Invalid PIN, and you'll have to start all over again, including swiping your card again. This wastes time and causes needless stress for all involved. If you are otherwise in doubt about what you entered, just clear it and try again.
•READ THE SCREEN! If you do not want cash back, do not select yes.
•In the event that you fail to read the screen and select "Yes" for cash back, yet do not want cash back, simply press "Cancel" then select "No."
- DO NOT ask "where's the choice for no cash back?"
- DO NOT look at me stupidly and wait for a response from me; I can't see what you did.
- DO NOT angrily say "I DON'T WANT CASH BACK!" Take a chill pill and see above.
•For the last time, yes, the ONLY options for cash back are $10, $20, and $40. No, you can't have $25, and no, you can't get more than $40.
•Pay attention, you have TWO selections after you enter your PIN (see above). Don't just drop the stylus and look away. And again "everyone has a different system" is no excuse at all; you should have paid better attention.
•When I tell you "two more selections" do not make only one selection then decide you are done. You aren't. Don't get all pissy with me when I then say "one more selection." If you had listened and/or read the screen, this would not be a problem.
Credit
•For the last time, if you are using a debit card and wish to run it through as credit, you MUST select the nice big red button at the bottom that clearly says CREDIT. DO. NOT. PRESS. CANCEL!!!!!!!!! Do not ask me if you should press cancel. Do not say "I wanted credit" or "I SAID CREDIT!!!!" Read the screen, or allow me to give you instructions rather than screaming. If you press cancel, it cancels the whole damn payment, which means you'll need to swipe your card again, needlessly wasting time. (This has gotten so bad that I've taken to spinning the PinPad around and doing this myself before they can even object).
•Yes, you must sign IN the signature box. That error message means you have strayed outside the box.
- DO NOT sign at the top of the screen.
- DO NOT write in an overly large or exaggerated style that takes up too much room.
- DO NOT go outside the stupid lines!!! Like they taught you in 1st grade, remember?
- I do not care if you don't write that way. The box boundaries to not change to suit your whims. Go ahead and try it fifty times, you're only wasting your own time. I get paid either way. Write smaller. I know you can do it.
•For the love of God, DO NOT USE A REGULAR PEN! USE THE STYLUS!!!!!!!!! That's what it is there for.
•When you have completed your signature, press "Done" just like I instructed you to. Do NOT press "Clear!" "Clear will *gasp* CLEAR your signature! That means you now have to sign again. Yes, you do. No, I won't accept a signature I never saw. And once again, saying "everyone's system is different" is NOT an excuse!
•If you do not wish to sign on the screen, that is fine. Just ask to sign on paper. I do not give a
why, so you don't have to explain yourself.•Attention conspiracy theorists and paranoid delusionists: electronic signature capture is NOT INSECURE. We do not store signatures; once I verify that it matches what is on the card, it goes away. Please consider that by asking to sign on paper, you are GUARANTEEING that there will be a record of your signature filed away somewhere, whereas with ESC, there is only the possibility (and then only in your mind). Please do not expound on the perceived evils of ESC. I do not care. Just ask to sign on paper and be done with it.
•Please do not bemoan the fact that your handwriting looks terrible, I KNOW!!!!! I hear this at least once per shift. Do not wonder aloud angrily at the point of verifying a signature when it looks so bad. Yes, it IS possible. Typically, the first letter of each name will stand out clearly no matter how bad the rest looks. Just let me do my job, OK?
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