Thursday 28 July 2016

Card declined

I filled my petrol tank up yesterday and my current account card was declined.

So I tried my joint account card and it was declined.
I explained to the cashier that they must have a problem with the machine as I'd checked both accounts earlier that day (as it's pay day and I was transferring money from one to the other).

The cashier smirked, looked at the queue building behind me and said loudly 'There is nothing wrong with the equipment'.

So I tried my credit card, it to was declined.
The cashier looked at the queue and smirked again.

I paid cash!

Annoyed by the cashiers attitude I remained by the till whilst the next 3 customers were served and also had their cards declined.

Each time I looked at the cashier, then at the customer and said 'There is nothing wrong with the equipment'.

Some people didn't have cash to pay with and the queue was getting longer and longer.

At this point the manager who had been on the forecourt came in to see what the problem was.

I explained about the failure of the card reader and complained about the cashiers attitude.

It is embarrassing enough to have a card declined without some snotty little git smirking.

The manager swapped on to the next card reader, which worked, cleared the backlog and apologised!

I really hope the snotty little git has his card declined at some point when it is really embarrassing, such as if he should be on his first date with the girl of his dreams.

I should add that the cards were all declined when they were put into the reader, not when the pin number was entered, so it was obviously a reader fault.

7 comments:

Witch Hazel said...

WHat an unsympathetic person. (I was going to write something else and asterisk out). I do hope that Karma catches up with him. Well done you for staying and then complaining to the supervisor.

Anonymous said...

When Sainsbury's in Hamilton first opened it was famous for this. After the first time it happened, I left a month's shopping in the trolley and walked off to find the manager. I was asked to pay cash, which I declined, and like yourself, watched as several other customers had the same problem. The attitude of the staff was my main complaint-it's not rocket science to work out that the machinery is to blame when it keeps happening. Mind you, it was weeks befor I went back to the store in case it happened again!! Catriona

Anonymous said...

We had Costco tell us at checkout that our membership card was expired. Husband knew he had renewed it because it required a manager to approve it. They LET us buy our goods and now we need to bring in the proof we paid for the membership. If I am the one doing it (we do have the proof), it will be very visible to the customers in the store as I am very angry. Ana USA

Linda Metcalf said...

I had this happen to me in the City some time ago. I went to my car and called the 800 number. the young man I talked to said the card was fine and if this ever happened again ask the person behind the counter to enter the card manually as some machines are getting old and don't work properly.

galant said...

I have had my card declines in the past when there was more than £5000 in the current account, not just a few pounds. It is so annoying and embarrassing as it looks like you're skint. I think anyone who has their card declined in public like that deserves more than an apology - they deserve at least a £25 voucher to spend in the store, and an apology not just from the snotty little git on the till but the manager of the store.
Margaret P

Andie said...

Serendipity, I am so glad you stayed and stated that there was nothing wrong with the machine. A few years ago I purchased a watch for my husband, an expensive watch but he deserved every pound I spent. This ruddy OMEGA watch, would not tell the correct time so in the end we had all our money paid back onto the credit card I had used to pay for it. As we do not use our credit card very often we went into a DIY store and bought fifty pounds of goods on credit. The card was refused, the bank had only received the payment from the jewellers and put the money as a debit and not a credit. They are not used to getting credits of that sort of money they mewled so 'thought' it must be a debit and we had gone over our allowance. After we had finished with the bank I felt a lot more cheered up!!!!! Good on you, machines break but it is time that little upstarts like the oik you dealt with learnt some customer service. Love Andie xxx

Hard up Hester said...

It seems a lot of us have had this problem and usually when there is money in our accounts.

Feeling stressed.

I'm worried about Beano, his nose is warm and dry and he hasn't wanted to go out for his usual walks today. My face is sore it feels...