Not declined, MEGA declined.

[bean]

A couple of days ago I was dealing with an otherwise nice customer. She was polite, making small talk, not being an ass, and generally ... being nice. She's also a regular in my store, I see her in there once or twice a week.

We have the typical grocery store credit card things.. you run your card yourself and sign on the machine.

Well... she ran her card, I hit the button to send it through... and "ALERT! !!!!! STOLEN CARD !!!!!" showed up on my screen. I told her "Ma'am... can I see your card and ID? My register is asking for that, I'm sorry."

She showed me her ID and card. The names matched. That's when I quietly told her "You need to see what's showing up on my screen" (our cashier screens/keyboards are on a swivel mount, I turned it around so she could see it without anyone behind her seeing it).

She gasped. She told me she'd gone out to a club the night before and the waitress was acting "weird" and disappeared for about 30 minutes when she tried to pay her tab. She also said she had fraud protection on the card and it would do that if any suspicious transactions showed up (my mom has had the exact same thing happen to her before, so I believed her).

She wound up paying with her debit card, if it had been a true stolen card she probably would have bolted. She also thanked me multiple times for telling her what the register said instead of just saying "I'm sorry, it was declined". She was LIVID when she left, but not with us.

[Mel]

Yikes! She definitely needs to check her statements from the night before (if that's possible), and possibly warn the club management/owners. Hopefully, the fraud protection worked and she's not liable for any fraudulent charges!

[PepperElf]

not to mention a police report

[Talon]

Bravo Bean!

Thanks to you, there may be one less identity thieving scumbag out there.

[casey13]

I was always told to take the credit card when something shows up as stolen.

[bean]

I rarely have possession of a card unless the card reader can't read it.

[LillFilly]

So I'm thinking the waitress did something with the card # that triggered the fraud protection which warned the woman someone was trying to use her card? I think that's how I understand it.

I've had my card #stolen before, but I have fraud warning too. Got a letter asking if I had tried to charge a $2,000 lawnmower to my card! Lucky THAT didn't go through!

Then there are the websites that, if you order from them, AUTOMATICALLY sign you up for some sort of membership without there being any boxes to check or uncheck; it goes into effect just ordering off the site and you have to call the company and cancel or they charge you every month; 12 to 60 dollars depending. That's what I call a scam!

[draggar]

It's good that she didn't explode at the store like most people do. Nice job handling it, though. Normally you should say "it's declined" but I agree, since she was a regular and cool, I agree with you showing her the screen.

[workerbee222]

I had read of someone getting the wrong credit card back when using it to pay at a restaurant.

It doesn't happen a lot, but dishonest employees have been known to use cc numbers from customers to purchase things for themselves.

[Food Lady]

Nice job handling it, though. Normally you should say "it's declined" but I agree, since she was a regular and cool, I agree with you showing her the screen.

You did the right thing, Bean.