Declined CC=I don't know how to extend SC's stay.

[Trixie]

On our machines sometimes if there's a cloud in the sky or the planets are aligned wrong debit cards won't go through and have to be run as credit. Usually it's a short term glitch and it's fine but I find that when most people use their debit card and it's declined, it's usually a wrong pin number. They realize it and we have a friendly chuckle.

[Seanette]

At least the registers where I work provide a little detail on what went wrong, such as telling me "invalid PIN" if that's the problem.

We do run into a few banks whose customers do have to run their cards as credit, because we get a "bank not on file" error when trying to run debit on those cards. Weird.

[notalwaysright]

Once my debit card was declined, and I freaked out but had forgotten that my bank had been bought by another bank, and I happened to get caught in the transition. I had no plain credit card at the time, and didn't have my checkbook with me. Thankfully my bank had a branch within the grocery store I was at, and I was able to withdraw cash. But NO, running the card a second time did not work.

And I just hate when someone cuts me off to tell me that she'll just wait for "that other woman" who knows what she's talking about.

[manybellsdown]

At least the registers where I work provide a little detail on what went wrong, such as telling me "invalid PIN" if that's the problem.

We do run into a few banks whose customers do have to run their cards as credit, because we get a "bank not on file" error when trying to run debit on those cards. Weird.

I've got a card that keeps giving weird error messages like that, usually at coffee shops. For some reason it doesn't like their registers or iPad dongles or whatever. So it gets declined with a message that bears no resemblance to ... whatever the actual problem with it is (maybe it's just wearing out.) Every time I call the bank they say there's no issue with my account so it must be the card, somehow.

[bainsidhe]

I've had a customer's card get declined, they'd walk over to an ATM and withdraw money using the same card, and then come back and pay for their purchase with cash. It happened multiple times and each time the customer would return with an "aHA!" look, and declare they KNEW their card was good! And I'd just apologize and say that I did't know why THEIR BANK declined the card. Like I have any say about when their card gets declined.

[mathnerd]

To be fair, it's not necessarily the customer's bank either. It also really irritates me that people around here automatically assume it's the customer's bank, when there are several other points along the way that could fail. Just today I had to deal with a pay-at-the-pump issue where the machines would happily take any Visa branded cards, but declined any MasterCard branded cards before it even gave the customer a chance to select "debit or credit", let alone type in a PIN. That's likely an issue with MasterCard itself, but having worked for a bank, I've seen failures at several other points in the process. Sometimes the POS software the store uses goes wonky. Sometimes the system that the POS vendor uses goes wonky. Sometimes there's a random glitch in the interwebs and the request doesn't go through properly (I've seen it happen where the bank's system didn't even get a chance to even look at the requested transaction, let alone make a decision on it).

[BroSCFischer]

I'm confused. If he has to pay tonight to stay the night, how does waiting for the Morning manager help him?

If I understand your question aright, this should answer it:

The guy checked in and his CC went through fine.

At some point during his stay, he decides to extend it. When he calls down to the desk, the CC will not authorize for the additional amount of Room & Tax to extend his stay. Which means that he is paid up til the next morning, and if the Morning Shift can't get the card to work, he will be forced to check out.

SC

[BrenDAnn]

Sometimes banks have really nitpicky card use rules, for security reasons. There's one bank...credit union, scuse me... around here that limits the $ amount a person can spend using the card as credit/debit. I forget which. I just know it's not fun having customers get all upset because their bank is "not letting them spend their own damn money! ELEVENTY!!!" Usually, you can run the card the other way and be fine, but it's still frustrating. I had one tonight who decided Capital One were liars. They'd told him he could use his card to get cash back, so long as he used the PIN they gave him. He tried it. Twice. It told me "invalid card" both times. He swiped it as credit, and it went through perfectly fine. I told him to tell them they were liars, and we shared a laugh. I've also seen people be able to get cash from the ATM when the card declines on my POS. Must be some weird bank regulation, or card issuer thing that makes that happen.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I hear a lot of "but its been working all day!" - as if I somehow have the power to override the fact that their card declined.

In rare cases, yes the card has been working fine everywhere else but then you try to use it at one place and it won't go through.

This happened to me some time back. Been running errands after work, been using my debit card w/no problems. Until I got to my last stop, the Quick Stop, on the way home for gas and smokes.

My card for some reason wouldn't take in their system. The clerk tried twice but no luck, so out to the car I went and got Mom's debit card and that one worked.

I suspected it might be an issue w/my card strip and my card at that time was definitely showing signs of heavy use (couldn't read the numbers on the front hardly, I could barely make out the imprint on the back of the 3 digit code, a couple of scratches on the magnetic strip) so I went online and ordered a new card.

Used it at the Quick Stop after it came in (roughly a week later) and had no troubles with the POS since then.

[Mr Hero]

If I understand your question aright, this should answer it:

The guy checked in and his CC went through fine.

At some point during his stay, he decides to extend it. When he calls down to the desk, the CC will not authorize for the additional amount of Room & Tax to extend his stay. Which means that he is paid up til the next morning, and if the Morning Shift can't get the card to work, he will be forced to check out.

SC

And forced to check out he was. Morning Shift couldn't help him either, and they sure as hell wouldn't let him stay an extra night.

[winner every time]

In rare cases, yes the card has been working fine everywhere else but then you try to use it at one place and it won't go through.

Oh I know - I do believe them that it was working earlier in the day, but yelling that at me doesn't change that it isn't now. Most of the time, for us being part of a major tourist attraction, we figure it's most likely their bank blocking because they didn't inform the bank they were going on a trip out of state. I also have a lot of people who will try one card to see if it's working yet, and they'll usually comment as much on the bank-vacation thing. Seen a couple people fix the problem themselves with a quick call to their bank (we do suggest they try that too).

[sstabeler]

Oh I know - I do believe them that it was working earlier in the day, but yelling that at me doesn't change that it isn't now. Most of the time, for us being part of a major tourist attraction, we figure it's most likely their bank blocking because they didn't inform the bank they were going on a trip out of state. I also have a lot of people who will try one card to see if it's working yet, and they'll usually comment as much on the bank-vacation thing. Seen a couple people fix the problem themselves with a quick call to their bank (we do suggest they try that too).

yeah... I've had my bank stop my card in the past due to either me using it somewhere new ( as in, I'm on the the end of the country than normal) or for particularly large purchases. Usually takes 5-10 minutes to resolve. ( of which all but about 30 seconds are spent on hold waiting to talk to the nessecary person. When they've called me, it's been over in far less time.)

[Dreamstalker]

I had my card locked because a web merchant allowed a transaction that put me slightly over my daily limit. That was my bad as I'd forgotten that I paid more on a few bills than I'd thought...but that had happened before and when the card was queried by the merchant bank said NO (so I would get a 'payment method not approved' message). I didn't think anything of it as it went through.

For some reason this one did sneak by the bank systems on Friday night, as it turned out their ATM department caught the error and locked the card...but didn't notify me until Monday. Gee thanks guys, you could lock the card on Friday night but couldn't let me know on Saturday morning when I could do something about it? Luckily I could go to the bank on Monday and get it sorted...all she wanted me to do was verify the transaction and it was put through when the limit reset.

No big deal, except the transaction was some Christmas presents and I think the delay meant they decided to ship everything separately (just got a box that was missing 3/4 of the shipment, packing list only mentioned one item).

[Kittykat]

I used to work in the credit card department of a major bank. Sometimes when a person has used their card a lot that day, or over a period of days (More so then normal) the card flags it for possible fraud activity and won't let it go until the customer calls in.

[mhkohne]

I ended up with weird problems one day because my wife and I both went to the same discount shoe store and made a purchase for exactly the same amount of money on the same card number (our CC account has same number on both cards). Can't blame the staff for taking a while to figure out that error nessage!