Gee, I wonder why that sign is there.

[Eben56]

Remember my little store that took checks without question?

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=16122

Went in there last night to see a new sign posted........

"We no longer take personal checks"

Nuff said

[chops]

Since I refuse to set foot in the convenience store in which I once worked, I'll never know if they still take checks. Pretty much as long as the manager was there, anything goes. He'd take personal checks, two party checks (e.g., payroll checks or personal checks made out to someone other than the store), pretty much anything. Plus, if he was there and I was too, he'd try to make me put my initials on it, thus taking the fall for it if it should bounce.

[GolfCart34]

If something sounds fishy I won't cash the check and I will check with a supervisor as to what to do next. If they say to cash it, I make them put their initials on the check so they are responsible should the check come back bad.

Although, I remember being at Wal-Mart one time and the lady in front of us wrote a check. Well, the register wouldn't read her check. The cashier thought that this was particularly odd, as checks from this bank usually read just fine. That's when I think the lady got antsy and said, "Oh, I forgot, I can't write checks here." At this point she pulled out her debit card. Methinks she had either stolen or counterfeit checks.

At least technology is advancing enough that most places will be able to take the money out of accounts at the point of sale (similar to a debit card). I know some places already do this, so it's only a matter of time before the technology changes.

I know the lady who owns a mom and pop shop across from the bank has also had problems with bad checks, especially ones that look like they were printed off of a computer (i.e. through quicken). Now she won't take personal checks that were printed on the computer. I don't blame her.

[Nakajo]

See this card?

Now imagine it with only the back ground on it and about the first 10 numbers on the face. No VISA logo, no hologram, no name, date, nothing. No sig on the back, only the STAR logo and the swipe strip.

"But it's a debit card!"

Poor clerk, the sup told him that he had to let the lady use it. She did, with a PIN. It worked though.

It was too fishy, however. I told the clerk to tell the SM what happened and to bring the account to him. SM was PISSED that the sup made the clerk take it.

I dunno, but is there anyway that you can forge a debit card with a PIN?

[chops]

Before Visa/MC branded debit cards became all the rage, I found that you could use a regular ATM card as a debit card with your ATM PIN, so long as you had a checking account attached to the card.

It almost sounds like the customer was using a traditional ATM card; the numbers on the card can vary (could be more or less), and the STAR logo would mean that it can be used at any ATM or POS terminal that operates on the STAR network, and that's a lot of 'em.

Not to say that it can't be forged; a debit card would likely be as easily forgeable as a credit card, but I thought I'd throw out that possibility.

EDIT: I forgot to mention...banks these days tend to frown upon using ATM cards in this manner; AFAIK, most of them charge fees and/or place additional limitations on ATM cards as debit, preferring that people use the branded debit cards instead (lower overhead for the bank).

[BookstoreEscapee]

If you have the right equipment you can code any number you want into the magnetic strip...

[blas]

I like stores that are so old school they have the "blacklist", aka, my gas station I worked at.

I saw way too many names that I recognized.

If only public humilation wasn't so frowned upon and if only criminals didn't have rights. We'd be able to take pictures of offenders and put them on the wall!

[zzapp the witch]

On the rare instances I've had to write checks, no one's given me shit once they see the "Smith Barney" name on them.

I make every last red cent work its ass off for me.

[daleduke17]

I like stores that are so old school they have the "blacklist", aka, my gas station I worked at.

I saw way too many names that I recognized.

If only public humilation wasn't so frowned upon and if only criminals didn't have rights. We'd be able to take pictures of offenders and put them on the wall!

The grocery store in the town I went to high school in had the infamous blacklist at each checklane pretty much posted to where customers could see it. Remember: this was in a town of 1800 people that served as the stopping point for about four other towns (for those of us too lazy to drive the extra ten miles into the town of 16,000).

I saw way too many names of people I knew, from both where I lived and the town the school was in.

[wagegoth]

If you have the right equipment you can code any number you want into the magnetic strip...

Very easy. And just surreptitiously watch you enter your pin, so they would have that number.

No way would I take a card without the logo, hologram, etc.