My Card Can't Be Declined Because I've Been Shopping at the Store for Years

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, a customer, her caretaker, and the caretaker's son came through my line with a large order. For some reason, her card declined and she didn't understand why and even said that she'd been shopping at the store for several years (she's a regular customer). I even suggested calling the bank so she could find out why the card declined (wasn't expired). I ended up getting the PIC to help since I wasn't getting anywhere and there were a couple customers behind her.

I ended up taking the other customers in another register and a little later the assistant store director was called up front to help the customer with the declined card. About an hour or so later, the situation was taken care of and the caretaker was apologetic over what had happened.

[Monterey Jack]

Ah, the "I've been a loyal customer for years and thus I deserve special treatment even if the fault is not on your end" card...

[Legacy_of_Torment]

Yes that old "Well it's always been fine before, so fix it for me!" trick. Always seems to happen to me when I'm standing behind these people at the supermarket.

[taxguykarl]

Sounds like a variation on "I can't be overdrawn--I still have checks left."

[EricKei]

...Or, "No, no, credit cards are just free money, they don't expect us to pay them back or anything!"

[Catwoman2965]

And sometimes, its simply a system error, or something on the bank's end that the store has absolutely NO control over. I've had customers get snippy with me over the fact their card won't go through. I don't know nor care WHY; all I know is it won't go through, and you have to use some other form of payment. Asking me to run it through umpteen times doesn't help either. You need to go home and call your own bank, and find out what the issue is.

[raudf]

I've had my card decline because the bank was having issues with their card system. No problem, just have the transaction suspended, step out of line, call the bank, find out the issue and then write a check. Not my fault or the store's that the bank is having a bad day.

[Hitokiri Akins]

Something similar has happened to me, though I didn't suck about it. For me, at one or two stores, the card machine is messed up and decides to not read my card. The thing with my card is that it is a debit card, and I check my balance before leaving the house, and it's a new card, so I know it's not my stuff.

You know what fixes it? Sliding the card through the machine with a plastic bag around it. I don't know why it does that, but the machine reads the card no problem. I don't know why it does this, they don't know why it does this, but it works.

[drjonah]

For all the years I worked at Awful-mart and a customer had their debit card declined, the easiest fix was to just run it as credit instead. For some strange reason, whatever debit network that links Awful-mart to banks has so many hiccups. I want to say 75% of declined debit transactions were because of a stupid network error.

[manybellsdown]

Something similar has happened to me, though I didn't suck about it. For me, at one or two stores, the card machine is messed up and decides to not read my card. The thing with my card is that it is a debit card, and I check my balance before leaving the house, and it's a new card, so I know it's not my stuff.

You know what fixes it? Sliding the card through the machine with a plastic bag around it. I don't know why it does that, but the machine reads the card no problem. I don't know why it does this, they don't know why it does this, but it works.

Yeah after awhile it gets worn and whatnot. The plastic bag seems to work well. Also the "running it as credit" trick. Sure it's frustrating if my card won't read, but it's not really anyone's fault.

Sometimes I think I am a crabby old coot and then I read about these people and I feel like a paragon of Zen serenity.

[Teskeria]

You know what fixes it? Sliding the card through the machine with a plastic bag around it. I don't know why it does that, but the machine reads the card no problem. I don't know why it does this, they don't know why it does this, but it works.

the magnetic strip is losing flakes. you need it replaced. the bag works only so long, so get a replacement issued while you can still bag the card.

[dalesys]

the magnetic strip is losing flakes. you need it replaced. the bag works only so long, so get a replacement issued while you can still bag the card.

Another cause is that the playback head in the card reader has been ground down by the thousands of card swipes. (I have replaced many a head in card access readers.)

[Hitokiri Akins]

the magnetic strip is losing flakes. you need it replaced. the bag works only so long, so get a replacement issued while you can still bag the card.

If it did that at other stores, I'd be inclined to believe you. But since it only happens at one specific card reader at one store, I'm not so sure.

[MoonCat]

I had one customer whose bank, every time she tried to pay for an ad with her card, would tag it as "suspicious activity." She would have to call her bank EVERY TIME she placed an ad to get them to clear the transaction. She was getting pretty pissed, but it wasn't our fault or hers. Something was hinky at the bank.

[Sleepwalker]

Poor caretaker. I have one person like that, every so often we'll get to the checkout with 200$ of frozen groceries and she'll have forgotten her card, or it won't have money on it, and I just want to sink into the ground.