The Declined Card

[blas]

I remember "rationing" at gas stations last summer.....my roomate filled up his new truck for the first time and couldn't go past $80 or something........he thought the pump had ran out of gas. The employee on duty told him to go to the next pump and pump the rest, they had a limit on gas. Not sure if that is legal or even rational (no pun intended), but that's how that certain store operated until gas went back to under $3 a gallon.

[RichS]

And then, sometimes, it's the operator - me, in this case.

I had the previous day off. A good customer of ours goes to buy a couple of items, gives me his card, I run it as usual, comes back declined. I tried a couple more times, same result. Customer pays with cash instead.

After that was done, I found out that no one had deposited the previous day's amount in the machine, and that it would decline cards unless the deposit was done. Told the customer the next time he was in, and we had a over it.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Moral of the story? I don't know. Sometimes the strip does not work properly, but that's no reason to go ballistic.

But it's every reason for the bank to replace the card...if they have the wrong expiration programmed into the strip that's their fault...you shouldn't have to go 2 years telling every retailer they have to manually enter the card. That was sucky of the bank.

[Andreamic]

I just had a guy come into my staion last night who tried to pay at the pump using our keytag system(you hold the keytag up to a reader, it flashes and charges the cc of your choice when you signed up for it). It came back declined. He had picked up the nozzel and i approved him to pay inside, and got on the intercom and told him he would have to pay inside, he was not paying outside. No answer. I repeated, still nothing.

I tried to get his lisence plate but another car was in the way, so i left the intercom on so i would know when he was done and try and get him then. He ended up coming in because he didn't get a recipt outside.

He asked why it didn't work, I explained. He was confused, after all, it should be working.

We tried the keytag inside. It asked me for an approval number (call a 1-800, enter card info, and amount of purchase, get approval # to punch in) I told hi8m what it said, that I could try again, but if it did't go through I could call. Suprise suprise, it still wasn't going through.

I asked him for the card that the keytag was attached to, so I could call the number.

He asked "what card?" Um, the card that you pay with sir, that you gave my company the info to so that they could set up the card.

Dumb dumb then relized that the card that it was attached to was cancelled because of some incident involving another companies cc records being stolen, and he had a new card.

*sigh* Charged the new card, gave him a number to call so he could get the keytag straightend out and wished him a good day.

[Primer]

The only time I've ever had a card (of my own) declined, it came up as "expired." This was back when the magnetic readers were first becoming widespread, and almost every place still had imprint machines. I'm afraid I was slightly sucky about it, as the embossed expiration date was still about 2 years away, and the purchase was for only about $10. When I saw he wasn't going to budge, I pulled out a different card, the purchase went through, and I went on my merry way.

When I got home, I called my cc company about it, and they said the clerk should have run the card manually. I firmly, but politely requested a new card (with a new strip). The cc company did not want to do that, as I still had 2 years before expiry. I did not get abusive with them, but I did remain on the line and insist until they finally agreed to send me a new card.

Upshot: I got a new card, with a new magnetic strip, and I never went back to that particular retailer again. Over 10 years later, and I've still not been back.

Moral of the story? I don't know. Sometimes the strip does not work properly, but that's no reason to go ballistic.

[customersruinmylife]

We had a guy come in and try and pay by card, but whenever we swiped it, nothing happened. The machine did not register it, it didnt even say declined. The guy looked extremelly confused. So, we went and did it the long way by typing in all the card details into the till, still, nothing happened.

We pointed out our cash machine and told him to go get some seeing as the card wasnt working, the cash machine took his card, and kept it. So, it was obvious that it was a stolen card.

The guy went insane! He demanded we ripped open the cash machine to get the card out, but once the cash machine has taken it, the only people that can remove it are the police!

He then came back with ANOTHER card, and guess what, the exact same thing happened. We told him to get out after that/

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I used to do register, sometimes the second try did work. If I ran the card (before we had the pinpads) and it was declined, I automatically tried it again before I even told the customer it had been declined. If it didn't work the second time then I told the customer, and if they asked me to try again I would do it, and also tell them I had already tried a second time. If it didn't work the third time (and it usually didn't), well, sorry

[mrsjfreak]

We have that A LOT. Credit cards are always declining, but I think it could also be the strip on the card. We have an older system, so it's sensitive as hell. We just keep swiping until it goes through

[ditchdj]

Hmmm... Not exactly a positive impression of your company there, particularly if the customer was still in earshot.

Ever heard of that old saying that it's better to give than to receive???

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Because it actually sometimes does. I worked in a supermarket for 5 years and I always suggested the customer try it once more after the initial failure especially if they were sure there were available funds. Sometimes it does work, I don't know why, maybe sometimes there is a connection error while it's trying to process it the first time? I'm also had this happen to me personally when I was shopping, asked to try it again and it worked.

We go through similar at my store - there are a couple of banks (I think one is a credit union) whose cards seem to have issues w/our pinpads and can sometimes decline on the first try. Usually, a second try will work.

When it doesn't, we simply tell them that our pinpads aren't accepting the card and they may want to contact their bank/credit union. Could be that there's insufficient funds, or it could be a problem w/the magnetic strip on the card itself.

One never knows

[Banrion]

I had the declined at the pump a few times when gas prices were out of control. The pumps always said "Please see Cashier", never a blunt decline. What it was, was that the gas stations were setting the pre-auth for like $100.00 just to CYA if a huge truck or SUV was filling up, typically though, the attendant would look at my tiny Nissan and authorize the pump before I ever went in to talk to them. When the total was like $35.00 the card went fine.

[DeathKrispies]

Ahhh declined cards...such a joy to deal with the masses as they turn into 3 year olds as soon as something doesn't go their way. Best part of my day....................

[Special Patrol Group]

I was talking about declined cards earlier with my mom. Why is it, that when the card declined, that the customer want it tried again a couple more times. It didn't get authorized the first time, it wont now.

Because it actually sometimes does. I worked in a supermarket for 5 years and I always suggested the customer try it once more after the initial failure especially if they were sure there were available funds. Sometimes it does work, I don't know why, maybe sometimes there is a connection error while it's trying to process it the first time? I'm also had this happen to me personally when I was shopping, asked to try it again and it worked.

[powerboy]

I was talking about declined cards earlier with my mom. Why is it, that when the card declined, that the customer want it tried again a couple more times. It didn't get authorized the first time, it wont now.

[lynstly]

He was out of earshot as the door had closed after I said that... I don't want to reflect badly on a company but at the same time there are certain people I would rather not cater to... why else would this website exist?