DENNY's You Cum Guzzling Whore!

Went to Denny’s tonight for some post bar chow with my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law. All is good.

We ordered, ate, and got our check. All is good

I only have a little cash, let’s just put everything on my card, and you just pay me what you owe. All is good.

I go to the counter and hand over my card. All is good.

“Sir, our system shows that your card number is invalid.” Hmm, that’s odd, but I’ve had that problem once before. The magnetic strip is a bit worn, but if you key in the number, it will be okay. All is good.

“Sorry, sir, you’ve been declined.” Okay, I’ll run to the ATM across the street. I’ll be right back. All is good.

“Sir, I’m sorry, I’ll need to get the manager.” Okay, no sweat, let him know what’s going on, I’ll leave my license and car keys, and go across the street. He’ll understand. It’s only $30. All is good.

Manager: “I’ll need to see your license. (copies it down, DL#, address, DOB, asks my phone #, previous address, SS#). I’ll need to hold your card, as well.” All is not good.

“I need the card to get money.” Dumbfuck. All is not good at all.

So…I go to the ATM, get $40, come back, and pay. So far, so good.

Me: “I’d like my $1.50 back”

“Excuse me?”

“$1.50. I would like it back. I should not have to pay $1.50 ATM fee because your system cannot recognize a valid card.”

“I’ll need to get the manager.”

Manager: “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to come back in the morning and speak to our senior manager (because I was castrated just hours ago, and have no balls with which to make a decision to give you $1.50 and keep a customer happy). He’ll be here at 9.”

“But I don’t see why I should have had to pay $1.50 because your system failed to recognize my card as valid. I don’t see why I should have had to give you personal information, such as my home phone number and social security number, when I offered to leave my keys and license in good faith and you could have watched me walk across the street. I don’t see why I should have had to be treated like a chew and screw suspect when the rest of my party is sitting at the table finishing their breakfast. You can compare the card numbers from the reciept and card itself. It’s the same card. You can see from the time stamp that this transaction took place minutes ago. You can see that I carry a balance more than substantial enough to cover this tab.”

"Well, I’m a massive tool with no real authority. I cannot make a simple decision to hand over $1.50 because our computer system pre-dates the Ford administration."

Fucking useless (what is it?) goat felching (is that right?) panzy! I don’t have the most prestigious job either, but for fuck’s sake, $1.50?? You’ll make that back in about 10 seconds.

Dickhead…

So you’re walking around with a worn card, and you know it, since this problem has cropped up before, and then the card is DECLINED, which is a whole different issue. And neither of these things are the fault of the diner.

And you’re bitching about a lousy buck and a half? Oh man, this is a new low of Pit threads.

In the places where the strip on my card hasn’t worked, the number’s been put in manually, and everything worked fine. It’s hard to tell from the OP whether the cashier keyed in the number manually before stating a second time that the card had been declined. If the cashier did not key in the number, then why not? Magnetic swipe strips do wear out before the card’s expiration, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that to happen occasionally.

If the card was keyed in by the cashier, still came back as declined, but then worked in the ATM, then it seems like the problem was with the Denny’s terminal.

I have to say that Casey may have a point if the story went down as told, and if this is a new low in pit threads, then this place is getting positively bouyant.

I’m confused. Since there were other people with you, why would the management need you to leave anything at the restaurant while you went across the street to go to the ATM? Didn’t they just wait at the counter for you? That right there would get me a little pissy. But I’m easily pissed off.

Why should the restaurant have to re-imburse the $1.50 because you’ve been too lazy to get it replaced? Sounds to me like you were just trying to spite the manager for your card not working. This kind of sense of entitlement drives service industry employees absolutely nuts.

The more legit gripe is why you had to go through so many hoops to go get more money, if your friends were still at the table. I’m sure places like Denny’s have a huge problem with walkouts, but that sounds a bit excessive.

I’d’ve gotten a little hacked, too, but it sounds like these “pros” may be a little shell shocked. Those late night Denny’s crowds can be a motley bunch. Fuck 'em anyway.

porcupine, I agree with you. But then again, I’m easily pissed off too.

Jim, I think the OP has a point - and he should have received his buck fifty back. If the card worked at an ATM, then the fault was with the diner. And they should have reimbursed him. My two cents, which, I realize, are worth shit, but hey - they’s mine.

$1.50?
A buck fifty?
I want my $1.50?

I at least hope for proper effect it was asked in the style of a whiney 15 year old girl.

Cum Guzzling Whore: 1
Casey1505: 0

Whiney 15 year old girl is good, but I would have used the style of the paperboy in “Better Off Dead”.

That’ll teach your ass to eat at Dennys

Um, can i just ask:

Didn’t your wife, sister-in-law, or brother-in-law have any money or credit cards between the three of them?

And, when the manager told you he’d need to keep your licence while you went across the street, you should have told him to fuck off, and walked out the door to get the money.

Isn’t a “cum guzzling whore” a GOOD thing?

Just for the record, I have a credit card that will decline at the gas pump, then let me withdraw right out of the ATM (a Visa check card). I’ve had it decline a $5 video charge, and had it work minutes later. I think it sometimes has to do with the bank or authorization center.

Anyway, what a pain in the ass. If you really wanna see a good Denny’s screwing, remind me to show you the bill from our last NiagaraDope breakfast. They didn’t even kiss us before doing us all in the ass.

It all would have been fine if the manager had accepted my good faith offer to voluntarily leave my license and car keys. Hey, big deal, shit happens sometimes. What got me all torqued was that he treated the whole situation like I was being booked for some sort of crime. (Having never been booked before, I can only imagine what that feels like.) He had the authority to ask me for all of this personal information, but when I called him on the $1.50, all of a sudden, he’s a eunuch.

Yes, combined, we had enough funds to cover, but I was mad and wanted to prove a point. The point is kind of lost in hindsight.

After sleeping it off some more, I realised that going back and demanding $1.50 IS kind of juvenile. But I do think I have a valid beef. My card works everywhere else (except that other instance, and I chalked that up to it being Christmas Eve afternoon at a mall. Overloaded systems. Last night was 4:30 AM). I don’t feel like I should have had to pay the ATM fee.

I’ve already threatened my wife with a divorce next time she suggests Denny’s instead of Perkin’s, anyway.

It may be more than $1.50, by the way. Some banks charge you a fee to withdraw cash at other banks’ ATMs. So you get to pay a $1.50 fee to RivalBank, N.A., and another $1.50 to YourOwnBank, N.A.

This is what happens with the bank I bank at, Washington Mutu – errr, Mashington Futual. Another annoying feature is that Mashington Futual makes a big deal about not charging the buck and a half from people who don’t bank wih them. They seem to think that makes them a more attractive place to bank with. :rolleyes:

Just a note to clarify: unreadable does not mean declined. In the retail systems I’ve worked with, and seen used, an unreadable card can be keyed in manually.

Declined means the transaction was refused by the system. I can’t speak for Dennys’ system in particular, but a worn magnetic strip should not cause a card to be declined.

Or you could just go to an ATM provided by your bank.

When i saw the title, i thought the Hamburglar was back…

This happened at Dennys?

No way! :smiley: