I have a hole-in-the-wall pizza shop I want to support by doing takeout a couple times a week. For the most part, they are pretty good on the social distancing front (they don’t have an automatic door but I can deal with that). 6 feet markers, sneeze guard at the cashier, credit card reader available to customer so you don’t have to hand it to them.
However, after I pay, they hand me a receipt and I have to use a pen to sign and enter tip. Can’t they forgo that? Can’t I just tell them the tip amount and not have to sign? Or is this impossible when using a credit card? I don’t want to use cash because I don’t consider cash very sanitary either.
It must be a store rule. Places like Home depot only ask for a signature over 100 dollars. You could ask them to fill out the tip and use your own pen to scribble a signature. Cash tip would be from your pocket to them so germs are going outward.
I put a quart ziplock bag with a soapy washcloth in my car so I could wipe my hands after I got back into car.
One local restaurant wipes down the pens after use. They have a pile of “clean” pens - you take one and use it to sign the cc slip. You then “spike” the slip and put the pen in a bin marked “used pens”. They periodically wipe down the pens from the used bin and put them in the clean pile. I assume they take care of the “spiked” signed slips in a batch at the end of the day.
“No signature” credit card transactions are growing. The credit card issuers have said they don’t care about the signatures anymore, they use other methods to prevent fraud. Not all stores are prepared for this though, sometimes all they have to do is change procedures, and the credit card processing companies may not all be on the same page yet.
It may also depend on the deal they have with the credit card company. A large national chain might be able to negotiate a better deal (that is, one that’s easier for the customers and business), but a small mom-and-pop won’t have the leverage for that.
This is at least partly due to the American banking system still being in medieval times. I haven’t seen a credit card slip that I had to sign in so many years that I can’t remember when, and only barely recall what they even looked like. Credit cards have been chip and PIN for a great many years, and the contactless tap system is almost ubiquitous now.
The tap system is great because it’s quick and you don’t have to touch anything at all – just bring the CC close to the POS terminal and a single beep means the transaction has gone through – all done. To control fraud the maximum amount that can be charged using the contactless method without a PIN is limited and depends on the merchant but is usually fairly generous – at least $50 which ought to be enough for any typical pizza order. It was $100 at liquor stores but during this pandemic they raised it to at least $200.
At least one courier delivering packages that require a signature has modified their system to use verbal confirmation instead of passing a scanner and stylus back and forth for every delivery. Having to use a communal pen in these times to sign for a pizza payment seems idiotic.
I think the OP is specifically addressing the need for a signature when you amend a CC charge (that is, add a tip). That is different. I would just asking them to add the tip when you order, so no amendment is needed.
Around here, anyway, most of the time that option doesn’t even come up for takeout, so the tap method works just fine. Restaurants that have both eat-in and takeout can ring it up different ways so that, either accidentally or intentionally, they can make the tip option come up, in which case you’re stuck with inserting the chip card and touching the filthy keypad.
I may be a bad person but I don’t tip on takeouts. I figure my tip was that I crawled out of the house when I didn’t feel like it, often in cold or bad weather, to pick the stuff up at their place at their convenience. But I do tip (generously, I would say) when I order delivery, and of course I tip servers in restaurants, should we ever see that again in our lifetimes. :mad: The most generous tips I’ve ever handed out have been to household movers who’ve busted their guts the entire day to move my entire household and done it well and competently. Whatever their company pays them isn’t nearly enough.
Ive been supporting several small breweries near me, buying food and beer to go.
I’ve asked the workers about tipping, and how they ideally would like it to happen. Every single person has told me that they prefer cash, dirty or not. I scribble a sig using a pen I keep in my pocket, and give the person a twenty and a heartfelt “thank you, stay safe”.
I have asked to give them the card number over the phone (similar to what they would do for delivery), that way you don’t have to do payment when you get there.