Oh yes. And when the authorization agency tells you to take the card and cut it up…the world comes to an end.
I’m not sure if they still do that. It used to say “Recover Card” and our manual said that if it said that we were supposed to keep the card and mail it to them (I think there was a reward) but it went on to say that if the person appeared violent or confrontational to just let them have it back and call the processor and let them know what was going on. Of course, that may have been back in the day when not every merchant and every bank and every everything was connected to the internet so maybe if it declined at my store at noon on Friday he could try it at another store an 3am Saturday morning at it would go through or find a place that still used a knuckle buster and then it really wouldn’t be a problem. For that reason, it may have been more important. Nowadays it’s trivial for them to just turn off a problem card.
Also, back then, it would often tell me to “Call for voice authorization”. I would tell the customer that it wants me to call, but just so you know, if I call there’s a good chance they’ll ask me to keep the card. I don’t think anyone ever asked me to call.
I work at a major retailer and I wish all my “card gets declined” customers were as polite as you guys.
My standard line: “I’m sorry, it looks like your card is declined. Do you have another form of payment?”
My top 3 customer replies:
- Uh, yeah I have [alternate payment option].
- What? No it isn’t. Try running it again!
- What the [eff]!? Do you even know how to do your job? This is why you never went to college and I have [$X] in the bank!
(For the record I have a bachelor degree and can’t find a better job)
Well, in real life, it probably wouldn’t happen: I have both a Visa and an Amex, as well as debit cards from two different banks, plus I often have at least some cash and a checkbook, so the odds that all 6 of those methods would fail is very low. But if it did, I’d ask them to hold my groceries and continue checking out other customers while I tried to call the bank and sort it out. If that failed, I’d apologize for the mess and leave the store.
I’ve had it happen with my primary card a couple of times, once due to a fraud alert and once due to my own inability to read a calendar*. Both times I had alternate forms of payment with me and was able to straighten it out later in the comfort of my home rather than trying to whisper numbers into a phone so the agent can hear but the people around you can’t.
*They let me put a car on my CC. Holy travel points batdog. I scheduled the payment for the due date for maximum joy and then forgot and tried to use the card the week before the due date. Oops.
Tell them to hold the merchandise while I call the customer service # on the back of the card. Typically happens when I forget to tell them I’m traveling.
My story continued:
Used it at the ATM, declined.
Went into the branch to reset the pin number.
Went to McDonalds, declined.
Went back to the branch and tried to activate the card at the atm, declined.
Went bank to the teller to have the card activated (also questioned about whether I had the card activated.)
If I got denied one more time I would have been pissed.
“Huh. Darn.”
Walk out.
Go to Target.
Repeat.
I do a lot of sales at conventions and declined cards happens a few times every event. The first thing I do is tell them ‘it’s not nessesarily your card’ its a cellular cc machine sometimes it just can’t get a good connection and declines the purchase.’ This eleaviates their stress or embarassment. In most cases I expect the truth is they can’t do math and blew though their balance.
on the customer side I deal with it on occasion. I’m not issued my own card as I’m not a permanent employee. Its contracting for my friends company. Ill usually be running around with a few cards with different peoples names on them… one of the cards I end up with has an overprotective antifraud program that likes to lock it all the time. Things like their weekly postage purchase from the usps have triggered it. Im particularly good at convincing stores to take another cc over the phone from the company.
I would be embarrassed – to find I’m in a Walmart.
But merely annoyed that my card was messing up. (In reality I’d just use a different card.)
Had that happen to a guy in my lab back when I was in grad school, while he was checking out in front of me at the grocery store. The guy had taken the bus to the store, too. I paid for his stuff and he brought me cash the next day.
I then had so much cash (he was really stocking up that trip) that I didn’t go to the ATM for many months. My card expired and I didn’t notice the new one in the mail. I found this out when I tried to withdraw cash on my way to the airport :smack:. I ended up getting a cash advance on my CC. Those are expensive. They guy from my CC company who helped me figure out how to get a cash advance even told me this wasn’t recommended and explained all the fees and rates.