Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Things I Hate: Credit Card Readers

"Is it credit or debit?"

"Press the blue credit or debit key"

I say this about 75 times each day every time someone swipes their credit card. I hate it. It's gotten so bad that I've perfected my 'boring and uninterested' voice while saying it.

I would like to meet the idiot that branched off and made a different version of the credit card reader. Why? BECAUSE ALL CREDIT CARD READERS SHOULD BE THE SAME.

I'm so tired of people asking if they should press cancel for credit, or which button to press, etc. I know other stores have different ones, people. Do you think I enjoy repeating myself many times a day? I don't like standing there either while you try and figure the thing out.

It's simple. There are 2 buttons. One says "Credit" and one says "Debit". They are both blue.

So when I say, "Press the blue credit or debit key", I often stand there and watch as people try to find the blue button. Their hands will hover over the green key, or the white ones, but for some reason most people have trouble finding the blue ones. It's not that fucking difficult.

And if you are color-blind, that's fine too, because they are labeled. But if you are color-blind and illiterate, then you're out of luck. You might as well go to another store and bother them.

Sometimes I wish I could smash the machine to pieces right in front of a customer, while they're trying to find the 'credit' button. I'd be all, "Here, I'll press that for you", pull out a hammer and beat the thing.

The funniest thing about the credit card reader is that people get all defensive when they don't know how to use it. They blame it on us, saying we should have the same one as everyone else. My customers are the nicest people.

Oh, and I also got an awesome blog review at Ask and Ye Shall Receive. Check it out. These people are brutal towards others...I love it!

11 comments:

  1. As a customer I hate the "swipe it yourself" machines. I'm old, I'm used to handing my credit card to the salesperson and they do all the button pressing, and then of course you have to sign on the stupid machine while juggling purse, wallet and package. And so many of them are on a low counter so those of us who have trouble bending have another hurdle to jump just to buy something! I do so like using cash!

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  2. I sometimes think card readers must be the harshest reminder to the elderly of how much the world has changed in their lifetime.

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  3. It's always annoyed me that card readers are different from store to store. I'm with Grace I would just rather hand my card over and let the cashier do the work.

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  4. Hey congratulations on the review of your blog! They sure are mercilessly honest! Is your skin thick enough?

    I hate self-checkout lanes more than I hate credit card readers. I do admit that I like "pay at the pump," though. Does that make me a hypocrite?

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  5. It took the lady in front of me at Staples THREE TRIES to punch in her debit number. Ugh. Of course, I was holding like 20 pounds worth of office supplies, and trying not to be a puss and drop them.

    The thing that annoys me is that each business has a different policy for purchases. At Cumberland Farms, you don't have to sign for anything less than $25. At Exxon / Mobil, they make you sign for EVERYTHING, even just a $1 soda.

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  6. My debit card has been acting up like "whoa" lately and the cashier at the general store down the street told me it is because the outer half of the strip on the back of the card is for debit and the inner half is for credit. Evidently the debit section is already worn down even though I have only had it for a couple months. Her explanation confused me, but I find it more and more difficult to maintain a credit/debit card that you don't have to swipe a billion times.

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  7. Oh my you are funny. But I just said this today...customers are expected to do all the work. Why and when did this change.

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  8. Credit card readers are the bane of my existence. When I worked in retail, we got these new electronic readers so the customers could swipe their cards, but they still had to sign a piece of paper. EVERY person managed to mess it up. And it was very, VERY self explanatory. From the customers who swiped their cards and stood there waiting for approximately 60 seconds while NOTHING happened, to the ones asking "is this debit or credit?" to the ones looking desperately for a pen connected to the machine that didn't exist (one even went so far as to try to rip the cords out of the back of the machine, thinking one connected to a pen), to the ones that swiped their cards backwards (follow the damn picture, people!)... just hand me the damn card, it'll go much faster.

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  9. Yes, I'm sure repeating instructions gets tedious, but suck it up--it's your job.

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  10. I think an international Standard must be brought..

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