Eftpos WTF



  • I work in a retail store. The customer himself makes for a typical non-IT-but-stoopid-customer WTF, which was the part of the story I was involved directly in. He had just bought a cash register and needed me to open the box to look at the manual to see what type of calculator roll it take (another WTF is that nowhere on the box does it mention whether or not it comes with a roll, whether it needs a calculator roll or a thermal roll, or what size of roll it takes). It does of course come with a starter roll, but it was easy to read the dimensions (especially the maximum diameter) from the specs then to try and compare the roll with others. By the time he gets home though, he has somehow managed to lose the manual, which had keys for the drawer taped to it. He calls the store I tell him to look in the bag the manual come in, and he tells me it doesn't come with a manual. I reminded him about the manual I had opened to show him the calculator roll size, and he hands me over to his son. I ask the son to make sure he checks everywhere for the manual and keys, including the car, which he does by turning around, speaking to his dad (I think in another language, their accent was thick) who would in turn yell something back at him, and the son would inform me that no, it isn't in the car or anywhere else. I mean, why bother looking when you can just have the store give you a new one, right? Of course, we don't have replacement keys for cash registers we sell, or even the manual for that matter. We tell him to bring it back for a refund, as he will need the keys, and we didn't have another unit on hand to exchange it with. Here's where the IT-based WTF comes in.

    The son returns it. The fact that it was bought on his mother's credit card by his mother, but he's the one returning it is bit of a WTF right there (but we recognise him from earlier, and we just want to get rid of him by this stage). When we tried to process the refund, the authorisation is denied. The credit card expired last year in July. OK, sounds like a non-WTF, that's what should happen, right? Except, as I just mentioned, this is the same card used to purchase the cash register originally. Earlier the same day. The receipt confirms it. Apparently it is OK for a bank to authorise spending on an expired card, but not for returns.

    Oh, and of course the call to the bank only resulted in more confusion. They aren't open on weekends, so they will refund the customer during the week - for the entire amount of the original purchase, including the other items he bought in the same transaction. 



  • Banks screw up on more than just mortgages...



  • @prueg said:

    Apparently it is OK for a bank to authorise spending on an expired card, but not for returns.

    Obviously.  You wouldn't want just anyone running around refunding money to an account that no longer exists.  It's not like you really need to worry about people buying truckloads of premium electronics using a credit card that isn't even valid...

     

    ...what store was it you said you worked for?



  •  You know what they say - The customer is always a right pain.

     Are you sure it is the same card? Sounds to me like they retuned to the store with their old, expired card, which they neglected to destroy because.... well, I can't think of a reason. (The card number remains the same) the expiry date should be listed on that old reciept.



  •  As far as I know, they checked the date on the receipt. I wasn't directly involved with the refund, but the girl putting it through has a lot of experience on POS and is bright enough that I can safely assume that she looked at that as well. She knew the proper procedures for calling the bank and all that, and one is almost ready to assume the person at the bank who took the call would have asked as well... hmm, guess you can't assume anything though.


Log in to reply