To all the retail cashiers who insist on giving no direction regarding “stripe-in, stripe-out” chip-enabled debit transactions. For the love of Christ, could you give us some direction when you pass us the pin pad instead of waiting for us to make the mistake and then huffing and puffing your directions at us with an attitude equatable to that of the South American wildebeast. Give us a fucking break for Christ sake! We are paying customers and without us you would have no job. Take your passive-aggressive attitude downtown on the weekends to get it out of your system. —: Looking for Non-Confrontational Retail Transaction in Halifax
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2010.
i was just speaking to one of my customers about this same issue
and they appreciate having some help with our machine
I’m with you on this one. I do ask the fuckers which way they would like it and half have no idea themselves. I figure one day they will be able to scan the bank barcode on my ass.
Thanks paingirl 🙂
I’ll never understand why debit machines aren’t all the same. Would make life much easier. Stripe faces the left. Took me a while to get that down. I try to use cash as much as possible. Less bank fees and debit bullshit.
Hahaha I read the title as “transaction tranny” and was confused as to when the tranny part was going to come up.
I got into with the “one” at the Scotia Square Laytons.
She handed me the terminal, and I punched one of the buttons before it was ready.
She grabbed it back and snarled “That’s NOT the way to do that.”
I smiled and said in a voice suited to talking to a 5 year old “Maybe you should post the rules so we can all know.”
She was so pissy, but then again she always is.
usually there is a little picture odf a card on the side, but due to a lot of use, they fade out after time. i do agree that there should be one exact set of rules regarding card swiping. one way only, strip towards you.
well said. hardly a day goes by without some dispondent, disconnected retail cash bitch making some rude comment about my not swipping correctly. get a life.
jake
I’m the opposite. I think its annoying when they say ‘swipe stripe out’ or whatever just as I’m about to, as there are usually arrows on the fucking thing to tell me which way the thing goes. Haven’t swiped wrong with or without help yet…
yeah, you would think that after hundreds, maybe thousands of transactions like this they could change their ways. Their so stupid they don’t realize that a simple piece of paper taped on the pin machine indicating which way the stripe goes would make their job easier and the customers……..where has retail etiquette gone?…….I’m aftraid dead with the last generation.
ty
to cranky……I don’t think their talking about the way the card moves from left to right or right to left in the machine, their talking about whether the black stripe on your debit card faces right or left……their ain’t no arrows for that.
cial
i take the card, look at it and do the work for them…feck some people are usless
What I don’t understand is why they don’t make a debit machine with _two_ magnetic read heads – one for each side of the card. That way it wouldn’t matter which way you swipe it. We’re talking about 20’s/30’s era technology here – it couldn’t be expense.
I was talking about the orientation of the stripe in relation to the stripe reader.
I have a 50% chance of it working or not. I can figure it out myself.
OP do coin tosses stress you out too?
There is a picture on it that shows you which way to swipe. ALL machines have it, it’s a little white card that has the stripe on the left or the right, look harder next time.
If it doesn’t work when you swipe it one way, here’s an idea: swipe it the other. Doesn’t take more than 2 seconds, if that. I’ve done it. It’s not that hard.
I agree with the OP… part of the customer service is in instructing the customer on using the “services” properly. I like how some businesses actually take the card and swipe it for you, and then hand you the keypad. And those that don’t… how hard is it to say “stripe toward me” anyway? Or perhaps they expect you to remember how it is for every store you have shopped in…. Either way- rude and poor salesmanship.
this is going to be useless in a couple years anyways.. what with the shitty chips they’re giving out now.
suck it up, it’s only a matter of time.
This bitch is pointless. Here’s a tip most 10 year olds would be able to figure out. Before you swipe, take a quick glance down inside the slot. You can see the reader sticking out a little from either the right or left side, and face the black strip towards it accordingly.
Weird, I have never had a card with a chip on it.
they exist Seb…. although I refuse to join any bank where they insist on inserting the chip anywhere else.
*Queue the joke where LIH declares he has “inserted something into Chip…..” LMAO
You’re an idiot. I usually can swipe it both ways before they even tell me which way. Plus if you actually look at the slot, your swipe goes in the direction of the metal reader.
Those machines aren’t that hard to use, if you use a little common sense.
Damn, just noticed NL mentioned the reader before I did. Either way, you’re an idiot.
Too bad we don’t all have a cushy job like you. Since you seem to be so goddamn smart that you don’t have to resort to working in public services perhaps you should already know how to use a debit machine already.
you can look at the machine yourself and see which way the head is oriented. and then you will know yourself how to swipe the card. cus you want the brown magnetic stripe on the card to be read by the head. so. there. now you won’t have to deal with people’s, whatever it was that you called it. you will just know for yourself. you will be able to rely on your own self to figure out these simple simple things.
My question is when exactly did it become such a burden for the cashier to swipe the card like they used to? This bitch comes down to people who would rather expend 10 times as much energy not doing something then it would to just do it.
BTW You are supposed check a signature on the card, and how the fuck are you supposed to do that when you refuse to even touch it?