Electron card trouble

missymugwump

Humpf

I shop in Sainsburys usually
3 or 4 times lately when I have put my card in the machine (at self scan check outs) it says your card has been declind
The second I put it in ?

THe last time this happened an odious little old hag on that area shouted your cards been declined
I politely said I think its your machine as I was only paid yesterday
She insisted on shouting across for all to hear a further 3 times your bank has declined it
A complaint was made

Is there any reason why this would happen ?
I rang my bank Halifax and they said it must be a sainsburys prob as the sum was never applied for at there end,i had plenty of cleared funds and they could not explain
This has happened 3 times now

Anyone else had this ?
Is an electron card given low priority to connect to authorisation centre at busy times ?
I would love to know why it happens
I find myself paying cash now just in case



I did say to the lady she obviously wasn't employed for her customer skills or tact !!!!!!!!!!

Enterprise_1701C

Are you sure they have not stopped taking Electron? Just a thought, this would probably result in the same problem.

miss-coordinated

I had that problem a couple of times at Sainsburys, though I never really thought much of it at the time.
What usually happened was the cashier swiped it manually and then it went through fine (had to sign instead of use pin).
I know have a regular visa card and it doesn't happen at all so I do think it is an electron problem.

cazziebo

Happens to me reasonably often with Electron - thankfully I also have a Nationwide Visa Debit card. I think it has happened in Morrison's and Sainsbury's but most often at petrol garages. It doesn't bother me (used to it from my spendthrift days!) but can embarrass the assistant.

Electron has an extra level of authorisation and I think if this fails then the card reader defaults to declined.

Good on you complaining about the assistant - not everyone has my thick skin and I'm sure most people would be mortified.

shinybabe

It happened to me alot when i had electron. Another store was Boots - my card was always being declined there! I was with the Woolwich and when Barclays took over they changed it to Connect. The same thing keeps happening though, especially in Sainsbury's cafe, for some reason. I've no idea why or what you can do about it though. If you find a way round it, let me know!!

newfoundglory

I've found that American Express cards have a similar problem in Asda sometimes. The card is immediately declined without seeking any authorization or pin number. Defo a problem with the readers and/or merchant systems. In fact i'm sure i've had the same problem with Mastercard once or twice in Asda to. Has only ever happened in Asda.

missymugwump

Thanks for the info
Im glad im not alone
Its really annoying though my husband stands about 15ft away from me now when I pay just in case he was mortified last time

stokefan

i dont uses self scan with my card for this reason, it always works (touch wood) at the checkouts

chalkysoil

missymugwump wrote: »

Humpf


THe last time this happened an odious little old hag on that area shouted your cards been declined
I politely said I think its your machine as I was only paid yesterday
She insisted on shouting across for all to hear a further 3 times your bank has declined it
A complaint was made


I did say to the lady she obviously wasn't employed for her customer skills or tact !!!!!!!!!!

Good for you! Maybe we should start posting the name and store of these hags. And a photo...

mother_hen_2

yep happened to me at Asda both the store and the self-service filling for petrol....

hippey

SACAT terminals can do this with forced online cards such as electron, they will read the track data from the card as it is inserted into the reader and if electron is not accepted at that particular POS then it will automatically decline.

Will do a bit of research on this and post in a day or two, but I seem to remember something about the retailers agreement does not cover 'electronic only use' cards in SACAT terminals but I can't remeber what the reason for this were