Debit Card Decline - what to do ?

stephen77

martinbuckley wrote: »

If you were paying with a debit card then that means the money must have been in your account to cover it.

If you were so adamant that the money was there why not go to the nearest ATM and withdraw the cash? Problem sorted.

My local M&S is 1/2 mile away from the nearest cash point.

So you want me to spend 45 minutes walking in the cold & rain to get some money that my chip & pin is designed for?

I am old & disabled and got to pick my daughter from school. Not time to walk across.

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To be honest there is a cash point about 100 yards from my M&S, so I would have walked across.
However I would still rather avoided not walking there and back.

When its happened to me I have used another card reader and it worked fine.

Steve059

M&S. What were you buying? What religion was the ... card reader?

alanq

When my card failed to have its chip read in John Lewis they swiped and got me to sign. Was that option tried at M&S?

funnyguy

Lot of Christmas spirit and cheer on this thread.Merry Christmas everyone..

MysteryMe

There is no fool proof technology and things go wrong sometimes. The important thing is you have your order, so enjoy!

UnderPressure

If you managed to pay by credit card then I would suggest there was nothing wrong with the stores readers and the problem was more at your banks side of things, they use the same authorisation centres and merchant account for all debit and credit card transactions so if 1 card will not work but another 1 will then it is fair to say your bank is lying to you (shock horror) and there was a technical glitch that they either did not want to tell you about or was solved so quickly they were not aware of it.

Either way it is done now, take a deep breath and enjoy your bounty

aimingforadebtfreelife

Errors occur, and will never stop. Nothing or no-one is foolproof.

The other week I went into Aldi and after a trolley load of shopping the chip and pin system went down. The only suggestion they had was to leave the shopping behind or go to the nearest cashpoint which was a 2 mile journey away. The cashiers were apologetic and some customers were ranting and shouting. I popped into the car and got the cash, problem sorted. Not the store's fault nor the cashier - life is too short to mump and grump -mistakes and errors occur - we make them so why cant businesses???

Helix

alanq wrote: »

When my card failed to have its chip read in John Lewis they swiped and got me to sign. Was that option tried at M&S?

Stores will be very reluctant to allow a swipe and signature transaction if the card has a chip. They become liable for the transaction if it turns out to be fraudulent and you would get people with stolen cards just damaging the chips to try and get things put through as swipe and sign.

zenseeker

It's not really M&S's fault that there was a temporary glitch with Visa Debit, it happens a lot and there really is no point trying other readers, I spent 2 years on checkouts in Morrisons so I say this with experience. You had another card which worked so there isn't a problem, plus this proves it was a card glitch rather than a reader error. You could have walked that short distance to an ATM but admit you couldn't be bothered.

Lieja

I also used to work on a checkout and we were told not to try a card again if it is declined the first time. I did try the card a couple of times cos I know it's usually all above board, but I certainly wouldn't have gone around trying other machines.

I also would never have suggested using another card - lots of people only have the one card to use and would have looked at me blankly if I'd suggested they use another. Most customers were happy to try the ATM or come back later on with some other form of payment, as they understood that the card machines declining cards was nothing at all to do with the store.