Chip and signature card refused by retailer

James

Re the Post Office. They don't accept AMEX cards. I suggest SPAR shops maybe the same.

Voyager2002

No: in both cases the refusal related to the signature. I think that in the post office I offered a C and S visa card, with the same result.

(When I attempt to use Amex in shops that do not accept it the machine signals that it cannot proceed before reaching the point of collecting a signature. That did not happen in Spar.)

reclusive46

sinizterguy wrote: »

In my experience, many Spar do not accept Amex. I have never found a Post Office accepting Amex yet.

So, was the refusal to do with trying to use an Amex ?

Yeah check this, although the post office has started to take Amex, its rolling out branch by branch at the moment (Aiming to have all stores accept it by the end of the year)

Voyager2002

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Shops can refuse to serve whoever they (dont) want to as long as it isnt on an outlawed "ism" of which one is discrimination against disabled people.

If the C&S is an adaptation for a disability you have that is recognised under the DDA/ Equality Act then there would be an argument that they are acting illegally.

If the C&S is simply because you dont think C&P is secure enough etc then they would be perfectly entitled to refuse to serve you.

Certainly I am not aware of any law that explicitly states C&S has to be accepted but would be happy to be corrected if it is in any Act

I think the legal argument would be that if they offer their customers the convenience of paying by card, they must offer this to all their customers, including those with a disability. In order to do so they would need to have in place procedures and staff training to enable them to accept C and S cards.

agrinnall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I think the legal argument would be that if they offer their customers the convenience of paying by card, they must offer this to all their customers, including those with a disability. In order to do so they would need to have in place procedures and staff training to enable them to accept C and S cards.

But do you know that is the legal situation or are you just guessing because it backs up your own argument?

reclusive46

agrinnall wrote: »

But do you know that is the legal situation or are you just guessing because it backs up your own argument?

If anything they would breaching contract law as they'll be going against what is in their Amex agreement, which is says "Honor all cards". Unlike Visa and MasterCard who have had this thrown out due to varying fees for all different types of credit cards, Amex's rule is still contractually enforceable.

bris

Signatures no longer offer a retailer charge back protection so it is an automatic chargeback in a dispute.

reclusive46

bris wrote: »

Signatures no longer offer a retailer charge back protection so it is an automatic chargeback in a dispute.

That is incorrect.

The only case this applies is if a retailer swipes a chip and pin card and even then if the card machine fails to read the chip after 3 attempts, the card machine will send a fallback indicator along with the transaction thus removing liability for the merchant.

With Swipe and Sign and Chip and Signature cards, any legible signature is enough proof, although again with Chip and Signature, if the card is swiped (without fallback) then the retailer is liable for counterfeit card fraud.

haras_nosirrah

Have you considered using cash?

molerat

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

Have you considered using cash?

Why should they ? C&S is a legitimate payment method. From my retail days the terminal prints out a signature slip, maybe if they have an integrated POS system it does not allow for that. I would write a complaint to PO Counters and see what they come back with, we all know of their poor staff training levels so this may be just another instance of that.