Quickpay Signatures?

omega27

Does anyone have any pointers/information about how the quickpay tills in M&S/Sainsburys validate signatures?

I used one at Sainsburys Greenwich 4 times a week for about 5 months when they were first introduced (finally something to make grocery shopping exciting!), and despite several signature 'variations' all transactions went through fine. As I used the same card each time, I guess it could just compare susequent signatures?

As this was a Corporate Barclaycard, I can't see them having a copy of my signature - was given a card, signed back & started using it.

student100

Maybe they don't actually validate them at all. It could be just that if you had a dodgy transaction and queried it you could then say that it wasn't your signature and they'd sort it out.

I know that Argos' kiosks print two receipts, one of which you must physically sign in front of an employee before you collect your goods.

I imagine soon they'll all just have PIN entry for most customers.


Incidentally, I noticed when I was in the US that WalMart and other stores have touchscreen things where customers swipe their own card and sign the screen for even normal face-to-face transactions. I think the only reason for this is to save the store from keeping paper receipts. article.

King_David_2

I work for Sainsbury's in a store in the West Midlands, but not on checkouts. My store had the tills installed (four of them) back in March, but I work on another department so what I say cannot be taken as accurate.

With the tills is another stand-alone one where there should be an employee with a computer screen. On that screen they can see details of all the quick pay tills. I think that, possibly, the signature on the back of the card may appear on that screen, but I'm not too sure.

If for whatever reason there is no-one standing at the stand-alone till then I think that eventually it just 'times out' and processes it anyway.

To be honest I've only picked this up from using them as a customer. I find that on many occasions they don't speed things up at all so hardly use them.

Sainsbury's will be one of the last to go to Chip and PIN, next February I think. I know my store has just cancelled training for staff until further notice.

Fatboy_NSS

They have these in my local coop. I've found that it just goes through when I'm only spending a small amount on the card, but when it's more like £40-£50, or I'm requesting a large amount of cashback, the screen flashes up "wait for supervisor" and the supervisor will come over and compare the sig on my card to what I've signed on the screen. So I assume they're just letting the small transactions through assuming they're ok and just checking over a certain amount.