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- From: green@wharton.upenn.edu (SCOTT GREEN)
- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- Subject: Re: The unhappy byproduct of gas stations and ATM cards
- Message-ID: <green.51.0@wharton.upenn.edu>
- Date: 6 Nov 92 14:43:38 GMT
- References: <Bx9vxr.7zu@chinet.chi.il.us>
- Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: Wharton ATS
- Lines: 20
- Nntp-Posting-Host: av6.wharton.upenn.edu
-
- In article <Bx9vxr.7zu@chinet.chi.il.us> koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us (Louis Koziarz) writes:
- >Well I decide to stop at the local Amoco tonight and fill up the car.
- >There's not much money in my wallet, so I decide to use the nifty new ATM
- >debit feature. Same as cash, how can I go wrong?
- >
- >I fill up, walk inside, hand the girl my ATM card, she replies 'Our Cash
- >Station connection is down'. NOW what am I gonna do? I tell her 'I wish you
- >had a sign outside that said that'. She shrugs. I take out my credit card,
- >I don't have enough cash, she replies 'Well I'm going to have to charge you
- >the credit rate now instead of cash'. Now I'm steamed. I'm gonna talk to the
- >owner in the morning.
-
- Mobil stations here have 'manual authorization procedures' to handle system
- downtime. Presumably, if they follow the directions, the bank will cover
- the sale. btw, they DO NOT record your PIN; your signature on the sales
- draft is your authorization. After all, they must certainly have similar
- manual systems for when the credit card authorizer goes down. Probably, the
- clerk was either not trained or not in the mood to deal with it manually,
- and that's the issue to take up with the manager, as well as a refund on the
- difference between credit and cash.
-