Card rejected by Countdown

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#2107645 14-Oct-2018 12:22

Talkiet:

I only do self service. I'm paying their staff to keep shelves stocked and for their IT group to develop faster more efficient checkout options. I don't want to have a conversation with a checkout operator about how my day is going, or whether I have a busy afternoon.

Cheers - N

If only their staff actually DID keep the shelves full...

sbiddle

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#2107664 14-Oct-2018 14:24

Sounds like a simple case of EFTPOS being down and the terminal operating in EOV mode. There are per terminal limits to this so its potentially reached this so can't store any more transactions.

Not really sure what the big deal was other than staff not handling this very well.

jpoc

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#2109457 17-Oct-2018 10:30

Bung: If you left without trying again you give up too easy.

There was no retry option for the transaction, the whole deal was cancelled. The only option was to rescan everything. I was not going to do that.

richms

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#2109458 17-Oct-2018 10:32

If the terminal was no longer able to process eftpos transactions then its a countdown system failure to have it online and allow a user to start scanning stuff.

I hope they enjoy putting all the stuff back.

Richard rich.ms

jpoc

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#2109478 17-Oct-2018 10:32

Goosey:

1) I think all self serves in the supermarkets take cash (hint its on the payment options, if you cant see where the coin and note receptors are).

2) does your eft card have a chip on it ? (as others have said, likley the issue was a temp one at the store and all the checkouts were taking offline payments, but even with offline payments there are limits on how many transactions can be stored and held by the eft terminals / servers within a retailer's store / number of eft devices).

3) if your card hasnt got a chip and the store was offline, then maybey thats what got you into a small mess?

Most self scan checkouts in my local countdown are card only.

They have big 'card only' signs all over them.

trig42

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#2109480 17-Oct-2018 10:33

And, if it was in EOV mode, it wont accept any transaction over a certain amount. I'm unsure what the amount is, and if it changes at different retailers. I think it may be about $200.

If it was a regular debit card (no chip) and it asked for a signature, then it meant it had lost connection to either the stores aggregating EFTPOS server, or the connection to the Verifone switch had gone down (Countdown use Verifone, which used to be Eftpos NZ which was ANZ). This could be a problem with the internal network in the store, the store's internet connection or a glitch on Verifone's network. I'd wager that trying again would probably have been successful.

jpoc

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#2109484 17-Oct-2018 10:35

lNomNoml:

jpoc:

I left without my supplies.

No idea what the business case is for this but I guess that I am no longer allowed to shop at countdown unless I bring cash and queue for a self checkout that takes cash. (No going to happen)

So I guess human interaction by asking was out of the question?

If you had taken the time to read my original post, you would have seen that the checkout supervisor was involved and it was she who cancelled everything.

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gehenna

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#2109494 17-Oct-2018 10:38

Cracks me up that these days as soon as something unexpected happens, people rush to the worst case scenario and over think things, then vow to never go back to the place in question because they're clearly the most important customer to that business! The simple explanation is almost always the right one. In this case most likely a weird fault with pinpad operation, rather than a massive change in business practices.

lNomNoml

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#2110127 17-Oct-2018 23:11

jpoc:

lNomNoml:

jpoc:

I left without my supplies.

No idea what the business case is for this but I guess that I am no longer allowed to shop at countdown unless I bring cash and queue for a self checkout that takes cash. (No going to happen)

So I guess human interaction by asking was out of the question?

If you had taken the time to read my original post, you would have seen that the checkout supervisor was involved and it was she who cancelled everything.

I did, you still failed to state if you asked her and what the reason for it was, seems like a broken social interaction to me, you attempted to purchase something, it didn't work, supervisor came and canceled it, and you walked out without your items.

gehenna:

Cracks me up that these days as soon as something unexpected happens, people rush to the worst case scenario and over think things, then vow to never go back to the place in question because they're clearly the most important customer to that business! The simple explanation is almost always the right one. In this case most likely a weird fault with pinpad operation, rather than a massive change in business practices.

What I was thinking as well.

Tracer

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#2111050 19-Oct-2018 15:29

Talkiet:

I only do self service. I'm paying their staff to keep shelves stocked and for their IT group to develop faster more efficient checkout options. I don't want to have a conversation with a checkout operator about how my day is going, or whether I have a busy afternoon.

Cheers - N

Yes, Countdown have a long way to go with their self-checkout terminals though. How can they be so much slower and more annoying than the Foodstuffs ones? The only thing I like about them is the option to not print a receipt.

Goosey

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#2111052 19-Oct-2018 15:38

Tracer:
Talkiet:

I only do self service. I'm paying their staff to keep shelves stocked and for their IT group to develop faster more efficient checkout options. I don't want to have a conversation with a checkout operator about how my day is going, or whether I have a busy afternoon.

Cheers - N

Yes, Countdown have a long way to go with their self-checkout terminals though. How can they be so much slower and more annoying than the Foodstuffs ones? The only thing I like about them is the option to not print a receipt.

The amount of paper that comes out should be the subject of national concern. Receipts are wasting more trees than plastic damage to whatever plastic is damaging to.

Don’t get me started on being able to manually look up your store loyalty programmdetailsZ I mean who wants to carry x number of cards and tags these days.

wellygary

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#2111054 19-Oct-2018 15:47

Goosey:
Don’t get me started on being able to manually look up your store loyalty programmdetailsZ I mean who wants to carry x number of cards and tags these days.

Get an app like stocard and stick them all in your phone,

I pretty much haven't had to touch an actual storecard for over a year, (It was touch and go with foodstuffs for a while, but they appear to have upgraded their scanners to read phone screen much better)

Goosey

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#2111121 19-Oct-2018 17:47

wellygary:
Goosey:
Don’t get me started on being able to manually look up your store loyalty programmdetailsZ I mean who wants to carry x number of cards and tags these days.

Get an app like stocard and stick them all in your phone,

I pretty much haven't had to touch an actual storecard for over a year, (It was touch and go with foodstuffs for a while, but they appear to have upgraded their scanners to read phone screen much better)

Yeh have the new world app but pak n save sticky Club is a bit antiquated and they don’t have an app and I can’t dind my tag so usually tell them my phone number. As for onecard, I usually carry my as card anyway....must see if there’s an app though.

Stu

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#2111176 19-Oct-2018 19:35

@Goosey - The Stocard application (for Android and iOS) allows you to have all of your loyalty cards in one app. Merely scan the barcode and save it. You can also use the Google Pay app, but I found it's not as good as Stocard as there are a couple of cards I couldn't store with it. Unfortunately OneCard is a mag-strip only deal still, so you can't really get rid of it (although the number can be typed in manually by checkout staff). The barcode on an AA/OneCard card is for AA points (BP etc) and is different from what is stored on the magnetic strip.

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Goosey

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#2111198 19-Oct-2018 20:34

Stu:
@Goosey - The Stocard application (for Android and iOS) allows you to have all of your loyalty cards in one app. Merely scan the barcode and save it. You can also use the Google Pay app, but I found it's not as good as Stocard as there are a couple of cards I couldn't store with it. Unfortunately OneCard is a mag-strip only deal still, so you can't really get rid of it (although the number can be typed in manually by checkout staff). The barcode on an AA/OneCard card is for AA points (BP etc) and is different from what is stored on the magnetic strip.

Thanks for the info! @Stu

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