Stupid Credit Card Trick

[Coastercameron]

The stupid guests keep coming, so I'm going to keep posting here.

I was selling tickets today (keep in mind my park is pay-per-ride or unlimited wristband).

I had a guest come up and begin to comment on our automated ticket machines not working. This is VERY common, and usually very casual, and my excuse for the problem seemed accepted to this guest.

She bought her ticket, and handed me her credit card. We take credit cards very seriously at my park (any person who has ever had a card stolen could appreciate it) as a rule, we hold onto the card during the transaction to compare the signature on the card reciept to that on the card.

I swiped her card and placed it in my keyboard as usual to wait for it to process.
This is where mundane guest turns into random spaz guest of the year!
She asks me "Can I have my credit card back?"
I politely respond "Sorry maam, I have to hold onto the card while it processes to compare your signature"
Her responce: "Jesus christ!!! All this for 20 points!!! DO YOU WANT MY FINGERPRINT TOO!?!?!"
I counter this by "No ma'am, I think this way will work just fine!" (Smiling and in my happiest tone of course)

She takes to mumbling and complaining until the reciept prints.
I say to her "Ok maam, may I have you sign on the X please?"

She takes it and randomly scribbles on the reciept. These scribbling of course do not match the signature on the back of the card, so I am required by the parks (and I beleive Visa's) policies to attempt to verify her identity (ususally an ID works!)

I say to her "Maam, I'm going to see your ID please, because your signature does not match."

She frantically digs through her purse and whips out her US Passport (cant use the foriegn excuse) and shoves it in my face "There! is this good enough!?"

I compair the names and tell her "Great! Yes it is! Here is your card and your reciept, and here is your ticket! Have a GREAT day!" (big grin)

She stormed off, never to be scene again. But she will live forever in my memory as "Spaz Fingerprint Girl" All my coworkers and even my manager got a kick out of how I handled her.
It is VERY unusual for someone to get upset about that, I think she may have possibly been drunk. But if I was suspicious of her card to begin with (I wasn't until she flipped) then acting outrageous to the cashier isn't going to make it look any more ligit. I wasn't asking her to do anything, except wait for the computer!

[Anna]

My son worked in merchandising in Universal. One day, he was checking a man out. The man was the only other person near the register. My son hands him the CC receipt to sign. While he signs, my son bagged his merchandise. After signing, the man said angrily "You didn't watch me sign the receipt. Anyone could have signed it." My son looks around and sees that absolutely no one else is near the register so it was impossible for someone to rush over, sign the receipt, and mysteriously disappear.

My son decides to placate the guest and have some fun for himself, so he gets out a blank sheet of paper and has the man sign his name while my son watches. Then my son pretends to compare that signature with the one the man had just signed on the receipt. He says "Sorry, that doesn't look the same. Can you sign again?" He signs again and once again my son says "No, doesn't look the same as the receipt. " He makes the man sign the sheet a total of 7 times before finally giving the OK. The man never realizes that he is being played even though the other cashier is cracking up.

[hobie16]

He makes the man sign the sheet a total of 7 times before finally giving the OK.

!!!YES!!!!

[PattyA]

Customers don't get it.

At least you check it...most grocery stores don't even look or even handle the card.

Anyone can use your debit card and rob you blind.

[darph nader]

Anna, this is tooo f-in funny. Years ago I was at a gas station buying a paper,the guy in front of me had his credit-card confiscated. He starts screaming " Give me back 'my' credit-card the cashier told him "NO". I want 'my f-in card back". The cashier told him," The card 'belongs' to (place gas company here)".customer " Bull shit"
clerk " If you like,sir we can ask this gentelman who just pulled in".
It was a police officer. Granted,the cop do squat,but the customer freaked and left in a hurry,sans gas.

[Coastercameron]

Exactly!!!

We try our best to follow the guidelines that Visa (and the other CC companies) set out in order to best protect ourselves, and more importantly the guests. It might be an inconvienence to have to show ID or *GASP* let me hang onto your credit card for 15 seconds while you sign, but it could potentially save you from a very messy, and damaging experience with credit card fraud.

Today I had a guest who was SHOCKED that she had to show ID for her *PLATINUM* credit card. I informed her that they all got stolen just the same. (I wasn't up for playing games today). She assured me that since it was PLATINUM "it has insurance to protect you and the stealee from liability"

That's right folk, the "stealee" is protected from liabilitiy.

Luckily for every 1 person who acts like that, we get 2 or 3 who say thank you for checking when asked for ID. That always makes my day a little nicer! :)

[darph nader]

btw,on my cc i wrote "ask 4 id" with my initials on it. (my credit unions idea).
of course for id I always show them pictures of my grand-kids. (Never works though) :(

[hobie16]

Kind of off topic but my wife always does the banking. On the very few occasions I go in they always want two forms of ID from me. I went in once with my daughter who was five at the time. When I got to the counter the teller said, "Hi Molly, is this your dad?" I didn't have to show any ID.

[Rob562]

Oooh! You just reminded me of a Stupid CM Trick from my last trip to WDW! :)

For the trip I got one of those pre-paid debit cards from Visa. I'd done it once before, and back then it had my full name on it. This trip I discovered that if I actually went to my local mall's customer service desk rather than order it online, it's only a $1.50 fee (opposed to $5-6). But they give you a pre-made card, and the name on the card was punched into the card as "Simon Mall Customer".

Used it at the Riverside Food Court, and the CM compared my signature to the one on the back (which matched) but then noticed that my signed last name didn't match the cards' name. She wanted to keep the card because the signature wasn't "Mr. Customer"... :D:

Took me about 2 minutes of explaining the idea behind a pre-paid debit card to her before she understood...

-Rob "Why yes, my middle name *is* Mall!"

[leftcoaster]

btw,on my cc i wrote "ask 4 id" with my initials on it. (my credit unions idea).
of course for id I always show them pictures of my grand-kids. (Never works though) :(

I write PHOTO ID where the signature block is. I've been doing that for years, but I can count on one hand how many cashiers actually take the time to look on the back of the card and ask me for photo id. :( But I'll bet it's partially because of the idiots that we are talking about that make some cashiers "afraid" to ask for id, and lack of following procedures and educating the public to protect people from credit card fraud.

The scary part is that many cc companies are starting to use fingerprint technology, etc to thwart id theft. I wonder how much grief from SG's that will cause cashiers.