The bane of malfunctioning credit card machines

To accompany the new design to this site, how about a bit of new content style too? That question was rhetorical, by the way :)

So in case you don't know, in Germany it is hard to pay for goods and services with credit cards. Big stores normally accept them, but otherwise you might just have a chance with the so called EC card. This is basically a debit card instead of the normal VISA debit cards etc one is used to.

Actually, an example I always like to give to people on the use of cards in Germany, is at a supermarket a couple of years ago. I was in the line to buy my groceries and as often happens, there is some special offer on some home electronics (or a chainsaw, but that's another story) this day there was a huge flatscreen TV on sale. It had a pricetag of around 550 Euros. And sure enough, the customer started to count out lots of fifty notes into the cashier's hand. And the cashier didn't flinch once - this is normal here !!!

But I digress, the card readers.

So to pay for a meal for instance, like in other non EC-card countries, a machine is brought out and the card inserted or swiped. The machine sends the details per wireless or cable to the base station where it checks with the payment authority if this card is valid. Then the customer is asked to either enter their PIN, or to sign a receipt.

Now I'm not the oldest person I know, but I remember this happening in some form for at least 10 years (pubs at uni accepted cards, don't you know). And I don't remember once ever having a problem with them.

Now wind forward to the present. Last night was the second time in two days (and on average I would say at least twice a month) when trying to pay for a meal in a restaurant (knowing full well they accept cards, so I don't bother making the treck to the bank to take out extra cash) that the waitress comes back and says sorry the machine isn't working today.

I know I long gave up on everything being so efficient here as people are led to believe, but I had hoped that at least this problem could just be a freak occurrence. So, we could be in the most rustic village in the middle of Spain, and the machines worked without a hitch, but here in Mainz they seem to have a malfunctioning rate of about one a week. Shouldn't someone investigate this? Did they get these machines on special discount from Aldi? Maybe they need to be sent to China to be repaired?

I think next time this happens I'll just give them my address and tell them to send me the bill. That way I don't have to do 3 trips to the bank a day...

So, about that chainsaw...