[dundee] Chip and Pin payments - Consumer Rights when there's an error...

[Rick Moynihan]

Hi all...

Not Linux related, but I know there're people on the list who know
more than me about the design and legalities of chip and pin
payments...  It's also quite an interesting situation... here's the
story of what happened:

I went into Tesco (riverside) on Monday night and purchased groceries
for the week.  Going over to the checkout, the girl scanned everything
as usual and it totalled up to £21.67....  Here's what happened:

1) I entered my Visa Debit card into the chip and pin device, and the
correct pin as normal.

2) The device printed "PIN ACCEPTED" on the screen.

3) The device printed something along the lines of "TRANSACTION
COMPLETE - PLEASE REMOVE YOUR CARD"

4) I removed my card.

5) The checkout started to print the remainder of the receipt.

6) The checkout crashed and started furiously beeping (for the next 20 minutes).

Now my position, is that this isn't really my concern.  The chip and
pin device authorised my transaction and indicated that the
transaction was complete...  So I begin picking up my shopping bags to
leave.  The checkout girl concerned that the transaction hasn't worked
properly asks me to hold on...  I oblige out of curtousy, but tell her
that as far as I'm concerned it was successful.

I immediately take a look at the receipt (which was still in the
machine), and see that its printed all the items, the total and all
the gubins associated with a visa debit transaction, including "PIN
AUTHORISED" etc... Again, as far as I'm concerned - I've paid and the
shopping is now my personal property.  I point this out to her, and
ask if I can leave...  She again asks me to wait for the manager to
look, citing how the receipt hadn't been cut off by the machine and
that it hadn't printed the barcode or club card point advert...  again
something that doesn't concern me...  regardless I wait for the
manager.

5 minutes later the manager comes over and checks for the transaction
on their computer system (the till was still locked up)...  There's no
sign of the amount.  Again I say that the receipt constitutes proof of
purchase...  He tells me, it would have shown up on the computer
system, and says they'll have to run the items through again on
another till.

Finally after a few minutes of arguing, I give up agreeing to their
demands, but make sure they write everything down and agree to refund
me if I my mini statement shows the duplicate payment the next day.
They charge me again and I finally walk away with my goods.

Yesterday I checked with my bank, and unfortunately it was too early
for the mini statement to show... However they could check the list of
pending authorisations and the transactions were listed three times
like so:

21:17:40  £21.67 APPROVED
21:35:30  £21.65 DENIED.PIN BYPASS
21:37:47  £21.65 APPROVED

(The two pence price discrepancy was due to weighed goods on the
different tills... I made a point at the time).  The bank teller
didn't know what "DENIED.PIN BYPASS" meant (I got my PIN right first
time) so its a little puzzling... but regardless it looks like I have
indeed been charged twice.  I'll find out for sure later on today,
when I get my statement.

Now I'm confident Tesco will refund the error, but I'm wondering if in
situations like this I am within my legal rights to walk off with my
shopping.  Some questions:

1) Does anyone know when an EPOS transaction is legally considered to
have been made?  Is it the card unit displaying "PIN ACCEPTED - PLEASE
REMOVE CARD", or is it after the receipt is printed?

2) Is a receipt is legally considered proof of purchase.  (I'm almost
100% sure it is - but can anyone point me to the act/legislation
covers this?)  i.e. if I'm in posession of a receipt, can I just leave
the store with my goods?

3) Is there any legislation covering what constitutes a receipt...  As
I said, the receipt didn't print the club card advert, the barcode, or
more crucially the last line which was the time and date.  But are any
of these legally required?!

The reason I ask all these questions, is because a concern is bank
charges...  My concern in this situation was that the account in
question is perilously close to my overdraft limit, and that the
transaction going through twice might push me over into bank charges
when that and other direct debits come out.  Tesco's obviously refused
to accept liability for any charges, and I'm pretty confident that I
have enough of a margin (this time) to avoid them; but this might not
have been the case.

Because of this, I think I have a good legal grounds to actual just
walk out with my goods...  After all they can't force me to enter my
PIN pay again.  Obviously it would seem reasonable to provide Tesco
with my contact details should they want to clarify things at a future
date, but am I right in thinking this???

I should point out that the Tesco staff were helpful, and given the 1
in a million chance of a till crashing at that exact point I can
appreciate their cluelessness on what to do, and the desire to cover
their asses.  However my technical understanding of chip and pin is
that the card reader securely talks to the banking system, meaning
that Tesco's log (which didn't show the transaction) is not party to
the communications between the reader and the banking system.

Assuming I have been charged twice (it very much looks like it), as a
software engineer I also find it interesting that the system was
designed to errr on the side of the store rather than the consumer in
the case of error.

R.