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

[Andrew Clayton]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2010 11:59:30 +0100, Rick Moynihan wrote:

IANAL so can't actually give any legal advice...

> Hi all...

> 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.

I guess larger places have all the POS's linked to a central computer
where the transactions are queued up and then sent down visanet in
batches. In this case the chip and pin bit just authorizes the
transaction (Do you have X amount in your account?).

It seems that what they where worried about was that the actual
transaction hadn't made it from the POS to their computer. Although
as you show later it looks like it did.

> 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.

You find it surprising!. I don't.

Andrew