Don’t Bank On Them Understanding

One day, a customer comes in to pick up her car. I estimate her to be about eighteen years old, and she’s with another girl — I’m guessing her sister — who is probably about sixteen years old. I find her ticket and tell her the total, which is about $6,000. Service is actually closed at this point in the day, and only Sales is still open.

Customer: “Do you take Apple Pay?”

Me: “Yes.”

The customer taps her phone, and the machine prompts her to type in her PIN. For whatever reason, our credit card machine will not let you bypass the PIN when using the tap feature. You have to have the card physically inserted into the machine in order to bypass the PIN. Why? I don’t know. I have gotten a lot of grief from customers about how “other places let me do it,” but I don’t make the rules.

Me: “Type in your PIN.”

Customer: “Can I bypass it?”

Me: “Unfortunately, you can’t bypass the PIN when you tap. You would have to insert the card.”

Customer: “I don’t have the card; I only have what’s on my phone. I don’t carry physical cards around.”

Me: “Then you will have to put in the PIN.”

Customer: “But I don’t want to.”

Me: “The machine won’t let you bypass it because you tapped.”

The customer presses the green button, which causes the machine to beep.

Me: “It’s actually red for credit—”

The customer presses the red button, and the transaction is canceled. I type in the total again, she taps her phone, and again it asks for the PIN. This time, she puts in the PIN. However, a declined message pops up on the screen.

Me: “Unfortunately, that declined.”

Customer: “Why?”

Me: “It doesn’t tell me why, but it’s probably because of your spending limit. You’ll have to call your bank and ask them for a one-time limit increase.”

This happens all the time when customers are putting down payments for a car on their credit cards. The number of people who believe that they do not have a spending limit is way too high. It’s not a big deal, and a quick call to the bank usually resolves the issue.

Customer: “Run it again.”

Me: “It’s going to decline. You need to call your bank.”

Customer: “I have the money. Run it again.”

I put the total in the machine. She taps her phone and puts in the PIN, and it declines.

Me: “You need to call your bank. It’s probably the spending limit.”

Customer: “No. Run it again.”

Me: “It’s going to keep declining. You need to call your bank.”

Customer: “Just run it again.”

Me: “You have to call your bank.”

Customer: “Run it again.”

At this point, I stop caring. If she wants to lock her card doing this, then that’s on her. She makes me run her card about five more times. Every time, I tell her to call the bank, but she refuses.

After about fifteen minutes of this, she finally calls the bank. She does this at the window, so I can hear everything she says. After confirming her information, I hear her say, “I’m not in Florida.” This catches my attention because our brand is based out of Florida. We are actually the only dealership in the group that is not in Florida. However, the chief financial officer wants us to use the main Florida address for our banking information so they can keep an eye on us. This has caused some fraud alerts for customers in the past, but the banks are usually good once they realize the situation, and thankfully, it doesn’t happen that often.

Me: “We’re based in Florida, so if it’s showing [address], then that’s correct.”

The customer relays this information to her bank, and eventually, they tell her to try it again. She hangs up, and we try the card again, but it still declines.

Customer: “Run it again.”

Me: “You need to call your bank back.”

Rinse and repeat a few times. Yes, I try running it once or twice, but it declines every time.

Customer: “Can I just wire you the money?”

I page a manager to come over since that has to be a manager’s decision. A sales manager comes over. The sales managers are always reluctant to approve anything regarding parts or service because those aren’t their departments, and they don’t like approving wire transfers for their own department. Sure enough, the sales manager tells her that he will not authorize a wire transfer. After a few more rounds of “Call your bank” and “No, I don’t want to” with the manager, she calls her bank back and talks to them for a while. The sales manager sticks around.

Customer: “They say it’s your bank causing the issue.”

Sales Manager: “We use [Major Bank Brand #1]. What bank do you use?”

Customer: “[Major Bank Brand #2]. Your bank is the problem.”

Sales Manager: “People come in all the time and pay for stuff with cards from them, and we’ve never had this issue before.”

Customer: “Well, they said it’s your bank that’s causing the problem.”

I think it’s because she made me run her card a hundred times and it’s now locked, but I keep my mouth shut.

Sales Manager: “Do you have another card you can use? Because we can’t release the vehicle until it’s paid for.”

Customer: “No. I can’t just wire you the money?”

Sales Manager: “Unfortunately not. Do you know someone else with a card and you can wire them the money?”

The customer calls her dad, who gives us his card number over the phone. Thankfully, it works. I give her the keys and send her on her way. This whole transaction has taken over forty-five minutes.

Sales Manager: “I’ve never heard of major issues like this from [Major Bank Brand #2].”

Me: “I bank with [Major Bank Brand #2], and I’ve used my card here before. It’s probably because she made me run her card a million times without calling the bank.”

Sales Manager: “Yep, that’ll do it.”

This isn’t the first customer to not believe me when I say they need to call their bank, but she took the longest to admit defeat. I don’t understand why customers don’t believe me. We want your money; what do I gain by lying to you about something like this?