PIN-Headed, Part 5

(At the store where I work, a few of the PIN-pad readers have broken and won’t show the asterisks when debit-users type in their PINs, but the PINs still go through. I have just explained this to a woman when this happens.)

Me: “Will that be debit or credit?”

Customer: “Debit.”

Me: “All right. Just go ahead and type in your PIN; the symbols won’t show up, but it is going through.”

(The customer starts typing in her PIN and then gets a very confused look on her face.)

Customer: “It’s not working.”

Me: “Oh, no, the symbols just aren’t showing it up, but it is working. I’ll just erase what you typed and—”

(The customer proceeds to cancel the transaction, so I run it through again.)

Me: “Okay, just go ahead and enter your PIN normally.”

(The customer starts typing in her PIN again and then starts to look upset again.)

Customer: “It’s not working!”

(I explained it to her again and restarted the process. This time, she picked up the pen used for signatures, and actually started trying to draw the numbers on the screen. Sadly, that wasn’t even the worst transaction of the day.)

Related:
PIN-Headed, Part 4
PIN-Headed, Part 3
PIN-Headed, Part 2