My Other Self

This was kind of new to me. I don't shop at Fry's often as it is but I was close to one today and needed an auxiliary cable for my car, so I stopped in. Besides the fact that there are 4 separate spots for the cables (WTF? ), I wanted to pay with my debit card. When I told the cashier I wanted to use debit, she said the manager had to override the transaction since all purchases under $75 now must be approved. It was a one item purchase but I had to wait around for a solid 2 or 3 minutes waiting for the manager who was overriding other cash registers. I was kind of shocked.

What kind of practice is this? Are there other stores now that make you have a minimum transaction amount? I'm aware some restaurants or gas stations require you to make something like a $3 or $4 purchase without charging for the debit function but this is semi-major retailer so I was surprised.

vdc530

Thank you for sharing your life experience. I feel like a better person now.

My Other Self

So says the troll whose only posts since 2008 have been about grabbing out of print media before they skyrocket in price.

EdTheRipper

I wonder if this has to do with the prevention of identity theft. I've seen a pretty big wave of that over these past few months.

RonG617

What is the purpose of having you stand around and wait for a manager who will barely glance at you to over ride the system? It is not like they did anything special to make sure you were the person on the card.

vdc530

No, really, I can't explain it, but I feel an inner calm.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

You sure seemed to be the opposite of that in the High Fidelity thread.

Groucho

Just use the debit card as a credit card I guess.

My Other Self

It takes my bank close to 5 days to process charges like that so if debit is there, it's what I use.

I'm not understanding Fry's rationale of requiring a minimum purchase to have an override. It just doesn't make any sense. Especially if it's debit -- there has to be more fraud with credit card purchases than someone using a pin so it seems like it's moot.

Just seems like it's more trouble than it's worth for them. The manager was running around register to register overriding transactions. Maybe they were just looking for something for her to do.

Groucho

Probably a corporate decision. "Debit transaction fees are costing us $______________!" and then they came up with a "solution" that's a huge PITA for the managers in the trenches.

Troy Stiffler

I think that Fry's is a target for people to screw with. And they operate on small margins. And they don't get the best managers in and cannot trust them. The people in charge of such things get frustrated and start demanding these stupid security measures.

They started doing this at a local KFC. I go through the drive thru. And they hand me a clipboard and receipt to sign. I do drive thrus a lot. And I understand how credit cards work, head-to-toes (I manage my company's merchant account). This helps NOTHING. What it KFC going to do if I call in a chargeback? Do they think they're going to file a counter-claim? Over $7?

In Fry's specific case, it reminds me of car alarms. Remember when people used to pay attention to them? And then there were five-or-so years where everyone's fucking alarm went off? So people started caring. A manager who has to walk over and override every transaction isn't really going to pay attention, even if the customer/cashier is breaking the rules.

Anyways, it all comes down to out-of-touch management and executive control.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

There was probably a rash of people doing charge backs that they were losing since they didn't have proof on who used the card, so now they're collecting signatures. Usually things like this don't just come out of the blue.