I am not the interac tech team!!!!!!!!!!!

[KK7]

I do say I ALWAYS have cash an hand just in case. Yes love my debit but you never know. It is called depending on electronics only I like to be able to solve my own fate same as my world won't come to an end if I can't text, use my computer or tv.

[AmandaPantz]

Hey-a AmandaPantz, don't you know that cashiers have all the power - like Superman?!?

Debit/Credit outage = Cashier Kryptonite!!! :D

[Shwa Girl]

I will also say this - yes, once bartering became a thing of the past, cash was the norm for payment. But now, I'd say the norm is paying by debit or credit. I know that many people do not carry cash with them, for a multitude of reasons - it's sort of a given that debit will be accepted, save for at local mom and pop shops. It is a reality check to be told you can't use debit or credit, simply because many people don't have a backup for such a scenario, through no fault of their own.

Hey, Aimz. You can still barter. Like at a garden centre when they are closing and some plants look a little ragged. I have seen people barter at Sears for appliances with the teeniest scratch or a reduction if they buy multiple appliances at once: fridge + stove + dishwasher.

Or even barter on cars -- they won't give the car for free, but the time spent "haggling" with the dealership can knock off some of the stupid add ons they want for the price of the car (never pay predelivery inspection cost -- this is their job to inspect the cars coming into their dealership and we should not have to pay for it.)

[Aimz]

Ha, point taken Shwa Girl. When I said barter, I meant exchanging one good for another and not involving money at all; but definitely, you can still haggle to bring the price down, like you mentioned, at car dealerships and the like.

[Darth Penguin]

Hey-a AmandaPantz, don't you know that cashiers have all the power - like Superman?!?

Poof! they all study at Hogwarts...Fixous computerous! swish and flick...

[Chantel]

What took the cake though, was the Fortinos cashier telling me that "machines are down globally. It was on the news - debit and credit is not working anywhere."

"Globally" can mean across their setup, or for all stores in their chain on a particular network, as far as I'm aware. It may have just been slang of sorts that got lost in translation.

[iloveagreatdeal]

The cashier probably misunderstood the global thing... Loblaws uses "global payments" for their debit and credit payments and the last few issues have had to do with a global payments issue rather than a loblaws issue... Super annoying! I have worked through all of the technical difficulties the last few months and believe me it is a nightmare for both customers and staff!

[smileyKT]

i had a dream about this! LOL

the machine wouldn't accept my mastercard and between my dad/brother/and I, we only had $25 in cash on us but we had a $40 order... tried looking in the car for some GCs but they were all at home... so in the end we had to not buy some things Yes I know, pretty vivid for a dream/nightmare!