Just frustrated with chip & PIN at the moment and need to RANT! So as well know there are pros and cons to this 'new' technology. In my opinion, the pros far outweigh the cons (harder to duplicate and compromise than magnetic strip being the best pro) but I am currently more frustrated about the con of the chips malfunctioning far more often than the strip ever does. Right now the chip on my MC doesn't work, and of course with the long weekend it is taking longer for my new card to come in... this doesn't mean I don't still have purchases that need to be made! Today I went to Shell for gas and decided to go pay inside as their pumps (at least in my city) don't have the Tap technology yet. I don't regularly go to Shell but assumed that they had the tap inside as every other gas station I have been to has it. Maybe this was all my fault because I didn't check inside before pumping gas, but really, gas stations were some of the first businesses to install the paypass machines according to my recollections. Well, I went ahead and pumped $50 and went inside to pay, and there was no way for me to pay :mad: After two tries with the chip it instructs to swipe, but then when you remove the card it says 'please wait' and when it comes back it says insert/swipe. So I swipe anyway and it instructs to use the chip. The cashier said that if she swipes my card on her till it will just instruct to use chip. She kept wiping off my chip and I told her that it won't work and hasn't worked anywhere for over a week now. She just stood there and said "I have no other solution for you". I didn't have anything else with me and obviously couldn't get in my car to go and get another form of payment as then I would have been breaking the law and 'stealing gas'. Yes, chip & PIN technology is great, but I believe businesses need to either a) have tap technology or b) have the ability for the card to be swiped after a few tries if the chip doesn't work. I was so frustrated that I didn't have any other option and needed to contact somebody else to come and pay for the gas. I wasn't really mean to the cashier, despite my frustration as I realize it wasn't her fault and in that situation I wouldn't know what to do either. I simply said "you guys need to have another option for payment when chips malfunction".
There was a bank machine in the gas station but I just assumed it wouldn't have worked if the chip wasn't working... now that I think of it, it may have as cards were still inserted in bank machines even before chips existed. Regardless, I would not have liked having to pay the cash advance fees just because the gas station didn't have another solution.