It seems like they are very badly made. Why wouldn’t these be standardized by now? Like, a lot of them have the chip reading slot but it is taped over and you must swipe? I also feel like cashiers are constantly complaining about them not cooperating. Why do they operate so poorly?
In: Technology
A lot of it has to do with upgrading hardware. Why you often see the chip reader taped over is that the hardware manufacturer makes one model for the whole world. It’s used everywhere outside the US, so having a US specific model is a bit silly. There’s only a handful of companies that make the hardware. Start watching the brands of the terminals, and there’s only about a half dozen or so big players.
BUT…. the software is a different story. There’s a bunch of different companies that make the software for those terminals, and it tends to be customized for the specific business. An auto parts store has to deal with inventory in a bunch of different locations. Fast food software has to take orders, print them up in the kitchen. Sit down restaurants add tips, reservations and which tables are free. Gas stations have to deal with pumping gas. There’s several different pieces of software for each of these businesses.
The software has to also be able to process the chip credit cards. If it’s not setup for using the chip credit cards, it won’t do anything, which is why you often see them taped over, and the display doesn’t tell you to insert your chip card. The hardware is able to do it, but the software isn’t. They could probably buy an upgrade that adds that feature, but that costs money. So they just tape over the terminal so people don’t try to use it.
Now, about some of them being flaky, I don’t know, that’s not my area of expertise.
The question you should really be asking yourself, is why are you still swiping a magnetic stripe on the side of a credit card in supposedly the greatest and most technologically advanced country in the world?
When not only has the rest of the developed world proceeded to chip and pin, but to beyond… with swiping of cards and even mobile phones…
There are regulations that should help with standards, but the US is slow to adopt them. Canada and Europe adopted chip cards 5+ years ago.
EU is all chip/PIN based–no signature. Works great.
It is mostly a problem because there are a lot of different standards, and the people making the products are slow to update their products, even as regulations expect them to move quickly. Also, once stores have a system that satisfies the requirements, they may be hesitant to upgrade their systems to function better.
Most TVs only take a set of specific inputs, like HDMI, composite, etc. If a new type of input comes out, then old TVs will still work fine and most people will wait to upgrade until their current TV needs replacing for some reason. Old inputs are slowly phased out over time as newer TVs don’t have them.
However, the **EMV** compliance law required most storefronts to switch their payment acceptance system on a strict schedule. Many of the newer POS systems didn’t really have all the kinks worked out at the time, and the chip reading system was still advancing. Contactless payment was also in the works. So stores were forced to adopt a new system with its technology rushing to keep up with the changes in the law. Once they had a system that was compliant with the new law, they decided not to spend more money to update again later. Now, newer POS have everything functioning properly, but the old versions that were rushed and have errors are still largely in use because they don’t -need- to be replaced yet. Stores are unwilling to invest the money to replace them again because of how recently they were replaced already.
From my own experience working on retail/hospitality the main differences come with using swiping machines from different banks. And the main reason why they work poorly is almost always due to the GPRS signal being bad. Some of them also have a tendency of freezing/turning off suddenly… It is quite easy for instance on a busy shift in a bar or restaurant to knock them and for then to fall to the floor, so this might contribute to them not working all that well
The units themselves are purchased from the processor by the company. The company can dictate exactly what features or applications the terminals use. That accounts for some of it. As for the chip vs no chip thing in the USA different types of businesses have different deadlines that they have to comply with chips by. You’ll notice that all gas stations use them now, but not all restaurants yet.
I’ve never once said the terminal was acting up and been being honest about it. The ones I’ve used don’t tell me that your card was rejected for low funds, so I save the embarrassment by saying “it’s a bit fussy sometimes, have you got another one you could try?” Except for AmEx, I had two years of a system that hated AmEx cards with a passion.
There’s a lot of information here, but some of it comes down to the fact that there are different companies that make credit card machines and different companies that make software for those machines. You may see a credit card machine in one location that seems identical to another, but the software inside may be different based on the company licensing the device.
Your retailers have a contract with their bank for their device. Now, depending on how much they want to spend for their processing, they will get a more or less advanced version of the hardware/software combination.
Source: have worked in the credit card industry for 20 years.
If the retailer has an old device or a bad phone system or bad cabling, they could have “flaky” issues.
Thanks for this question, sometimes the chip reader isn’t taped, so I have to ask every new store.
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