Having to hit eight bazillion buttons just to buy something!

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I was at a pharmacy last night to pick up two over the counter medicines for my wife.

That's all. Nothing else.

I'm paying with debit and after swiping my card, this is what I go through:

1) Do you have one of our super awesome reward cards? YES/NO

NO

2) Would you like to sign up for one of our super awesome reward cards? YES/NO

NO

3) Care to donate to the American Heart Association? $1 $2 $5 NO THANKS

NO THANKS

4) Would you like cash back? $20 $40 $60 OTHER NO

NO THANKS

5) TOTAL CORRECT? YES/NO

YES

6) PLEASE ENTER PIN

***

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASE.

I'm not against rewards cards (well ok, I sort of am but that's a topic for another thread) and I'm not against charitable giving but surely the cashier could have covered all that with me BEFORE I swiped the card?

I can't help but wonder if this nonsense is a passive aggressive effort to make me switch back to using cash.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm not against rewards cards (well ok, I sort of am but that's a topic for another thread) and I'm not against charitable giving but surely the cashier could have covered all that with me BEFORE I swiped the card?

I can't help but wonder if this nonsense is a passive aggressive effort to make me switch back to using cash.

My guess is that it was the POS swipe machine vendor upselling questionable functionality to an equipment buyer who has absolutely zero experience of what it's like to be a cashier in such a situation and who may or may not have gotten a kickback for going with the model that did more.

I agree with you that the reward card stuff would all be better served by the cashier, while the donation and cash back are actually better suited to being on the terminal.

[Bloodsoul]

It makes me smile to see an English/Spanish bilingual machine that doesn't say "No/No."

[HYHYBT]

If the store offers cash back (and people sure do complain if they wanted it and they're in a place where it's not possible!) why would it be better for the cashier to ask than for you to press the appropriate button, including "no," after swiping the card? Especially given that it's a function directly tied to your choice of payment method.

As for donations... people don't like being asked for donations in *any* form. But having the card machine ask is less obtrusive and leaves less room for a perception of their attempting to guilt you into giving. It's the equivalent of, with cash, placing a jar on the counter. Why would you prefer to be asked out loud?

Come to think of it, the only reason the rewards card doesn't belong on there is that some people pay with cash, and they, too, should be reminded to use the thing if they have one. If everybody paid by card, and if the rewards card is one that is swiped rather than scanned, it makes perfect sense there too.

One advantage of handling that through the card reader is that, unless their system is very poorly designed, you can go ahead and answer *while the cashier is ringing up your stuff.* Only the "is this total correct" and PIN have to come afterwards. That, occasionally, there is so little to ring up that they're done first does not change this, because so many others have more.

[Rageaholic]

I thought I was the only one who was sick of this. Simple things are made so much more complicated with all these other questions. It's like this with so many things too. When I get money out of the bank, I usually check my balance first. But then it asks me if I want another transaction. I hit yes and it makes me type in my pin number again. In the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty minor annoyance, but combined with all the other 20 questions you're asked for everything else, the annoyance factor adds up.

And on the topic of pharmacies, the one I go to is so understaffed that it often takes time just to get someone to talk to you. This was especially annoying when I just wanted to drop a prescription off. As usual, they only had one person handling the customers (and that includes the drive thru and phone customers). The woman ahead of me had some problem so I just asked if I could just drop the prescription to save everyone time. But nope, they needed some bullshit information so I had to wait.

[s_stabeler]

I thought I was the only one who was sick of this. Simple things are made so much more complicated with all these other questions. It's like this with so many things too. When I get money out of the bank, I usually check my balance first. But then it asks me if I want another transaction. I hit yes and it makes me type in my pin number again. In the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty minor annoyance, but combined with all the other 20 questions you're asked for everything else, the annoyance factor adds up.

that's not necessarily an error in design- that sounds like whoever initially wrote the programming got lazy when they wrote the loop that allows the thing to do another transaction, and wrote it to (functionally) loop back to the start of the program, rather than to the transactions screen. Still annoying, but not actually the fault of the bank

[Rageaholic]

^

Interesting. I was thinking it was just for account security (somehow).

[HYHYBT]

There's a good reason for that one, especially in machines where you just swipe your card rather than its being stored inside the ATM until you say you're finished. Someone who *doesn't* want another transaction might otherwise walk off when their one is complete, rather than waiting until they're asked if they want another. Requiring the PIN before each transaction helps ensure it's still you standing there.

All the ATM's I've used lately are less convenient/more secure on that score: they don't offer the possibility of a second transaction. You have to start all over with swiping your card and choosing a language. On the other hand, they also print the balance on every receipt, so unless you're worried you don't have enough to make the withdrawal, there's no need for a separate balance check.