I've been using pay point services -- you know, those little machines that let you pay for your purchase with your ATM card -- for half my life, but because each store uses a different setup, I mess up on occasion. Then the person behind the counter, getting paid minimum wage, assumes that I'm computer ignorant and tries to walk me through it. "Do you want cash back? Now press the green button." These machines need to be standardized the way computer keyboards are standardized. They might have extra buttons here and there, but the basic layout and functions should all be the same.-- arghblah, Sep 15 2000 I agree with this one. Either you swipe the card across upside down or right side up, or up or down front side facing you or facing away. Then the clerk always asks you to verify the price before it even shows up on the machine.-- TeaTotal, Nov 23 2001 I was going to submit this very idea 'til I found this one just now...
This should be applied to gas pumps and point-of-sale card readers, as well.-- RayfordSteele, Feb 15 2002 Should be standardised like this and also by the bank companies, all of them should be the same, like i went to kenya a couple weeks ago and every single atm wouldnt let me get money out cause i was with a different bank. Actually all the banks should merge into one big assed bank and make all transactions easier... maybe hsbc will take over the world one day...-- whaymes, Aug 26 2004 The readers are made by separate companies, and if they were made to act and function exactly alike, then the first company to make it would sue the others, and thus have a monopoly on the readers.
Plus, newer, improved readers couldn't be deployed to the market if they broke the standard, even if it was to introduce a newer, better standard...
However, it is still a good enough idea, so +-- MaineCoon, Aug 26 2004 I agree with Mainecoon (Meow :) but bunned you 'cause I like the cut of your jib. What occurs to me with on the whole 'standardisation' debate though is that the process is often responsible for locking in some really terrible design flaws - such as qwerty keyboards, designed to slow down the early typists so that the mechanism could keep up.-- Nontaigne, Aug 27 2004 Maybe it would work well to have it use the passive-radio data chips like the Speedpass does. That way you could just wave it over the sensor instead of trying to figure out which way to face the card, which direction to swipe, and how fast to swipe it. Plus you wouldn't break your card from excessive shopping. No...really...I've never had that happen....um.-- Voltmeter, Aug 27 2004 Standardising the swipe alone would relieve most of my grief with the stupid things. The rest of it can vary. Hard plastic buttons are best for debit because it's easier to punch in your PIN. However, a touchscreen is better for credit because you can sign the screen. I also don't mind there being two basic types of scanners: swipe and plunge/pull. I just want them to all agree on a card orientation and direction, even if the speed varies. A repeat swipe is much less annoying than a reorient.-- Souse Mouse, Dec 12 2005 I'm confused: the poster seems to have become aggrieved because their inability to read simple instructions and push corresponding buttons has lead someone to conclude that they are computer illiterate. This seems a reasonable conclusion to me. Could be one of those times where the old "more haste, less speed" adage applies.-- DocBrown, Dec 12 2005 I cant stand when the clerk assumes that I dont know what I am doing.
One thing that I notice is that when you swipe the bank card you are usually prompted for your PIN number before it asks you for credit or debit. The problem that comes into play is that every store has a different rule for using the "credit" portion of your card. Some require that you hit "cancel" while others require you to tell the cashier that you want to use credit.-- Jscotty, Dec 12 2005 random, halfbakery