The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[Ant]

In my experience, if a chip can't be detected, there are capabilities for it to be put through manually using 'the old-fashioned' way. That includes on the Self Service tills. Whether it's actually done or not I'm not sure.

International cards regularly don't have chips so automatically revert to signatures.

[simonipswich]

What I love is when someone hands us the card to put into the terminal (customers can't do it as it's a hands free terminal), we check the card and when it says MR X XXXXXX and the person giving us the card is female (or the other way round) and we have to say we need the cardholder to complete the transaction because clearly this is not your card! Then they moan like anything, until we point out that it's legally a fraudulent transaction!

[lukey]

In my experience, if a chip can't be detected, there are capabilities for it to be put through manually using 'the old-fashioned' way. That includes on the Self Service tills. Whether it's actually done or not I'm not sure.

International cards regularly don't have chips so automatically revert to signatures.

My card decided to crap out once while using a self-service in M&S. They were able to fallback on signature authorisation even though a chip was detected.

[Alexia]

This behavior has been the case for ages, Alexia. I don't believe JS Self-Services have ever automatically launched the payment screen - to my knowledge the only ones who ever have are Tesco.

I give up.

[gottago]

I've seen the odd self service till with a stylus and small screen, presumably to scribble a signature for cards without a chip. But then how exactly would that work as it's not like the till can check the signature on the card!

[WillPS]

This behavior has been the case for ages, Alexia. I don't believe JS Self-Services have ever automatically launched the payment screen - to my knowledge the only ones who ever have are Tesco.

I give up.

Oh good.

I've seen the odd self service till with a stylus and small screen, presumably to scribble a signature for cards without a chip. But then how exactly would that work as it's not like the till can check the signature on the card!

They're not used at all in the UK. The only new install UK setups which have them are Asdas, since they share hardware sourcing with their international parent. If signature authorisation is required (either because the card was swiped or because it is a Chip & Sign card) the self service checkout goes in to red light/"assistance is on its way" mode and prints out a slip of paper - which the attendant has to check before putting it in the coupon slot and accepting or declining the transaction (through the blue screens which you see when they're authorising alcohol etc.).

In the States (where Chip and PIN is not supported, on credit cards at least) the supermarket will have a "floor limit" which their bank will allow them to go up to without doing proper card checks (such a setup is uncommon over here, but many train operating companies have one). Below that, the system may or may not ask for a signature but will continue with authorisation either way; above it, a red light is given and a cashier has to come over, check what's on the little screen matches what's on the back of your card (to some extent anyway) and authorises/declines it. At that point the signature is stored digitally.

[Pete]

Interesting that the asda sig pad is useless. You'd think Walwart would save £8 or so a till if they just had it left off their UK ones. They need custom software after all and perhaps even custom coin sorter / note readers or are they done in software. Given they need to *add* the pin pad for the UK terminals you'd think they'd take the sig pad off whilst they're at it.

Back before chip and pin at WHSmith there used to be a floor limit of either £25 or £50 where we could override an authorisation request (or more often, when it couldn't contact the merchant bank) with a generic code. I've never heard of such a thing since then. Certainly chip and pin auth requests even as low as £7 have had to go through transax and other such tedious things.

[WillPS]

Interesting that the asda sig pad is useless. You'd think Walwart would save £8 or so a till if they just had it left off their UK ones. They need custom software after all and perhaps even custom coin sorter / note readers or are they done in software. Given they need to *add* the pin pad for the UK terminals you'd think they'd take the sig pad off whilst they're at it.

Back before chip and pin at WHSmith there used to be a floor limit of either £25 or £50 where we could override an authorisation request (or more often, when it couldn't contact the merchant bank) with a generic code. I've never heard of such a thing since then. Certainly chip and pin auth requests even as low as £7 have had to go through transax and other such tedious things.

The note reader is definitely physically different in the states as it is only as wide as their monopoly-style bills. I'd have thought the carousel type thing that identifies coins would have to be physically different for different coin sets but I'm not sure.

Until v5 Sainsburys self service tills had them; I can't imagine for any reason other than it was uneconomic to remove them. I wonder if they're still there but obscured by a piece of bezel? Wouldn't surprise me.

Floor limits are largely a thing of the past in the UK (although there is now an arrangement where banks guarantee contactless stuff I think).

[Pete]

Oh worth noting Tesco have just put Scan as you Shop into Riverside Extra. Interstingly only two banks of the scanners and four tills rather than four and eight as in Kingsway Extra. Yes it's a larger store but I wonder if they've realised they simply have far too many in there and are taking up valuable space with too many tills.

Still the issue where the tills look identical to the normal self-scan though. One interesting thing is a table and two comfy chairs in the area. Wonder if it's purely to give the attendant somewhere to sit or whether its for showing customers how to use it out of the way of the main bank of terminals.

[Martin Phillp]

I've done the mag stripe signature once in Sainsburys, however when they haven't been able to read my chip is to print a receipt and take me to Customer Services or the kiosk to pay.

[scottishtv]

This behavior has been the case for ages, Alexia. I don't believe JS Self-Services have ever automatically launched the payment screen - to my knowledge the only ones who ever have are Tesco.

I give up.

I don't. I've stated that it took me a while to get used to this alteration. The alteration went from inserting card without having to press "card payment", to after the change where the till now insists that you do. I used to just shove the card in every time and it just worked. The confirmation that a change to 'Press Card' was brought in was confirmed by Philip Cobbold in this post.