One more phrase from retail hell

I haven't had to deal with this one in a while....but I always enjoyed the inanity of it.

When referring to your debit machine and wondering which way to swipe their card - "Why do they have to make every machine different?"

Er.....what?!!??

Actually...let me just run a statistical analysis, based on the number of choices, assuming equal distribution of all possible options. ....ok done.... I would say only about 50% of debit machines are different than this one you're trying to use here. You either swipe with the black stripe facing towards the body of the machine, or away from it. 2 choices. Unless this is the second time you've ever used your card, I'm guessing they haven't all been different.

Ok...there are some machines that you swipe across the top, but most you swipe down the side. This isn't really an important distinction, it's pretty obvious where to swipe your card. Unless you were a customer at my old Safeway. Even though the swipey gap was clearly on the side there was a tiny gap between the machine and its mounting bracket that people would frequently try to run their card through. This was despite the fact that the gap was narrower than a card, and despite the fact that forcing their card through the gap actually resulted in the plugs to the back of the machine being disconnected. Yep, despite this, I'd have to reconnect my till's debit machine a couple times per week.

So yeah....they're not "all different".... it would be nice if they put a reader on both sides so the direction you faced the card would be irrelevant, but they don't. And even if they did....there are the people who insist on swiping their cards with the black stripe up in their hand instead of down in the groove in the machine. Maybe you should talk to your bank about putting the magnetic strip on all 8 possible sides of your card, instead of whinging about the machine.