When a vendor completing a point of sale with a credit card reading device is presented with an 'authorization failed' message, does the message carry a subtext (ie side message) containing a descriptive rationale behind the failure? I seem to be getting a lot of "invalid security code" messages as a generic credit card failure.


(just now I couldn't tell if I was on top of/in/above the emoticon above. The cursor was in some forsaken nether-realm. Is nether-realm hyphenated?)

Also, I only used the emoticon (eh-MAH-tee-con?) above because I was curious about the implementation. I don't ever use MTcons (because mt is such a hip abbreviation of emot, and they are actually a CON), really. I swear. I also don't forward chain-letters. Anyways, I was wondering what each one meant, and then I realized that if I moused over them, my STATUS BAR might display some useful information. I got 'mad' and 'sad' and 'angel', and then when I came across the one aforementioned, the description was ':/'. All I can think of is that someone requested it, the developers had no idea what it meant, and they were forced to put it in anyways. Either that or it means something sexualllly suggestive, maybe like 'horny' or something

As for credit card rejection messages, I think that's it: just rejected. I don't think there is any type of explanation, as this might be private information (do you want a company to know that you haven't paid your bill in 20 years? or that you went over your limit? or that you need to confirm an order?).


This rich edit box isn't very good. But then again, none of the others are either.

:/ (forward slash) or :\ (backslash) usually means something along the lines of "undecided". In this case, according to the alternative text, it means "unsure". It is supposed to look like two eyes (sideways) with a mouth that's up on one side and down on the other. I guess some people look like that when they aren't sure about something.

Emoticon is a portmanteau of emote + icon. An emote (from emotion) is a type of exclamation or anything suggestive of emotion, such as a smiley or a series of exclamation points. Emoticon is usually pronounced like Ē`mō`t`con (IPA: /iːməʊtəkɒn/), with a long e and first o. The second o is soft. The i is ə (the sound the e in roses makes) -- sort of a softer "uh" sound.

Bah, I guess this forum doesn't support UTF-8.

I work in retail and do some cashiering in addition to sales and stocking. Here are some errors that come up that I recall:

-call card issuer for approval (usually means a change spending habit and they want to verify the customer)
-invalid card (usually just computer error reading the card)
-expired
-"decline" (no further explanation)
-"decline sale and keep card" (stolen credit card)
-"insufficent funds" (only on atm/check-card)

in general, declined sales on a credit card usually return a specific error. Some registers only report success for failure, some report reasons. For privacy reasons, and you save you embarracement from other customers, cashiers will almost always say "all it says is decline."

Checks, on the other hand... If your check is declined, it's because you passed a bad one somewhere and your account is currently blacklisted by the store's check clearing network. There is no real-time look-up of your account balance when the scanner reads the check, contrary to what some people believe.

Philip
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Limecat is not pleased.

Hi Philip,

I Like the cat with the melon hat LOL

John
Significant Media

Hehe. Limecat is a popular Internet meme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limecat

I had a hard time choosing between Limecat and the Clockspider

http://www.randomimage.us/index.php?img_id=3978

Philip
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Limecat is not pleased.

Don't forget pancake bunny. =)

Cheers,

Alex
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Gossamer Threads Inc.