At the end of every day we close out our charge machine and Eleavon, our processor, then sends the money to our bank. The settling process is very easy - you punch in "settle" - it gives you the amount in the machine; you say "yes" for correct and it's on its way. It's the simplest system we've used in thirty years and we have had it for about five years with not a single problem. Until last night. The machine gave me the total as usual - and when I hit "yes" it hesitated, then said it did not agree. I recounted the slips - the total was correct. I tried it again a few times as I'm optimistic that way but always got the same message. I then called their customer service line, anticipating an easy resolution. An hour and a half - an hour and a half - later, I hung up, after talking my way through various increasingly high level supervisors who could not tell me why they had no record of a $300 charge on their end. I pointed out (many times) that they had given me an authorization number for that amount and that I had the slip to prove it. At one point someone said "an authorization number is not a guarentee that a sale will go through." And sadly, at that point, I did use just one curse word to inquire why the F we bothered to authorize anything in that case. At the end of the hour and a half they were admitting that this "virtually never" happens and agreeing to credit us the amount we were due. And I left the store with a little less sanity than I had when I entered that morning. Though I don't think I'm permanently damaged, it was a truly strange experience !!
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