Joie a la Kafka

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 !!