Chip and pin....and chaos

So, the days of 'chip and pin' being
obligatory are almost upon us. On the 14th of February anyone making a purchase in a store with a little piece of plastic will be required to enter their PIN number, the option to sign for the sale will no longer exist.

I see chaos on the horizon! The run up and advertising for this has been quite significant but still a vast number of the customers I come into contact with at the point of sale are sadly lacking in the appropriate digits,

furthermore many of them just won't be persuaded, that by Tuesday they will have no other option. Somehow they seem convinced that if they shout loudly enough, or threaten us with the loss of a sale there will be some way for us to oblige them and allow for a signature.

There is not! The EPOS systems that retail uses will have no override function come Tuesday, even with every wish in the world to be able to help, we can't! This doesn't refer to just the retailer I work for but all outlets with modern EPOS systems. It is not necessarily the retailers choice, it is governed by the banks, we have no more choice than the customer.

Things could get fraught, I see a few confrontations on the horizon.

The whole issue rather confounds me, the reasoning behind it is simple, it is more secure and figures published recently certainly suggest that fraud at the point of sale has dropped dramatically....they also prove though that internet purchase fraud has increased in direct line with the drop in stores.

The reasoning behind the switch (no pun intended) from signing to chip and pin doesn't it seem take into account the horrendous level of 'human error'. In the first instance, probably something approaching 40% of the customers I serve don't actually know their PIN number and of those that do, despite the warnings, when asked to enter it, they can't recall it and remove a little piece of crumpled paper from the same wallet as the card was stored in.......containing the very number needed to access use for the card! Worse still, you don't want to know how many, rather than just input the digits when asked, look at me in all ignorance and innocence and tell me the number!!!

Very secure....that's going to reduce fraud no end!