~~
I had to collect some more fuel for the stove. So I went early. The place was deserted except for one member of staff. Checkout screen, disposable gloves and mask? Okay. Very low risk. That is, until I needed my reading glasses to use the manual, pin code entry, card payment device. Of course my glasses steamed up because I was wearing a regulation, certified, surgical mask.
The "wireless" card payment system didn't register my card despite it being a brand new payment machine. I know this because the battered old, manual only machine has been replaced since I last visited.
So now I am a super-spreader for want of the bank's idiot, 21st century machine recognising a £20 "wireless" [contactless] payment for firewood. Right in the middle of a global pandemic. There is no excuse. Because the shadow of the nearest mobile phone mast literally falls over the business like a huge gnomon. I'm assuming these machines don't use a landline but what do I know?
While deranged [and retarded] cynics rave about phone masts actually causing the virus. It is the banks who are adding their very own dollop of "dicing with danger." To every payment transaction requiring contact with their filthy keys.
Let's call it a "Filthy Lucre" machine and be done with it! Were I a gambler, I might be willing to bet that the banks routinely demand a token number of manual pin code entries to avoid minor fraud. Let's face it. Anyone who has stolen a debit card and has obtained the pin code would head straight to the nearest firewood outlet. Desperate to "burn" some of their ill-gotten gains! 😷
~~
No comments:
Post a Comment