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> Every restaurant does this. I think you'll find that it varies throughout the world. In Sweden, I've been to a couple of restaurants when their payment netwo
by moogly 5y ago
> Every restaurant does this.
I think you'll find that it varies throughout the world. In Sweden, I've been to a couple of restaurants when their payment network was down and had it not been for them also being hooked up to the Swish app (which is connected to a separate payment network), no one during those lunch seatings would've been able to pay at all (both of these were cash-less restaurants, which are super common in Sweden, where almost no one uses cash anymore, sadly*).
Just to give you a picture of how seldom we come into contact with cash here: The Swedish Central Bank redesigned the artwork and form factor of the hard currency here, I think even introduced some new denominations, back in 2015. 6 years later, I still haven't seen or touched one of these new bills or coins out in the wild. That's how much people use cash here.
*: I may lament it, but I'm the same. It's so damn convenient, but I am of course aware of the drawbacks.
- wrycoder 5y agoCouldn't they still just write down the transaction details, get a signature, and process later?
- moogly 5y agoThat's a traditional payment system where you hand off your card to some waiter who then sketchily takes off with it and does who-knows-what with it and returns it along with your receipt. The modern ones have these portable card terminals that are chip+PIN only. These customers would have to come back another day to pay.
- wrycoder 5y agoMy peer comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27722910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27722910
- Scoundreller 5y ago> I've been to a couple of restaurants when their payment network was down Visa and MasterCard EMV have offline transactions baked in. Your bank could disable it on your card, but then you wouldn’t be able to buy a beer on an airplane. I’m not sure if all terminals can be configured this way (or more likely, if anyone nearby would know how), but the functionality is baked into the visa and MasterCard standards. But it seems like there’s only a few manufacturers of payment terminals out there and they just interface to the POS. Here’s a popular US/Canadian restaurant software with instructions on how to put your payment terminal into store-and-forward mode when network/wifi goes down: https://www.touchbistro.com/help-articles/offline-payments-ipp320-version-11/ https://www.touchbistro.com/help-articles/offline-payments-i...
- Scoundreller 5y agoOne interesting point: "If processing is offline, the approval process will take longer. It may take up to 1-2 minutes before the card is approved." I guess the cryptographic verification is slow, at least for that particular implementation.