Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
The point is made about the table side terminals preventing this. I believe such should be required in the USA or at least the practice of having the waiter disappear into some back room be banned.
Those portable terminals bring new risks. In Europe some of them have already been hacked, so a theif can steal money remotely, without even being in sight. There's also the extra risk of theft, loss, and accidental damage of the handheld devices themselves.
Plus they don't protect you from skimming in the first place. A rogue read head can still be installed in a handheld as well. In fact a whole fake handheld could entirely replace the restaurant's handheld. So they only
reduce security, not increase it.
From a business standpoint, the US embraces the concept of a free market. Stakeholders get the freedom to decide what best protects their own interests -- this way the party with accountability is also the same who has responsibility. If the risk of back-room card scanning exceeds the costs of portable terminals and the extra risks they bring, then there's naturally a market for handhelds, in which case statutes are useless. And if the stakeholders find otherwise, then the statutes are still useless anyway because they would increase cost and damage business (stepping over a dollar to save a nickel).
In the end, the portable device fails from the security viewpoint and from the business standpoint.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
......customers should be permitted to watch the transaction being performed by the cashier at their request.
This is already the case as there is a business interest to locate the terminals where staff can conveniently access them. Customers are generally kept out of the kitchen, but you won't find the pos terminals in the kitchen anyway because it's not the cooks that use them.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
Has anybody here ever asked to go with the waiter to the back room or wherever and been turned down?
Just wondering.
I've never made such a silly request, because I'm not a stakeholder. That is, I'm not the one who is liable for damages under regulation E. The restaurant owner and banks are the stakeholders in this case.. you're just the steak-holder
