Originally Posted by
alexmt
It should be a simple matter of you knowing what it means and pointing out the chip slot, tell her to insert and to leave until the terminal prompts her to remove the card. If acceptance is still refused, call 1-800-VISA-911 for Visa or 1-800-MASTERC for MasterCard and tell them simply that your card is being refused at a merchant that displays the Visa/MasterCard logo. Do it WHILE there and while they're not busy so people behind you don't get too mad.
Reclusive - where on earth are you shopping you're seeing basically a chip transaction a week in the US? I live here and do most of my shopping with chip cards and I've never, once, done a chip transaction in the US. I think of chip transactions as something very, very rare at this point. The only place with EMV-enabled terminals around here is Walmart but they're only enabled on the PIN pad, if you actually insert the card it just throws an error (swiping works fine). Nowhere else has chip slots that react at all.
These days, its often a independent restaurant, which is annoying as it means I have to go to the counter and I enter my PIN. A few Walmarts I've sucessfully done a chip transaction, Davenport Florida comes to mind. A Pay at pump at a BP station in New York City I go to is also EMV enabled. A couple of independent shops. Oh and some of the Century 21st terminals in New York City have EMV turned on (Only some though). Some drug store in NYC that I can't remember name of.
Some restaurants the standard for dealing with EMV cards is to do a PIN-Bypass (Or if its chip and signature then the same thing) and then get the customer to sign but UK/Canadian/Kiwi cards don't allow PIN-Bypass. Keep an eye on your receipts as you may find it has been done via EMV, it should have the AID or ICC written on it.