Originally Posted by
Hb1500
If plastic bag, swiping up, don't work but vending machine does, try facing the magnetic strip the wrong direction. I've had this issue on a SM vgc and the 150yo yellow vest took my card out of my hand, said I had to swipe it backwards on these machines, swiped it, looked at It, and then got that angry Anti Money Laundering Task Force face that they get. So I said thanks and left with my card. Don't let people touch your cards.
I'm with you on the not touching cards bit, but I can also confirm that some of the POSkeyboards are installed "backwards," i.e., you have to swipe with stripe facing right. There's one particular terminal at my WM CS desk that's like this.