Carolellen607

The other night, my hubby and I went to eat at an idine place that we had been to a couple of times before. Rright after we sat down, the waitress informed us that the credit card machine was broken. We started to get up to leave because we were not going to pay cash at an idine place and we actually did not have much cash on us, anyway. The waitress said "just let me check something". She came right back and said that their "other machine was working". Now, my husband thought that they were trying to make us pay cash. I believed her, but I wondered if the other credit card machine was pre-Idine. I held on to the receipt. I have a feeling I will need it.

Points Scrounger

If you need to submit the receipt, I would clearly state in writing to iDine what the restaurant told you about their conflicting machines.

the_traveler

I too would keep the receipt. If the business did have 2 machines, how do they know which cards to run as idine and which to run as "regular" credit card payments? Me thinks that they do not want to participate!

JDiver

I think the odor was not just the bad fish.

We dined at one restaurant in Sacramento that took a full thirty minutes to run my credit card, giving all kinds of excuses - but they ultimately ran it and I received the iDine credit. It really felt they were trying to get us to give up and pay cash (I guess the CitiBank AAdvantage card made them flinch.)

No worries about our return, it wasn't that good - neither the food nor the service were.

KhalilSheikh

...but I ended up with a free meal.
The place had the Visa/MC/Amex placards all over the place. We ate, and when it came time to pay, they suddenly told me the CC machine was broken, and if it would be possible for me to pay in cash. Mile whore that I am, that was not going to happen - I told them they can magically run the card through now, or I'll come back later and charge the meal when the machine is back on line.
The place was packed, busy, so they gave us the meal for free.
I did end up going back a week later, and tipped for the second meal and included the amount to cover the meal I was comped the week before. Good people

2muchfun

Happened to me were they were very busy and waiter claimed not to know how to apply a gift cert (bought for the AA $15 min promotion ) prior to running the bill through his Visa machine. He ended up giving me a manual Visa slip as he pretended he would run the whole thing through the machine later.

I'm sure you guessed that the miles credit didn't happen and I had to fax in my manual Visa slip and my food bill to Delta RN. The food bill was showing the $15 discount. After initially declining to credit the miles and bringing up their rule of "no coupons/rebate/discount on IDine meals", Delta RN finally recognized that the gift cert was not a coupon, rebate or discount and ended up crediting the miles.

Sometime working hard for those miles...

rrgg

In your case, it sounds like the machine really was broken, no funny business.

Points Scrounger

Unless they mention a "broken machine" (written or oral notification) before taking an order, I feel the restaurant cannot expect everyone to pay in cash. That's the way legit malfunctions have been handled when I've run across them.

As for the OP's situation, where the waitress did tell them so (and recanted), in re-reading it, I'd give the server the benefit of the doubt ... barely.

scassett

The machine is broken is a fraud always. They can always run your card manually. It takes a couple of days for the transaction to clear, but that has nothing to do with idine picking up the transaction.

crabbing

it's not a "fraud always." there are lots of businesses nowadays that have become so reliant on the digital card reader that they don't have a clunky old imprinter. and there are lots of servers who really don't understand how the process of using credit cards works.

even if a restaurant has more than one credit card "machine," it's extremely doubtful they have more than one credit managing service. by "machine" the OP's server was probably refering to the cash register that server was using.

idine restaurants have no way of knowing a particular customer's card is registered, until after the card is run.

Points Scrounger

I believe that some participating restaurateurs make a mental link between those presenting affinity cards and RN members.

As for manually running cards, I had an RN joint (whose "system wasn't working") do this a while ago - their idea, not mine; I expected to have to claim the miles, but they came through on their own.

kings_29

You have to tell me who this was so I can avoid...us being Sacramento area folks and all. :-)

Carolellen607

Well, after all of this, the incident I reported in the first post of this thread, posted to my idine account on a timely basis. Maybe, my husband was right and they were trying to see if we would pay cash. We plan to go back since it is a neighborhood place and the food is good, and because I want to see what happens next time.

fwfdan

Or maybe the machine was broken?

I have been idine for 9 years - before I think even airlines participated (I think - it was just cash back then and it was not tied to your CC, you had to present your idine card) and I seriously doubt that servers notice Idine or probably even look very closely at the credit card to see that it is an affinity card (why do they care if you are Citibank AAdvantage?).

Points Scrounger

It's not so much the individual server would care. More a matter that an owner might, giving an instruction such as: "If anyone gives you a card with an airline logo on it, run it through our 'other' [non-RN] machine." Far-fetched, but I could see at least a few disillusioned owners considering it as a fantasy.