In this case, based on other commenters, there does seem to be something of a real outage (obviously not for the whole US though). However, as someone who has worked this style of job, I can describe why these fake outages happen:
While 95% of people are understanding about this, some small portion of customers are unable to separate the store they're shopping at from the minimum wage employee they're talking to. If you say "our system is down" they'll berate you for this mistake and act like it's your fault despite that fact that you're a cashier that makes $10/hour and has no control at all over CC payments other than pressing a button on the register.
It's not worth dealing with this so you lie about it being somebody else's fault: your internet is down or it's the card processor's fault.
Yeah that’s great point. That’s probably a very likely reason. It’s a good way to preempt any customers possibly getting angry at the employees or the business. Defer the blame to a tier above your control. I wonder if there is a term for that? I could see the same phenomenon happening other scenarios.
It’s called an agent of limited authority. The cashier as an agent of the principal-merchant has limited authority to process transactions at the point of service, nothing more. When problems arise beyond that authority, they defer blame to the “tier above.” It’s a useful negotiating tactic.
Comments
In this case, based on other commenters, there does seem to be something of a real outage (obviously not for the whole US though). However, as someone who has worked this style of job, I can describe why these fake outages happen:
While 95% of people are understanding about this, some small portion of customers are unable to separate the store they're shopping at from the minimum wage employee they're talking to. If you say "our system is down" they'll berate you for this mistake and act like it's your fault despite that fact that you're a cashier that makes $10/hour and has no control at all over CC payments other than pressing a button on the register.
It's not worth dealing with this so you lie about it being somebody else's fault: your internet is down or it's the card processor's fault.
Yeah that’s great point. That’s probably a very likely reason. It’s a good way to preempt any customers possibly getting angry at the employees or the business. Defer the blame to a tier above your control. I wonder if there is a term for that? I could see the same phenomenon happening other scenarios.
It’s called an agent of limited authority. The cashier as an agent of the principal-merchant has limited authority to process transactions at the point of service, nothing more. When problems arise beyond that authority, they defer blame to the “tier above.” It’s a useful negotiating tactic.