BBC Moneybox - contactless hiccups

[Roland Perry]

In article <20130521170923.GD20185 at snowy.squish.net>, Jon Ribbens 
<jon+ukcrypto at unequivocal.co.uk> writes
>> (1) I agree that charging the customer twice **for the same
>> transaction** is an application flaw in the POS device - and it smacks
>> of a major error in POS device certification (may also be a breach of
>> the Merchant Agreement if it really happened - but that it did happen
>> might be an urban myth).
>
>I've personally seen a POS machine print me a "declined" receipt
>for a transaction that was actually approved.

And last week I had a Debit Card transaction "declined", when what they 
meant was "we can't seem to contact your bank at the moment, so hard 
luck".

But I suppose they'd say it was the POS machine declining to take the 
card, not the bank declining to authorise the funds. They really should 
have two different expressions for that.
-- 
Roland Perry