Payment Accepted

Okay, now, this is just getting to be ridiculous.

It starts out like a bad joke. So, an American walks into a French store...followed with the inevitable punchline of "Your card doesn't work."

Which is nonsense. It works just fine. It's just that the cashiers happen to be French, and, keeping with French tradition, assume that every customer they meet is going to be stupid, wrong, or both.

My exchanges tend to go like this:

The cashier rings up my purchases and I dutifully hand them my card. They turn it right side up, look at it with a small frown, and try to put it into their chip-reader. The machine fails to make the 'accepted' beeping noise.

"Mademoiselle, your card doesn't work. Have you got cash?"

I shake my head and point at my card.

"Try swiping it."

The cashier looks, confused, at the card in their hand. They try again to push it in. The machine stands resolute in it's decision that my card is chip-less.


"It doesn't work."

I sigh and point at the card again.

"It's an American card. You need to swipe it."

The cashier looks relieved to have something, finally, to blame.

"Oh! Well, sometimes American cards don't work."

"This one does. It's a visa. Try swiping it."

The cashier pushes the card in again.

"I'm sorry. It doesn't work."

"Alright."

I take my card back from the cashier, smile at them, and then reach around their arm and the cash register to swipe my card. The machine beeps.

"Did that work?"

The cashier looks astonished.

"Payment accepted."


 ~Jocelyn Harris