Daily Archives: December 1, 2008

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Pet Peeve: “Swipe it yourself” credit card terminals

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I know, I know. Pet peeves are standard fare for beginning bloggers. But I can’t help it. Every once in a while there’s something that, although little, just gets under my skin. And that something right now is having to swipe my own credit card at places like Best Buy.
First of all, the mere existence of these “swipe it yourself” terminals as new examples of POS systems is irritating to me. I mean, included in the price of your purchase is the cost of employing a cashier who rings up your merchandise for you. Why can’t that person swipe your credit card? To me, it’s just as stupid as having them hand you the cash drawer and ask you to put your money in it and make your own change. Swiping a credit card is an act of taking your money for the purchase, and that should be done by the cashier. What good are they if they can’t even do that?

But I learned to live with that, as stupid as it is… until recently. That’s when the most idiotic addition to the “swipe it yourself” policy was enacted: The cashier asks to see your card after you swipe it.

I was in Best Buy the other day, and when the cashier gave me the total, I handed him my credit card. He handed it back to me and asked me to swipe it on the little terminal at the front of the counter. Like I said, I’m used to this dumb policy now, so I swiped my card, saw that it was accepted, and put my card away. That’s when the cashier asked to see my card.

Remember, the cashier just had my card in his hand less than 20 seconds ago and had handed it back to me for me to swipe myself. But now he has to see it again. If the cashier has to see the card anyway, why can’t he swipe the @#%! thing himself?! Could they come up with a more inefficient, idiotic process?

HOPC

HOPC meeting on Dec. 5 may be last

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Some Heart of Peoria Commission members want the commission to voluntarily disband, possibly as early as our next meeting — the final one for 2008 — on December 5 at 8:00 a.m. The theory goes that commissioners could have more of an impact if we weren’t a city commission. We could instead organize ourselves as a public advocacy group, similar to Peoria City Beautiful. This would free us from the restrictions of the City Council and the Open Meetings Act, allowing us to meet as often as we want and have a coordinated lobbying effort of council members.

This idea has been going around for a while. We talked about it at one of our meetings a year ago or so when the Council was considering disbanding HOPC. At that time, HOPC voted to oppose that move. The Council decided to keep HOPC, but cut all funding for the commission and reduced its meeting schedule to six times per year. So now voluntary disbandment is back on the agenda for discussion at our Dec. 5 meeting.

I have no idea if it’s any more likely to pass. The last time, we ultimately decided that the advantages of being a city commission outweighed the advantages of being a private advocacy group. Should make for an interesting discussion.