Failure of Gas Station to accept Canadian Credit card causes robbery? Man Sues.

[ThunderTrap]

Of course, if it had been the gas station that was robbed, all the bleeding hearts on here would be crying over BP's loss...
And the marketing materials for MasterCard clearly indicate its worldwide acceptance, not just at Canadian Tire stores. Nowhere in Canadian Tire's collateral materials, or in the representations made by their in-store representatives who sign up suckers for their cards, do they indicate that its acceptance is limited outside of Canada.
No matter what...from a PR perspective...both BP and Canadian Tire dropped the ball on this one. A proactive PR person would have answered back immediately back in November, and not let this fester to a point 7 months later. From what I read, both companies gave the brush off initially and that is what led to a lawyer becoming involved...whereas, at the beginning, if someone had been thinking, they would have pushed out $5K, had a release signed, and the matter would have been long forgotten. You would be surprised how, many times, all it takes is some chump-change and an apology to make those who have been wronged feel better...sometimes they only need to know that their concerns aren't being swept under the rug. But...here we see both BP and Canadian Tire running from the fire almost instantly and blaming everyone else but themselves...and allowing, over time, for a customer to get angrier, speak with others, get "advice" and turn to an always-willing attorney...so...for a case study in business school on how NOT to handle a situation, as if BP hadn't fumbled the Gulf of Mexico to an even greater degree...

[Wesley Mouch]

...snip...No matter what...from a PR perspective...both BP and Canadian Tire dropped the ball on this one. A proactive PR person would have answered back immediately back in November, and not let this fester to a point 7 months later. From what I read, both companies gave the brush off initially and that is what led to a lawyer becoming involved...whereas, at the beginning, if someone had been thinking, they would have pushed out $5K, had a release signed, and the matter would have been long forgotten. You would be surprised how, many times, all it takes is some chump-change and an apology to make those who have been wronged feel better...sometimes they only need to know that their concerns aren't being swept under the rug. But...here we see both BP and Canadian Tire running from the fire almost instantly and blaming everyone else but themselves...and allowing, over time, for a customer to get angrier, speak with others, get "advice" and turn to an always-willing attorney...so...for a case study in business school on how NOT to handle a situation, as if BP hadn't fumbled the Gulf of Mexico to an even greater degree...

The situation isn't quite as simple as just tossing '$5k chump change' at every person who makes a claim. You have to judge the validity of claim. And you also know each and every time that you need to judge the public relations values of claims. That's what got missed here -- or at least so it seems.

You also have to look at the perception of the business to the public. Take the City of Detroit. For many years, now and again, they settle every case that comes their way. Result? They get more claims. Attorneys far and wide love Wayne Country courts. Why? Guess?

It ain't so simple to assess claims. Its easy to Monday Morning Quarterback and know which one might have been worth $50k to settle.

And you are right that sometimes they only need to know that its not being swept under the rug. Nothing pisses off consumers faster than a company that doesn't get that. Did that happen here? We don't know.

[Embee]

The machine would have accepted his credit card if he knew the workaround. All he had to do was type in the first three numbers of his Canadian postal code and then type "00" for the next two numbers. I'm Canadian and I've done this dozens of times at gas stations all around the US and it ALWAYS works. Most people I know from Windsor know this trick but this guy obviously didn't know.

So for example if your postal code is N8T 2K5 you would type in "82500". Guaranteed to work.

[Wesley Mouch]

The machine would have accepted his credit card if he knew the workaround. All he had to do was type in the first three numbers of his Canadian postal code and then type "00" for the next two numbers. I'm Canadian and I've done this dozens of times at gas stations all around the US and it ALWAYS works. Most people I know from Windsor know this trick but this guy obviously didn't know.

So for example if your postal code is N8T 2K5 you would type in "82500". Guaranteed to work.

Does anyone know if you even need to answer accurately?

I know that when you do a transaction with an address, the credit card processors give better rates if the address is a match, exact match, etc. I would not be surprised if he could have typed in pretty much any 5-digit code and pumped away. It may be that vendor asks for this because the more good answers they get, the better rate they pay to the card company.

Now of course it may be that it can reject based on zip, but I've never heard of that being done. I've also never worked with credit card transactions in, oh, how can we say here on the forum -- slightly more rugged neighbourhoods?

[SyGolden48236]

Let's not forget that the title of this thread is completely misleading and untrue. The "failure of the gas station to accept Canadian credit card" did NOT cause the robbery. The man most likely would have been robbed at the pump even if he had been able to pay at the pump.

The only thing that caused the robbery was the filthy hoodrat that robbed the man. Period

[Király]

I would not be surprised if he could have typed in pretty much any 5-digit code and pumped away.

I'm a Canadian on the west coast, and when I use my credit card at gas stations in WA, I just type random numbers. It always works.

But I prefer to use cash when I'm in the USA. I can get US cash from the currency exchange here in Vancouver for better rates than what the banks or credit cards charge.

[ThunderTrap]

Some banks did alert their customers, MasterCard corporate knew about the work-around, but Canadian Tire Bank apparently didn't advise their clients...therefore they withheld important information that was to the detriment of their clientele. The station itself didn't have adequate security. Yes, perhaps, he may have been robbed at the pump...but...that risk would have been minimized had they had on-property security, if their security cameras were pointed somewhere other than solely at their precious cash register, etc. The fact that MasterCard's PR man threw the bank under the bus, and that BP's tries to say they can't control their brand name and logo and is the one who brought the Yemeni connection out [[i.e. why mention anything other than the manager is out of the country, period)...looks like, as a previous poster stated, the PR minds were not engaged well...they said too much, introduced elements to the PR equation that can only backfire, and they completely misread the situation, i.e. assuming the sap would go away but instead engaged legal counsel who will advise him to go for much more than they could have settled for originally, all the time this being discussed online and in the legacy press. The ironic thing -- the PR person for Canadian Tire used to be the press attache to the Prime Minister. That's the difference between America and Canada...George Stephanopoulos leaves the White House, and becomes a media celebrity; Sandra Buckler leaves the Prime Minister's Office to shill for a modicum of a hybrid auto repair shop attached to a mini-Walmart.