Demonetisation: Overworked, card-swiping machines fail to work

KOZHIKODE: The card-swiping machines have also started feeling the heat  of demonetisation with many breaking down because of  overuse by the customers who avoid cash payments. The electronic data capture machines  (EDCs, or card swiping machines) in  most  hotels, restaurants and multiplexes in the city refused to accept the  transactions during the weekend.  According to  bank officials,  it happened when the shop owners swiped a card for more than five times without a break.  This was an unprecedented situation, admitted shop owners.

“We have been getting  more applications for the machines from the vendors having account in our bank,” said  Mr Sachin Gangadharan, an official of Federal Bank, Kozhikode.   "The EDCs are allotted only through the banks and even for their minor repairs, the customers have to report to the respective banks.   We are finding it  difficult to take up the applications  for EDCs, but are trying  to connect the customers with the dealers of the machines directly to do the repairs,” he added. The major EDC dealers  for the nationalised  banks here are RD Solutions, Pay U Money and Anant Technologies.

Ms Swarna Unnikrishnan, a city resident,  could not pay the bill of Rs 850 using her credit card in a restaurant here  after taking  food as the system  had crashed.  “They were not ready to take the old currency and  I had to wait for nearly 45 minutes in an ATM to get the cash and pay the  bill.   I had a  similar fate  at a supermarket here, where also the system  showed ‘transaction cancelled.’   All those who shopped from there encountered the same problem,” she said.