Changing Card Numbers

Some time ago I went on holidays with my partner to a mediterranean island. To see around and have more freedom, we rented a car. We went to the beach, a small city and the top of a small mountain where there was a lighthouse and a magnificent view of the ocean. That and good company is everything you need to recover from stress and forget about work.

When holidays were over, we went to return the car before heading to the airport, where it was checked for potential damages. After confirmation that everything was fine, it was time to recover our deposit.

And then is when the problem started.

At the desk, they asked us to provide the last digits of our card to locate our payment and release the deposit. We did as they requested, but they said the digits were not matching and asked if we had used another card. We were sure we didn’t, but anyway we double-checked other cards to ensure we didn’t use another one by mistake. None of the numbers were matching.

We started to get nervous. Our flight was in three hours and we still had time, but we wanted an explanation, and it seemed they couldn’t provide us with an answer. Another employee came and pointed out that the reason why was that we used contactless payment and that some banks, like Revolut, for security reasons change the last digits during the payment. He searched through the transactions of that day until he found the one that was closer to the time we signed the rental, checked the last digits (which did match with their reservation but not with our card), and released the deposit. To be safe, we asked if the return was going to be immediate, but he replied no, that it would take a few days and that we had to wait.

How could we leave that place if the release of the deposit was done to a card number unknown to us?

He adviced us to talk to our bank directly to verify what he had said about contactless payments changing the last digits for security reasons. We tried to call, but due to the time difference, the customer service wasn’t available at that moment.

So we insisted again to the employee. Same advice.

We were nervous, as we had to go the airport, so things started to escalate. In the end, the employee lost his temper and stormed out, furious, to deal with another returned car.

We hurried up to the airport. While waiting for the check-in to open, we managed to talk to our bank, who said that the card numbers of the receipt should always match. With this new piece of information, we had two options, we could either go back to the car rental company and risk missing our flight, or take our flight and risk losing the deposit.

We took a deep breath and checked our credit card statement.

To our surprise, our deposit was already unlocked.

Were they right?

Did they release all credit card payments done that day?

What had happened?

Then the most obvious hit me, so I suggested to grab a coffee and pay via contactless using the same credit card and compare the the receipt with the last digits. This way, we would have immediate evidence of what was going on. We paid, we got the receipt and after comparing the digits, we got the truth of the whole situation.

The last four digits matched with the receipt of the car rental company! They were right all this time! But we were wondering, how come the bank didn’t know about this?

Time to do some research. I took my phone, opened the browser, and searched for information that could explain this. One of the first links, from Apple Support, gave me the answer I was looking for.

Apparently, when you pay through contactless, or in this case, Apple Pay, the company doesn’t share the last digits of the credit card for safety reasons. Google Pay does something similar. Curious, I opened the wallet on the phone, checked the credit card stored in there, clicked a few options and there I could see it: both the last four digits of my credit card and the last four digits that Apple assigned to the card. The last ones matched with the receipt of the coffee shop and the car rental company.

After we came back, I gave feedback to the car rental company and explained the whole story and added an apology for getting nervous. So far I didn’t receive an answer yet. However, I also pointed out the following points:

• Customers don’t necessarily need to know or understand how things work (whether your processes or technology or regulations). It is the responsibility of the company to train properly its employees.
• Employees need to be able to explain to customers how things work as easy and clear as possible. Small details that seem unimportant can cause an unnecessary conflict with a customer.
• Customers aren’t always right and employees don’t need to listen to annoying customers. Other customers that need to be attended might be unnecessarily waiting.

In some businesses I noticed there is a lack of training, as employers usually expect their employees to know everything or how to handle complicated situations, without a minimum training.

Despite the fact that I completely agree that making sales and profits is the main and ultimate goal for most companies, I think that quality service can be a great sales drive that can increase the chances of sustaining a business in the long term (and allow you to charge premium prices).

Of course, every business owner should decide how to run their company, as they know best what fits them most. In the end, investing too much on quality service or seeking perfection can be also counterproductive. However, there are minimum standards that should be met, at least, to maintain an acceptable reputation and stay competive in the market.

And from my side, I also had to learn a lesson. Always research first, then talk.