I was shopping in M&S the other day (and they'd finally got around to installing PIN pads) and was asked whether I wanted any 'cashback'.
As it turns out I did, so I asked for some money and entered my PIN on the pad as you would (now) expect. But then the assistant asked me to initial the cashback on a receipt as per days of yore. So I did this and instinctively passed it back to him:
Assistant: "Oh no, you keep that, that's your *actual receipt* for your purchases as well."
Me: «So what's the point in me initialling it?»
"That's proof that you authorised the cashback so that staff can't just sneak in a cashback, pocket the money and have you key your PIN without noticing the extra.."
«Umm, but don't you need the receipt for your records, I could just lose the receipt and claim fraud at your end?»"But then you'd have no way of proving whether you did properly authorise the cashback."
«But if an assistant did add a fraudulent cashback and I hadn't noticed (and hadn't been asked to sign the receipt to verify) and had lost the receipt then I'd be stuffed?»"Err, yeah."
Hmm, I'm not altogether sure I like the sound of that.
And in other news, that bastion of high technology, Dixons, seem yet to have installed PIN pads. I thought all retailers were supposed to be using them now or face liability issues from the banks?