Wendy's Lost My Credit Card

I totally feel for you about having your credit card misplaced by an
irresponsible employee, but that statement you made " wake the
manager up" really angered me. if you wouldnt have said that i
would appraise your letter more.the fact that she was nice enough to
come down during her time off, id thank her for it. while its
irresponsible for her to set it somewhere not safe, it also teaches us
a lesson never to use a credit card in restaurants. mistakes happen i
guess.

after I saw "Wake the manager up" your letter lost total
credibility. I would be highly steamed if I was called at home in my
TIME OFF. regardless of what my position is.

you could have put a stop on your credit card, instead of demanding
that someone comes down when they are trying to enjoy their personal
time, let alone they aren't being paid for it. They are not obligated
to come down, nor were they on the job or getting paid when you
demanded that they come down ,so quit whining for reprimandation. You
dont deserve an apology, you should apologize to the manager for
bothering him on his unpaid time off.

First off, this is a great thread. So many insightful responses. That
being said, sucks they didn't give you your card back. But, as a
general rule, believe me i have lost my card lots of times, if a night
has gone by with it missing, cancel it. It takes 5 minutes of your
time and you get a new one in 3 days. You would have spent less time
dealing with that instead of calling up the wendy's manager and
wendy's corporate. That's just way too much work....

I'm sure that we have all been there before. The whole, "I just
used my debit/credit card, did I get it back?" The second that I
am not sure where it is (as long as I'm not at home switching items
from purse to purse) I call the company and ask if they can put a hold
on the card. This way no one can spend it and I can cancell it if it
is truly missing. Imagine if someone had tried to steal your money
with the card. The CC company would be after you not Wendy's.

I feel for you, I really do. But when you use a credit or debit card,
you ALWAYS need to make sure they give it back to you. I can't tell
you how many times I have had to ask for my card(s) back from stupid
employees. I would never trush a fast food worker with my card in the
place. I never hand a card over to anyone unless I am right there in
front of them and it never leaves my site.

I would recommend... even if you get your card back you should
probably get the number canceled and have a new one made.

I know it sucks but... it's been lying around their store for a few
days and you have *NO* idea who they are or what kind of people they
are. And there are some online stores that don't really care if your
billing address is correct...

(and check your statement to ensure they didn't abuse the card
either)

:(

I highly disapprove of any business that wastes their customers'
time. Clearly, this happened again and again, through simple disregard
for anyone else's interests but their own by employees of Wendy's.
One of the things that has never been suggested here by anyone, is
to print up t-shirts ridiculing companies that treat their customers
this way. These should be made when the company involved regularly
irritates many of their customers, and then marketed through E-bay, or
other sites that market ideas on t-shirts. Above all, they should be
light hearted and very funny. There is a market for these, and in the
long run I think seeing these things appearing around town will reach
management and probably have more of an effect on them than anything
else you could do. On the other hand, it's a lot of work.

shoulda coulda woulda, that what all these replies are. the point is,
she didn't get her card back. you have to deal with what is. telling
her what she should have done is worth squat. that wendy's is poorly
managed. every employee involved needs to written up, so there is
documentation in case this happens again, in which case, they should
be terminated. they obviously aren't able to handle the job.

You forgot your card, and then the manager forgot your card too. I
believe the card should be treated in the same manner as cash or
rather, change back on cash. Would cash or change be left on a
counter? Nope. No, it isn't cash, but should be treated similar. As a
a human being, it's easy to forget. At a drive through it's sometimes
rushed and you can't always see into the store to see what they are
doing with the card. Responsible? Maybe not but the card was on a
counter and then instead of the manager handing it back or putting it
in a safe place or even throwing it out and calling the card company
to report it herself, she did nothing. Instead of just reassuring the
OP and maybe even calming down the customer on the phone if at all
possible, she invalidated her which made the situation worse. (because
she screwed up)

I also agree that once the OP realized the card was lost she should
have immediately called the card company and reported that she will
not be responsible for additional charges as the card is no longer in
her possession, or lost. Had she known or thought to do this, she may
not have had to deal with the manager afterall who IMO was more
irresponsible than an OP who forgot the card.

The card shoulnd't been left out to take.. but the card should have
been taken back by the card holder.

NO. You lost your credit card. When you pass your credit card to a
cashier make a habit to only accept the receipt when the card is
returnrd.

I seriously cannot believe the responses that are berating the OP and
saying it's all her fault.

Have you never made a mistake?

I dont think she's trying to blame the store for her forgetting her
card. She is, however, taking them to task for the utterly appalling
treatment she received from the so-called manager.

I've never managed in fast food or retail, but I'm quite sure there's
supposed to be some sort of protocol or procedure to follow for cases
like this. I'm sure the procedure does NOT include, 'leaving it by the
fax machine' and repeatedly ignoring the calls from the customer
inquiring about it.

I've left my card a couple of places, and while I
didn't blame the store for MY error in forgetting the card, I would
have been FURIOUS if a manager had treated me the way this one treated
the OP.

I'm really big on personal responsibility and I never fail to tell an
OP when they're acting entitled, so if I, of all people, think it's
awful the way they treated her - it's TRULY appalling indeed.

Actually, I'm not sure how this is the manager's fault. It would have
been nice for them to take care better care of your credit card for
you, but it wasn't their responsibility. It was yours. I'm sorry this
happened to you but the manager doesn't deserve to be reprimanded or
demoted from her position because you didn't keep track of your credit
card.

The attitude is appalling. Secondly I will agree with another poster.
I have credit cards, social security cards, cell phones, blue tooths,
checkbooks, wallets, sunglasses, coupon boxes etc left in my stores
safe Most of which were left by the customer at the checkstand or
left in a shopping cart outside.

People do lose and misplace things, it happens to everyone but I would
not tolerate the attitude given. That said, please stay away from
credit cards, they are nothing but trouble in the end.

While I believe this manager on a good day is a moron, I wouldn't have
waited 72 hours to cancel that card, nor would I have worried about
checking in with them before I contacted my bank.

First and foremost, protect yourself and your credit. Most banks can
get a new card to you in as little as 2 days. There is no reason to
wait that long and risk God knows what damage to be unleashed on your
account.

I hope they do apologize to you, even though I doubt you'll ever see
your Cr. Cd. again.

they are supposed to put it in the safe..."supposed to " being the
operative term. why they were so lax about it is beyond me....I know
in my Wendy's where i used to work, they would have made a record of
all the people working that day it was missing and do some sort of
sercurity check or call authorities

Your treatment by management was unacceptable.

Although if I ever left my card anywhere - I would immediately cancel
it. You do not know the person who has it. The world today is not a
trustworthy place.

On that note - we have an average of 30 credit cards a month left in
our restaurant. Every month. Maybe 10 people come back to get them.

The manager should have immediately put your card in the safe once
they realized you had already driven off.

If I may make a suggestion? Do not use your card when going through a
drive-thru. You have no idea what the employee is doing with it. I
worked as a GM for a local fast food franchise and had to fire a girl
after hearing from other employees that she was writing down credit
card numbers and the security number on the back of the cards. I saw
her on the news about a year later, she had purchased a FORD
EXPEDITION with someone elses checking account!

That's crazy.
When I worked at Wendy's, the manager had a policy that you shouldn't
give the card back until the screen says approved. If they get the
food, and their card is denied, then your drawer is considered short.
I learned the hard way.

The cashier should have given your card back with a receipt after your
transaction is approved. I find it hard to beleive that the cashier
would forget to give it back, or not notice it before you had left the
window (at a dual window store). The cashier was either stealing
credit cards on purpose, blatantly incompetent, or the OP is trying to
pull freebie grab.

But with the tight job market these days, everyone is working for the
most part, so who is a manager today was probably a line person a
month ago and obvious training issues prevail at Wendy's. You should
get some type of call back from the corporate offices though. I'd be
surprised if you didn't.

This was very irresponsible behavior on the part of the manager.
There's no way that she should have left your card next to the fax
machine. For all we know, any and all employees of that Wendy's would
have access to it. Given the amount of theft that goes on these days,
I can easily envision someone picking it up.

Like Donno below, I use plastic for just about every purchase I make.
Unlike Donno, I use it for drive-thru as well. However, it is one of
the few times when a card is actually taken from my hands, and I have
to admit, I feel very uncomfortable during that whole time that
someone else has my card. But like someone else posted, I always have
my wallet in my hand while my card is out, so there's no way I would
ever accidentally leave it anywhere. It's a good habit to develop,
and one that I would strongly encourage you to start, Carol.

I would love to see drive-thrus install card readers at the window, so
that the customer can simply swipe their card, rather than it leaving
their hands. I suppose that will eventually happen.

For now, that card should already be canceled. If you haven't done
that yet, you're just asking for trouble.

There isn't an excuse for the CSR not giving you your card back
immediately. Personally, I use a credit card for virtually
everything. One of the few exceptions is a drive through.
There reason is that I can't keep my eyes on the card. I have a great
mental tracking system for my card, but once it is out of my sight,
the system breaks down. Out of sight, out of mind. The possibility
of getting distracted by "I didn't get ketchup," "where's my drink"
etc is too great.

So, my personal rule is "cash only" at a drive through. Beyond that,
there should be a system in place at that Wendy's whereby something
valuable like a credit card is placed in a secure place. "Next to the
Fax machine" doesn't cut it in my book. Someone in management should
be there all the time, and the credit card should be under lock and
key. Hopefully this complaint will lead to that location improving
its credit card processing and lost valuables procedures.

I agree that when they make commitments to you (like "Someone will get
back to you in 48 hours" or "I will call you back in 15 minutes") they
ought to keep them. I also agree that the manager should not have
left your credit card "lying next to the fax machine". It should have
been somewhere that only the most trusted employees would have access
to it. Actually, I'd have said that it should be somewhere where
Cherise could get it and nobody else, but I recognize that you'd have
been upset about the inconvenience of having to wait until the one
person who was taking care of everything related to your card was able
to give it back. The more convenience customers who have left their
cards insist on, the less security can be provided to them.

Having said that, both the cashier *and* you should have had systems
to ensure that credit cards go back to the customer. The cashier was
absolutely wrong to have a process for accepting credit card payments
that didn't end up with the card in the customer's hand every single
time. (The easiest way to do that is to handle things the same way
every time, so that handing back the card becomes automatic.)

But you were also wrong not to have a process for paying with a credit
card that didn't end up with the card back in your wallet or purse
every single time. (When I take my wallet out and hand my card over,
my wallet stays in my hand until the card comes back. It does making
it a little harder to organize my purchases, so I'll often move about
3 feet away from the register to get myself settled, but the
inconvenience is why it works. I *know* where the wallet is, and
therefore I *know* who has the card.)

I don't think the cashier, you, Cherise, or whoever you talked to at
the corporate office handled this especially well, but I am sure that
Cherise, who got woken up at home to deal with this (and, I suspect,
the cashier, who no doubt has heard Cherise's story about you several
times by now), is going to learn something from the incident. Maybe
Cherise needs a followup from whoever does finally return your call,
but I don't think she was any more responsible for what happened than
you and the cashier, and given that you are focusing solely on her
role in the situation I get the uncomfortable feeling she's being
scapegoated.

Since I know you want them to take your complaints about Cherise
seriously, I really think this letter would have been better if you
acknowledged that if you had not messed up at the outset Cherise would
have been unable to mess up later on.

Several months back, I went through this phase where I kept forgetting
my credit card at restaurants. Not sure why, except that I had a new
card that was a dark color and I guess I couldn't see it so well in
those black folders that restaurants give you.

In one case, the restaurant had put my card in the cash register. I
called, the next day, and picked it up. I checked my statement
diligently to ensure that there were no improper charges. Luckily,
there were not.

In the second case, I discovered the missing card about a half hour
after I left. I went back and, after a great deal of searching, they
found the card still inside the black folder.

In your case, placing the card at the fax machine was the first
mistake. The person finding it should either secure it (put it in the
cash register) or destroy it.

Yes, I said "destroy it." Some people HATE this, but it's the most
secure thing a business can do with a found card.

The second, and perhaps more significant error, was that the manager
should not have ignored you... especially for that long. I just don't
understand how any business can keep its doors open when they don't
have a manager (or assistant manager) on the premises. I understand
that there are times when the manager needs to step away... but there
needs to be a responsible person there at all times.

In any case, canceling the card would have been a good idea from the
first sign that it wasn't there.

I certainly agree with the first poster. In fact, I would have
canceled it the next morning, as soon as you realized it was missing.
When a credit card passes or has the potential to pass through several
hands before you have a chance to retrieve it, better safe than sorry.
What I take issue with is that you don't seem to take any of the
blame. I think it would lend some credibility to your complaint if
you admitted that it was partially your fault for having driven off
without the card. The manager certainly did not handle the aftermath
very well. I agree with you writing the letter to corporate to let
them know what happened after you discovered the card was missing. A
manager should have handled things better.

The moment they told you they didn't know where your card was, you
should have cancelled it. Merchants are horrible about checking IDs
(heck, your card could say "Marianne" for a name, and they'd let a man
use it). Granted, if it's a credit (rather than a debit) card, you're
out only $50 max, but that's ONLY if you report it stolen within a
certain timeframe.

Cancel your card IMMEDIATELY.

Carol, I would strongly suggest (if you haven't already done so)
calling your credit card company and cancelling your card.