Certegy Check Sevices Problem

I tried to pay my bill with a check at K Mart, and my check was
declined based partly or wholely on information from Certegy. When I
called Certegy, I was told that the check number, the amount or the
time of day showed that my check could be fraudulent. This is
obviously a case of discrimination. I will not shop at K Mart again.

John Pushinaitis

While I'm sure it was humiliating to you.. I think you should be
writing this letter to Certegy, and not Kmart.

And it's not the clerk's fault. I work at Kmart and I've had people's
checks declined. Usually, I try running them through 3 times just to
make certain that I wasn't typing in their driver's license number in
wrong. After that, I just hand them back their check and instruct them
to call Certegy's number printed on the back of their check and
they'll tell them what the problem is. If they ask me why, I tell them
that the register doesn't tell me anything, as it doesn't, because
that is very personal information.

What if several people inundated vendors that use Certegy with small
checks for $5 or less as the cost of processing would far exceed the
value of the soda or pack of gum that the check was written for. What
do you think. I ask as I was recently humiliated at both Big Lots and
Albertsons.

i had a very similar experience in a best buy store. They told me
that they declined my check because it met their criteria for identity
theft and they were protecting me, what a joke!!!!!!!!!! We went to
get some Christmas gifts at Best Buy, one of the things we wanted,
they didn't have, so we paid for our stuff (almost $500) and drove 40+
miles to another Best Buy store that had it, we wrote anoter check
($460) for this new purchase within 3 hours of the last and they had
to call it in, thats where the nightmare began. I was wondering about
the legality of this. Have you made any complaints to other companies?
any responses? there are complaints all over the web!!....this is an
ongoing humiliating and inconvienient experience!! Something has to be
done!!!
thanks for your help, i wonder how many other plenty of money in the
bank consumers they have hurt? and yes, the companys are partly to
blame and should somehow compisate the consumer!! its not a problem
with the bank, not a problem with the checks, not a problem with me,
its a problem with ceregy (who by the way,didn't even tell me they
were sorry for what happened) If they believe that it was possibly
idenity theft well in the world couldn't they have checked my 20+
other forms of id or for that matter, my husbands whom was also
involved in this humilifying fiasco!!!!! oh, i know they don't give a
sh@! about the consumer!!!

I don't know how this is K-mart's fault. I'm with Sears and we also
use Certegy. We don't know why a check is declined. It's none of our
business to know why checks are declined. The cashier did everything
in her power to help you; there wasn't anything she could have done to
get your check accepted.

I'm sorry Certegy didn't have an answer for you either. You might not
think there's a problem, but obviously there's something wrong and you
might want to double check with your bank to make sure everything's
okay.

K-mart doesn't owe you anything because it wasn't their fault.

I was very angry when I wrote the above letter. Plesase excuse the
spelling errors. Please allow me to clear up a few things. My
paycheck had cleared, and I had plenty of money in the bank before the
paycheck even hit my account. I had bought my checks through the
mail, like so many others have. I told the clerk that I had been
having problems with my checks reading and that she may have to key in
the information. She keyed in the information. Certegy still could
not tell me what the problem was. They said they didn't even see the
transaction in their records. I asked, how could they deny the check
when they didn't seem to have any information.

I shouldn't have to have a different way to pay when my checks have
always been good at Kmart and everywhere else I've shopped at. I've
talked to my bank. They said my check should not have been declined.
I asked if they had heard or dealt with Certegy. They have never
heard of them.

Certegy had no right to deny my check or my nephew's. I do have a
major question, how do they know what my nephew's spending habits are?
To imply that he was fruadulent or that identity theft was happening
was out of line. They verified his ID.

I have worked in retail myself. The clerk should have been trained
completely before being put on the register. She should have called
her supervisor and explained the problem so she might be able to
handle the situation before it got this far. No, Kmart is at fault as
much as Certegy is for the humilation and problem they caused me
yesterday. Dick's Sporting Goods was the business where my nephew
wrote his check.

I think you'll have a stronger letter when you figure out what
happened. I hope you'll rewrite it at the end of the week, after
you've talked to your bank and to Certegy again. At that point, you
may realize that there was what you would consider a good reason for
them to decline your check (and for the record, it sounds to me as if
they may well have had a good reason to decline your nephew's check).
Perhaps the paycheck you were depending on hasn't cleared yet. On the
other hand, you may have learned that there wasn't what you would
consider a good reason -- maybe someone has made some counterfeit
checks with your account number on them and Certegy's refusal to vouch
for you is going to save you a lot of difficulty -- or even that
Certegy lost the record of the transaction. At the moment the main
thing you know is that you were humiliated, and Kmart deals with
customers all the time whose checks and credit cards have been
declined -- in many cases for good reason -- and who are upset.

I don't think there's any shame in having a check or a debit or credit
card declined, by the way. It happens to most people at one time or
another, and it happens for many reasons other than not having enough
money or going over one's credit limit. Therefore if all people know
is that your check has been declined, they're more likely to empathize
with you than to think ill of you. Your creditors know you're doing
the right thing, and that's who really matters.

If the Certegy Check place couldn't find what is wrong, maybe you
should go to the bank that issued the checks and have them reissue you
new ones. I know that it will cost you, but wouldn't it be worth it.

Although I applaud your decision to get rid of all of you cc, you
really should get a debit card, It works just like a check, IMHO.

"I think you should give gift cards to the people that run into the
problem because of the humilation you have caused us for no goodd
reasons."

And then the Gimme Monster reared it's ugly head...