Taxi experience

[dbaker]

Paying for a taxi ride with my American Express Corporate card last Sunday, I was asked for ID before he would accept it. Obviously this is ridiculous given the circumstances and since his on-board computer allowed him to get instant approval for the transaction.

I asked the driver if a lot of people were trying to scam him with bogus cards. He said that people like to be asked since it prevents anybody from being able to use their cards (sigh).

However, instead of taking out the usual clunk THUNK-THUNK imprint machine, he took out a notepad, put my card down, put the carbon copy receipt on top, pressed the side of his pen against the left side of the top of the receipt, firmly ran it over, and handed it back to me.

Brilliant! I was seriously impressed. I've seen countless people try to get those machines to make an imprint and seen taxi drivers without a flat surface struggle to get the THUNK slide across without the paper getting messed up, etc, etc.

In 2 seconds, he ran an object over it and made a perfect impression.