Credit Card Glitch Causes Mayhem at Grocery

If you're a frequent customer of Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran's Grocery on 13th Street, you might want to check your bank account. A glitch in the credit card POS caused the system to run every transaction that's occurred since mid-March at one time, creating stress for customers and the proprietors as well.

"We just got a new credit card system installed a few months back, and the guy who sold it to us left out a step," Safran told Eater. "And, we only noticed the situation when a customer asked why her card wasn't charged after the initial hold fell off. We didn't even know. But, this is our fault."

Safran and Turney, who also own Barbuzzo, Lolita, and Jamonera, do all of the administrative work behind the scenes. It was only when Safran realized that a chunk of money was missing from their account did it become apparent what the issue was. When she went to settle up the charges, it didn't list the number of transactions that happened at once, and they didn't know the extent of the problem.

"For most people, it wasn't a big deal, as we don't do a lot of credit card transactions at Grocery," said Safran. "But, for those people who have very little in their checking account, it put them in a bad spot. And we are going to make sure they're taken care of."

Safran said that if a purchase from their store caused an overdraw in your account, reach out to them at Grocery, and tell them the amount of the purchase and the last 4 digits of the card used so they can verify your transaction. Safran said they will cover the overdraft charges to all who are affected.

In all cases, the hold was initially placed, but the money was never deducted from the cardholder's account after the hold fell off. But, if you don't actually balance your checkbook and only use your mobile app to keep track of your funds, you could have been caught by surprise. She estimated that Grocery does around 60 transactions per day, and the charges date back to mid-March. Safran added that email addresses and phone numbers don't come along with credit card charges, so they didn't know who was affected.

"You need to call us up, otherwise we won't know," said Safran. "Our customers make us who we are, so we will do everything we can to fix the situation. This really sucks."

· Grocery [Official]