Cashless at dawn of digital age as network conks out
CHENNAI: Even before cyclone Vardah, retail outlets were refusing card payment by customers as networks were jammed by the sudden increase in use of point-of-sale (POS) card swiping machines. After the cyclone hit, it turned worse as networks were down in most areas of the city, placing both seller and buyer in a fix.
Chennaiites are still struggling for proper phone connectivity, so finding connectivity on POS units is near impossible. From small retail shops to big ones, from supermarkets to petrol stations, from top restaurant chains to small independent ones, almost all outlets are refusing to entertain “cashless” customers.
Drivers complain that they have to travel long before they find a petrol outlet that will accept cards. Rajnikant, a Uber driver, said he had to go from Central to Guindy to find a card-friendly outlet.
“I had to drop a customer at Central and decided to fill petrol but no filling station was accepting cards. Most of our customers pay us through cards because they themselves are struggling with no cash. Where do we go for cash?” he asked. Afreen Y, a two-wheeler rider, said she had been struggling to find a filling station that allowed cards. “I just spent my last `100. I have no idea where I’m going to go to get my next fill,” she said, disappointed.
Pradeep Kumar from Valasarvakkam also said, “My work demands a lot of travel, so I use my car. I’m only managing because I happened to get some cash recently because a client paid late, otherwise I probably would not have been able to travel at all.”
Various branches of Bharat Petroleum, HP, Indian Oil and Shell are turning away their customers. A worker at a Bharat Petroleum branch in Alandur said they accepted cards even on Friday morning but had to stop because of network problems. At a Shell petrol outlet in Ekkaduthangal, customers were asked to swipe their cards first and then allowed to fill petrol.
“Sometimes cards won’t work because of network problem; and if customers have already taken their petrol, then we are in trouble,” said a worker.Usually the first thing that a staff used to ask a customer at a restaurant was the customer’s food order but these days even before a customer enters the restaurant they were asked if their payments would be by ‘cash or card’. Not only small eateries, but also some branches of top food chains like Aasife, Buhari, Thalapakatti and Anjappar were also refusing cards, with huge boards at the entrance announcing it.
However, some restaurants go out of the way to help their customers, like a hotel chain in Adyar which allowed customers to eat on credit, and asked them to leave their phone numbers and addresses for payment later.
“Almost everyday we lost more than 20 customers and suffered 50% loss because we were not accepting cards as there was no power, but in instances where customers seemed helpless like women and children, we allowed them in and let them eat.
It was done for home deliveries too,” said the hotel manager, Velu Kannan. Some major online food apps ‘cashed in’ on the demonetisation, as customers chose to pay online to buy food instead fishing out scarce cash to pay at a restaurant. However, these apps were also facing the heat of Vardah. While they still accepted online payments, some apps were denying their customers the “card on delivery” option because of “network problems”.
Supermarkets Saravana Stores, Pazhamudir Choolai and smaller independent stores were also suffering losses because they were unable to process their customers’ card payments. In some instances, supermarket owners said some networks worked while others were difficult to access.
Similarly only some bank cards were easily approved by the card machines. “The network is so erratic that it works one hour and doesn’t work the next, so we just have to wait in anticipation,” said a shop owner.