B&q up north, accept maestro, international maestro but not laser cards

L

lorelai

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Can anyone explain to me why B&Q state on their website that as payment methods they will accept Maestro and International Maestro but then after spending 3 hours driving there from down south they inform you that the Maestro function of a Laser card doesn't work in their machines?

Republic of Ireland Maestro isn't classed as Maestro or International Maestro!

I've tried ringing them, e-mailing them etc but I can't get an explanation out of anyone, they are just fobbing me off, even my own bank is confused about it :confused:

I'm so annoyed about it......:mad:
 
lorelai said:
Can anyone explain to me why B&Q state on their website that as payment methods they will accept Maestro and International Maestro but then after spending 3 hours driving there from down south they inform you that the Maestro function of a Laser card doesn't work in their machines?

Republic of Ireland Maestro isn't classed as Maestro or International Maestro!

I've tried ringing them, e-mailing them etc but I can't get an explanation out of anyone, they are just fobbing me off, even my own bank is confused about it :confused:

I'm so annoyed about it......:mad:
Click to expand...

Common problem with Maestro/Laser - just in the same way some websites accept UK Maestro but won't take Laser.

Essentially (despite the common name) the two systems underneath (Laser in Ireland and Switch in the UK) don't always work well together. The same can apply to Maestro cards issued in other countries. Unlike Visa Debit, they just do not play well together across borders.
 
I see what you're saying. I stupidly thought Maestro was Maestro! Very unclear and very annoying and very much a huge waste of an entire day for me going up and not being able to pay for the stuff I had reserved.......

Funnily enough it's the only time I've ever had a problem using the card, I've used it all over Europe (well lots of different European countries, I'm not THAT well travelled) and never had a problem with either an ATM or using it in a store in the card machine thingy.

Oh well.....
 
Why didn't you just withdraw the cash from an ATM up north to pay for the stuff? I've no problem withdrawing cash from atms up there...just can't always pay with it at the tills
 
No problem withdrawing cash, but no ATM in the world will allow you withdraw a couple of grand in one go, or even in one day, and unfortunately that was the amount I needed. A few hundred would have been no problem but it wouldn't have covered the cost of what we were getting. And i wouldn't have fancied walking around with a couple of grand cash in my pocket!!

Also FYI still no response from the lovely people in B & Q........
 
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