Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Interviews

Interview 1: stay at home mom mid 30s

·      While talking with my aunt, I was able to ask her some questions about her spending habits and how she pays for things when she goes shopping. I learned that she generally used Samsung pay because she said she forgets her wallet in the car a lot when she tries to run errands with all three of her kids with her. She continued on to say that she only really uses one of her cards when she does use a card and that she’s had it for over two years and never had an issue with it not reading at a register.

Interview 2: early 20s college student

·      My best friend lives in a dorm and I was able to talk to one of his roommates about how he spends money and if he has had any card problems. He informed me that his parents pay for the meal plan for him, so he mainly uses his Gator1 card and not a card with a chip. He went on to say that he does have a debit card of his own, but he doesn’t spend a lot of money or use if very often, so he doesn’t have any issues with the card.

Interview 3: mid 60s retired female

·      During work at Publix I had a few extra minutes and was able to talk to a few customers about their experiences with chip cards and if they had any difficulties. One lady that I talked to said that she uses her card every day at least twice and has never had an issue. After talking to her more, I found out that she is a member at a local bank that does not have cards with chips in them, meaning that the only way to use the card is to swipe it. She also explained that she tends to write checks a few times a month as well and that she doesn’t think that she would behave differently if she had a different kind of debit card.

Interview 4: early 40s married male

·      When I was over at my friend’s house, I spoke to her father about his common spending routine. He explained to me that he bought very little things in person, he mostly shopped online on websites like Amazon, or that his wife did the shopping. He had to think about the last time that he had actually used his debit card in person and came up with the answer of more than a week prior. He explained that he didn’t have a desire to purchase much around town other than when he was asked to pick up a few things on the way home from work, meaning that he had never once had a problem with a card not reading.

Interview 5: mid 20s college student

·      One of my friends in another class and I were talking about my project when she began telling me about her habits with her cards. She said that even though she has probably four debit or credit cards, she tends to find herself in situations where other people pay for her stuff and she just uses Venmo to pay them back later. She said that even when she has her wallet with her, she doesn’t really use her cards, this means that she hasn’t experienced when a card will not read.

	Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Who	People who overly use a chip card for multiple purchases every day	People who pay with other forms of payment or switch between multiple forms
What	A card that will not give them “chip reader error” every use	A form of payment other than a card with a chip
Why	Registers being unable to process payments due to “chip reader error”	Chip on the card being broken past the point of being able to be read

Through the interviews in this stage of the project, I realized that not quite as many people have this problem as I thought. Working at Publix in Customer Service, I tender a great deal of transactions and it seems like a lot of them have chip reader errors, however, in the bigger picture, I do not think that the problem is as big as I make it out to be. I think that while some people here and there are frustrated by broken cards much before their expiration, it is not a widely accepted opinion. I think that if I were to start this project over, I may think of another aspect of the payment process to focus more time into.