Upon Margaret's and my arrival at Frankfurt airport, Pat and Cynthia were patiently waiting. P&C had already arranged for the rental car, so it was off to baggage claim and then off to the country. Our first stop was Kaiserslautern so Margaret and I could visit an ATM machine and get Euros to pump up the economy.
Margaret goes first! She enters her card, selects an amount, enters her pin, and receives the message "Could not validate this card." The card is returned; Margaret tries again. She enters her card, selects an amount, enters a different pin and receives the message "Could not validate this card." She is undeterred...She enters her card, selects an amount, enters yet another pin, and receives the message, "Your card is being held; please enter the bank." Patrick, big brother and, more importantly (at least during this trip), interpreter, and Margaret enter the bank to resolve Margaret's ATM problem.
Now it is my turn. I enter my card, select an amount, enter my PIN, and receive the message "Could not validate this card." Well, I'm no dummy, so I go directly into the bank to find out if Patrick and Margaret are being met with success. Margaret has her passport out and, while she and Patrick are talking to the gentlemen behind the counter, I look at the card I am holding only to discover my American Express card in my hand. I tell Cynthia what a stupid thing that was to do and Cynthia and I proceed back outside and see I will be able to get Euros with my ATM card....of course, it worked!
We never found out why Margaret couldn't use her ATM card....she tried all her PINS! Big brother came to the rescue and sold Margaret some of his Euros.
More German stories to follow.....
Posted by Kathleen at October 28, 2004 05:26 PMI love this story! More! I want more!
Posted by: rita on October 28, 2004 09:46 PMThat's pretty funny. Ooh. Did you go to any Oktoberfest?
Posted by: Mermu on October 29, 2004 10:21 AMMargaret is brilliant! I'll need to try the "none of my PINs are working!" trick to con money out of my relatives some time.
Posted by: stepan on October 29, 2004 12:38 PMDid Margaret at least get her card back from the bank?
Posted by: Jfer on October 29, 2004 02:14 PMIn the interest of accurracy, the story unfolded in Winnweiler, not Kaiserslautern.
As I recall, Margaret resolutely tried various PINs until the machine decided she might not be the real cardholder and refused to give it back to her. That's when we went into the bank the first time and explained the situation to the bank manager, who, contrary to all policies, was convinced to return her card to her. The normal thing to do is to return it to the cardholder's bank. Margaret, still resolute, returned to the machine and tried yet another PIN, also wrong, and the machine glommed onto her card again. The bank manager cooperated once more under the condition that we take Margaret to another bank.
Posted by: Brother Pat on October 30, 2004 02:01 AMThe good excuse was that we were all on the tired side from the flight. We managed to keep ourselves up until 9:00 that night. It was a great week.
Posted by: Cynthia on October 30, 2004 02:35 AMThank you very mutch!
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