The feature reportedly asks customers how much they would like to tip before displaying the screen for PIN entries.
Those who are used to immediately keying in their PINs without the extra stage told The Star that customers should be alerted of the additional feature.
“My PIN became the amount to tip and I ended up paying double the price of the meal,” said a customer who had to be refunded in cash after keying the number in at the wrong stage.
Another customer at a different restaurant told the daily that he would have paid thousands of ringgit in tips if he had not realised that numbers were appearing on the screen instead of the usual asterisks.
“The cashier passed me the machine without saying anything so I thought it just required the usual procedure where we key in our PIN and press enter,” Jonathan Looi was quoted as saying.
Looi added that the restaurant staff should inform customers of the extra stage as most tend not to pay attention to the machines.
In Penang, meanwhile, an assistant manager at a steamboat restaurant said the issue had cropped up several months ago after the bank upgraded its credit card machine.
He told The Star that with the new version of the machine, restaurant staff had to press the enter button until the payment screen appeared before handing it to customers.
According to him, all staff members at the restaurant had been briefed on the new procedure, and so far they had not experienced a transaction involving the wrong tip amount.