Yeah, I promise I'm not personally declining your card?

Night Audit here. 5+ Arrivals left tonight, fun.
One of which is a Friends & Family rate for the same county.
Less than a 45 minute drive from the hotel.

He comes in, he's being really weird- but hey, he could just be really weird. He pulls out a debit card for a cash advance company, hits the button that accepts the expected charges of the displayed rate including tax, and just stands there. I start making keys, then just look over and he immediately goes 'oh! haha, you're waiting on me?' THEN he puts in his card. (Mind you there wasn't enough time for him to like access the situation and gather that he needed to insert the card, if that makes sense. Like he was stalling for a reason.) DECLINED.

He tries it again. And again. All declined.

He goes out to the car, gets his phone, asks for the wifi code and opens up his 'bank' app. There is enough for the room, but just barely. We try a different terminal. Still nothing. He's getting antsy. I tell him that with a declining card, and seeing that there isn't any more money in his account than what would be needed he's a liability, and I couldn't just let him keep swiping cards until maybe it goes through. Layman's terms: bro you're sketchy as hell. Apparently, this was highly inappropriate for me to say, and that he never had to pay a deposit before. Okay, fair. But I'll call my manager just to waive the deposit, because this IS a local. And his card IS declining.

Manager waives any deposit, but yeah, no we have to have a card that runs- duh.

I go back out. He needs a minute. He takes twenty-five. He comes back, tries again, and again, and again.

His solutions:

• Lower the rate, to see if his card will run for anything at all or if it's a problem with the terminal. (I tapped my card to pay for my nightly snack. Terminals are fully functional.)

• Just charge the card on file. But make the card on file the one in his hand? (No, policy is we have to have the card here and inserted into the terminal)

• Then call the manager because clearly I'm either new, or stupid, or just don't know what I'm doing.

I told him I wouldn't call the manager a second time tonight because there isn't an issue she can resolve. The card is declining. That's the same issue I called her with almost forty-five minutes ago. I'm not waking her up again. . . for your card declining. I JUST spoke with her and you HAVE to have a card that RUNS for the FULL amount. DUH????

So, no. That wasn't good enough. He wants me to call her and he wants to speak with her personally. I told him that no, this wasn't something I would be doing. If he wanted to talk to her, he could talk to her in the morning. I handed him a business card for the GM, and told him that the FOM would also be in starting at 7 AM.

Not good enough either. Because why not? Because I'm not going to call and call and call and put her on the spot for something like that? Your card is declining. YOUR card. YOURS.

He was also hung up on me not wearing a name tag. He mentioned it multiple times- but I was? I am? I literally wash my shirts with the name tags on.

So he's coming down to speak with the managers personally, and I'm going to lose my job? Like dude, thanks for my monthly quota of "you're going to get fired for this".