When I drove for Airborne Express and UPS, we would not accept cash for anything. It had to be a check or money order, sometimes just the money order was the only thing acceptable.
Right after High School, I had a job with Mervyns as a Credit Authorizor. While it didn't have anything to do with checks, it was suprising how many people that were denied their purchase, didn't have a clue what their account was like. Most of those who were suprised where the husbands who rarely used the card and thought their wife had been paying the bill. It was very common for a card to be rejected because of repeat late payments. In 12 months, it wasn't uncommon to see 10 late payments.
Then there was the cards that had a problem reported on them. Lost cards were the most common, but sometimes a stolen card would show up and I'd have the cashier check their ID. It was always fun to hear the person say they had to go get their ID in their car, and leave the store to never come back again.
For me personally, I've had my Debit Card denied several times because the computer at my bank was either down, or the phone line to it was down, or maxed out on capicity. It's a local banck with branches all over the area, but sometimes they get overwhelmed and my card wont work. I'll wait a few minutes and have them run it again. It might take three or our tries, but eventually it's always worked except one time. Then, I used my credit card and found out that the phone lines were totally down all that afternoon.
It might not be Harbor Freights fault, it might be your banks fault, or something to do with the way they communicate. With everything being computerized and instant communications, if it doesn't go through the first time, it just denies the transaction. With thousands of transactions going on every second, sometimes it doesn't happpen.
Good luck,
Eddie
