The card system is not a problem, they work well for the intended purpose, and seemed reliable… you shouldn’t not go there simply because they use the card system… the failures I experienced were human and intentional… this was not in a CG but a was Laundromat surrounded by many CG’s...
The one I had a problem with had a twofold intended purpose… one honorable and one not…
one was to do away with the troublesome coin system…
The second since this was a high transient area to profit from the cards themselves and cheat the people of the few dollars knowing most won’t be back or would put a lot of effort into collecting a small refund…
If it weren’t intended to rip-off transient customers they would simply prominently post their no refund policy and post the refundable deposit on the card would not be on its return but by follow-up mail…
If the policy is posted and not read, it not a rip-off, but as a hidden restrictive policy it is clearly meant to be a rip-off… these cards are returned when the users are leaving the area and don’t have time to file official complaints…
In this attended facility at the very least these policies could be told to the customer when the card is acquired… the one girl even said she was instructed to no mention this and if anyone asked she was instructed to just get a number where the boss could reach them…