suzuki-san...please allow me to clarify a few things. i work in operations for a credit card company (US-based nga lang so bear with me if there are a few differences):

- every merchant knows very well that if the point-of-sale machines don't work (this happens more often than we'd like), it's a simple matter to get authorization over the phone - it takes seconds as long as you don't get declined

- every standard merchant agreement states that it is not allowed to 'suppress', or not accept the card as payment if the customer wants to use it. depending on the situation there may be fines

- there is no difference in merchants getting paid with 'manual' transactions vs. swiped transactions - NONE AT ALL. as soon as it goes through, either over the phone or through the terminal, it is logged and the proper financial adjustment made - the difference is literally seconds

- in my experience, merchants who ask their customers not to use their card and pay in cash tend to be shady/fraudulent (i am trying not to generalize here - hindi lahat). the reason - customers who pay with their card can usually get the card company to charge back the merchant in cases of fraud or shady business practices.

my conclusion - your friend mike is full of ****.