Italian guy: This ATM just ate my card, buy my BTC at 20% markup.
You: Which one? Let us go there so I can stick my card in it too... Whoops!
It was more like.
Me: I thought you were buying bitcoins, not buying euros. I only have 300 on me. Let me get 400 euros from this ATM we're standing at.
ATM eats my card.
Italian guy: Yep, same thing happened to me.
So Italian guy just watched you stick your card into an ATM which ate his? The very reason he needed to sell you BTC at a 20% markup in the first place?
Didn't say "hey, maybe you should try a different ATM, this one just ate my card," just chuckled under his breath, you say?
So you couldn't get any cash?
Did the two of you go looking for another gentlemen, to sell him your bitcoin at a totally reasonable 20% markup, both of you needing cash?
While we were standing there a few other people used it. The reason it ate my card is likely because I didn't have the right PIN.
I couldn't get any cash. I gave him 300 so he could have spending money for a few days and I went to the bank the next day to get more (where they told me I entered the wrong PIN). We actually hung out a few times and talked about Bitcoin and general ex-pat type of stuff. I helped him figure out how to pay Expedia for a hotel room with bitcoins while he looked for an apartment. Eventually his wife sent him a replacement card from home. And I got my replacement card, though I never did use it (that was the first time I tried to use my ATM card).