It's happened with every chip card I've ever had. Even with ones that were a couple days old. The cashiers often say "yeah, that chip reader has been acting up" so I know it's not me. There's even a subway sandwich place I go to frequently where one day they had a whole brand new POS system with new readers, and it failed on me, and the cashier said "yeah, brand new system and it almost never works."

The Safeway POS grunts this very annoying alarm sound and shows CHIP MALFUNCTION on the screen, and it's just a standard part of my shopping experience now.