Ignorance acts too quickly

Long story short I had to go in early last night. With DeWitt in the middle of Football playoffs, our business exploded briefly after the Panthers finished trouncing Sexton 42-14.

A lady tries to use her card at the pump, and for a reason we're never told the pump denies it, saying "See Cashier."

I don't know why the pump tells the customer that. We have no clue why it happened and can only offer alternative methods to help the customer pay for fuel. I do know that it seems to happen most commonly with debit cards, and that can be for various reasons. 99% of these instances are solved by pre-paying a set amount of money at the register.

Anyways, the lady comes into the store, clearly irate that the pump denied her card. I tell her I am sorry and that I don't know why the pump did that. Then I ask her if she'd like to pre-pay a set amount as that usually remedies the problem.

In an irate tone the lady replies, "NO, I want to fill it up."

I respond, "Well, would you like to pump it and then come in and pay? That sometimes fixes this problem as well."

The lady gruffly responds, "No I don't want to do that either. Can't you authorize it from here as if I was doing it out there?"

I respond, "No I cannot, but wha--" I am completely cut off as the lady dramatically turns away and storms out of the store.

I was about to explain that what I could do was pre-pay a set amount, and that if she filled up before using that amount it would automatically credit the difference back to her card, and that I would even bring the receipt out to her if she didn't want to come back in for it. Apparently I had inconvenienced her enough (since clearly I must have denied her sale and all) that she didn't want to hear any of it.

Now I don't want to be mean, and I was trying to help, but if you're going to act like that then I must rant.

Rant: Look, it's not my fault that you don't understand how your credit/debit card works when you try to use it at a gas pump. It's only public information and would be a good thing to know if you want to use it that way. The problem is one of three things: 1) You don't have enough money on your debit card. 2) Your debit card couldn't set enough money aside to cover the pre-pay before hand so it denied the sale completely. 3) You're in such a bad mood you swiped your Kroger card because you were fuming too much to look at which one you pulled out.

The third one is just stupidity and we can leave it at that. Trying to pre-pay the gas at the register will distinguish whether the problem with your card is problem 1 or problem 2. If you don't have time for that, then storm off, drive to a different gas station, and watch it happen all over again. I'm sure that will help. Even if it does work you'll just find something else you don't like so that you can still be a 40 year old drama queen. Make sure you complain about it at church while you're in Sunday School too. Have a nice day.

End Rant.
Did I go too far? I have to be honest, the first thought that came to mind after this happened was "I wonder what church she goes to." I don't know why, it just was.

You have to learn how to see people as God sees them, but sometimes they make it really hard.

Next shift is tonight.