Have you ever gone to a self checkout machine and needed assistance? Sometimes the machines can be a little bit finicky, but sometimes the problem is user error, like in this story.

A retail store employee was working at the self checkout area when they noticed that a man at one of the registers needed assistance.

He made a common mistake, but his reaction was anything but common.

Let’s read the whole story.

“Why doesn’t it say card only?” “It does, in 3 different places.”

This story is a few years old, as I no longer work in retail, but it was still one of my most satisfying stories.

At the time of this story, I worked at a home improvement retail store. I was a cashier and on this particular day, I was scheduled to run the Self Checkout/Assisted Checkout, or SCO/ACO (it went by both names).

Now, for this to make sense, I have to describe the SCO machines.

The machines were clearly marked.

We had 4 SCO machines. On the left side, the machines took cash and card. On the right side, they only took card.

The “card only” machines said they were card only in 3 different places.

The first places was on the light for the SCO register. The second places was on the counter where you set your things in BIG letters. The 3rd place is on the screen of the SCO machine before you start checking out.

Despite the fact that there were so many things saying the machines were card only SCO machines, it was very common for people to attempt to pay cash.

Most customers laughed about their mistake, but one customer was different.

Usually, I was able to just suspend the transaction and take them to a machine that took cash, so they wouldn’t have to restart the transaction and they would usually laugh at how they missed it being card only.

However, if this was one of the instances where they laughed the mistake off, I wouldn’t be posting here.

I had a man at one of our “card only” SCO registers. I can’t really remember what he looked like, but I believe he was in his 30s. I was probably 19 or 20 at the time.

I noticed him with some cash, trying to find a place to put it in.

The man clearly needed assistance.

He looks around and makes eye contact with me.

I was already on my way over, so he started to ask me a question immediately.

Cast: Man-the customer Me- well, me

Man: “Where do I put in the cash?”

Me: (smiling and chuckling, as this is a common occurrence) “Oh, this is a “card only” machine. I can suspend the transaction and take you over to one that takes cash.”

The employee put the man in his place.

Man: (annoyed, and with attitude) ‘Well why doesn’t it say card only then?”

I stopped smiling and just decided to be blunt, because his inability to pay attention was not my fault. And I said “It does. It says it right here (points to counter), up there, (points to SCO light) and it says it on the screen before you start checking out.”

This man was silent the rest of the time.

He didn’t say another word. He didn’t apologize, didn’t thank me, nothing. He was just silent as I suspended his transaction and took him to the cash machine so he could finish up.

One can only hope he learned his lesson.

I honestly don’t care that he didn’t apologize for his rudeness.

It was satisfying to embarrass him into silence.

I’d like to think he learned to pay attention and not blame others for his mistakes, but that is probably wishful thinking. 🤷

Hopefully he really did learn something from this experience.

Let’s see what the comments on Reddit have to say.

This is a good question.

This is basically what happened.

Silence is better than rudeness.

Some customers really aren’t that bright.

At least he didn’t act like a Karen.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.