A Customer Blamed Her for a Failed Transaction—Until the Cashier Stayed Calm and Tracked Down the Issue
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Declined cards make busy checkout lines painfully awkward.
One customer transferred money while everyone waited for payment to clear.
Multiple attempts changed nothing.
Naturally, she blamed the cashier’s terminal.
Let’s see how this one played out.
Let me just transfer some money
I work as a cashier in a business based on entertainment. Because of this, school vacations are very busy for us.
There is also a start and end time, so it’s pretty important to get through a line quickly.
On one of the days of school vacation, a woman came in to get three tickets during a peak hour when we were pretty busy.
Everything was going smoothly, maybe a little slow, but everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
But here’s where things started going off the rails.
When she handed me her card, it declined. “I don’t want to worry you, but this card did decline.”
More often than not, people give me the wrong card and just hand me a new one.
She seemed surprised and started checking her phone. “Just give me a second to transfer some money.”
Despite the line growing longer and longer, the cashier kept their patience.
Obviously, I wanted to get through the line, but sometimes transfers are super quick. She handed me back the card and said it should be good to go.
I ran the card again, and it declined.
When it continued to decline, the cashier did their best to keep trying.
I waited a minute or two, but I was trying to move this line along and give it as many tries as I could. There was definitely a super awkward silence I remember vividly.
After what felt like ten minutes of me trying her card every so often, she abruptly asked me how many times I swiped it.
(G = Guest, M = Me)
But the customer’s patience soon began to wear thin.
G: “How many times have you swiped it? It has to be at least six.”
M: “I’m just trying to make sure I know as soon as the transfer goes through.”
G: “The transfer already went through, I’m looking at it right here.”
M: “I understand, I just want to get you guys up there as soon as possible. Just trying to help.”
She soon decides she wants to deal with someone more important.
G: “Just have your manager try it. You’ve obviously already locked the card, or there’s a problem with your terminal.”
I had my manager come out. He listened to her retelling of the story and swiped the card. Even when he tried a different terminal, it still got declined.
She went to the closest ATM, even with the harsh $3 fee, and came back probably five minutes later.
Finally, the issue seemed to get resolved, and their manager gave them a kind word of advice.
We finally got everyone in and having fun.
The last thing my manager said to me was, “Don’t let people get mad at you for things that you can’t control.”
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That was the day someone accused me of locking their card with my broken terminal.
At least the manager had his employee’s back.
What did Reddit think of all this?
This commenter applauds the employee’s professionalism in the face of a stressful situation.
It was a stressful situation for all, but luckily everyone made it out to the other side.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a burned-out employee who finds a way to ease his stress with an extended daily lunch.
Sometimes payment issues aren’t the customer’s fault at all.
The customer insisted the cashier had locked her card, but another terminal produced the same result.
She eventually withdrew cash from an ATM and returned without proving any equipment was broken.
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