Some customers would do anything to get out of paying for their items.

This employee was blamed by a customer for overcharging and tampering with her card because her card was declined several times. A huge scene erupted.

Read below for the full story.

The time I was accused of the federal crime of deactivating a customer’s card

I had just gotten in for the day and had to cover ‘Riley’ at Self-Checkout (SCO) first 15. So I dismiss her, and a few moments later, I see a blinker and go to help.

Me: How may I help you, ma’am?

Customer: My card isn’t working!

Me: Okay, what is the error message you keep getting?

Customer: It just won’t accept my card!!!!

Me: Okay, I’ll reset the card reader and then we can try again. So I created a suspend slip and tried to rescan the transaction into the machine, but of course the slip didn’t work.

She only had 7 items so I quickly rerang up her items and compared the totals to make sure everything was scanned correctly.

Me: Okay, it’ll be $32.09

Customer: That’s the wrong total! You double scanned!!!!

A customer accused this employee of overcharging her.

I then double check again that the totals are the same from the suspend slip then go back and look at the sales screen and everything is only rung up once.

Me: Sorry ma’am, but there’s no item listed twice and all items that are scanned are in your bag. Is there something you’d like to remove?

Customer: No! Ring it up again! This time I’ll keep an eye on you!

So I scan everything again and get the exact same total.

Me: Your total will be $32.09

Customer: The machine is wrong! That’s not the correct total!!!

To my luck but not my supervisor’s, he just happened to be passing through SCO and I needed to try and deescalate the situation and I figured I should pass her up before she gets more upset and ask my boss to ring her out quickly. He agrees and gets the same total as me.

Customer thinks she broke her card.

Customer: The lipstick was $3 not 6!!!

Our company policy is to just change the price if it’s not a significant loss so he just changes the price of the lipstick.

Supervisor: Okay, sorry about that ma’am, your total will be $28.88

Customer: That’s better!!!!

So she tries to pay again and once again her card declines. When a card declines there are multiple reasons for it and we don’t assume it just because the card doesn’t have enough funds.

So we try to go through the list but she’s very defensive and none of the other ways make any difference, so we tell her she just has to contact the card provider to see why the card isn’t working.

She, however, believes that I have broken her card and starts screaming that at the top of her lungs.

The supervisor intervened.

Customer: She broke my card!

Supervisor: Ma’am, she didn’t.

Customer: If only I had kept a better eye on her, have her turn out my pockets and give me my money back!!!

I am still at SCO and can hear her screaming and so can the other customers who are turning their heads to look at the scene she’s causing.

Customer: I have a disability and this is my government issued card. Messing with the card is a federal crime.

My supervisor tries to tell her that I didn’t steal her money and that I can’t deactivate her card and that she just needs to contact the card issuer regarding any details of why her transaction won’t go through.

Customer: It was working this morning! She broke it and that’s a federal crime!

Fortunately, her supervisor backed her up.

Supervisor: Since it wasn’t working at the SCO either, you may have an insufficient balance or a fraud alert on your card.

Customer: No, I have enough money! She must have charged at the SCO, because I know how much money I have and it’s enough! I wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing because I had to look away since she has bad breath!!

Boss: Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask that you calm down, we can try your card again or you can pay another way.

Customer: It’s a federal crime!!!

She ended up leaving without her items and not too long later ‘Riley’ returned from her 15, blissfully unaware of the craziness that she had just barely missed.

Looks like this customer knows every excuse in the book.

Let’s read other users’ take on this story.

This user shares their two cents.

Here’s a sarcastic comment.

A hilarious response.

This user can relate.

And this reader called the customer rude.

Blame everything else but the zero bank balance.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.