Some customers simply couldn’t understand a logical explanation.

This grocery store employee was trying to assure a customer that the self-checkout machine was not trying to steal from her; her bag was messing up the scales. But the customer simply won’t accept this explanation.

Read the full story below.

A customer spent fifteen minutes arguing that our self checkout machines were “stealing” from her because she didn’t understand how the scale worked.

Bit of background: I work at a mid-size grocery store, have been there about two years.

Our self-checkout area has six machines with the standard bagging-area scale that registers the weight of each item after you scan it. Most people figure this out in about thirty seconds.

This particular customer, I’ll call her M, had been using self-checkout just fine until she scanned a multipack of yogurts and placed it on the scale, at which point the machine paused and asked her to wait for assistance.

It was because the weight didn’t match what was expected. Routine thing. It happens maybe twenty times a day. It usually means an item got bumped or something’s on the scale that shouldn’t be.

This employee tried to explain the situation to the customer but she just won’t accept it.

I came over and saw immediately that her reusable shopping bag was sitting on the bagging area before she’d started scanning, adding extra weight to every item.

Standard fix. It only takes thirty seconds. Before I could explain, she told me the machine had “overcharged” her for the yogurts.

I said it hadn’t charged her at all yet; it had just paused because of the weight difference.

She said the machine was adding secret charges. I explained the scale. She said she knew how scales worked, and this wasn’t that.

I explained it again, differently. She said she’d been using self-checkouts for twenty years.

She finally understood it, but it took a long-winded argument.

I gently pointed out that our store had only installed these particular machines three years ago, but that wasn’t really the point.

Long story short, it took four explanations and a demonstration involving me physically lifting the bag off the scale so she could see the weight number change in real time.

It also took a brief appearance from my supervisor before she accepted that the machine was not, in fact, stealing from her.

She did say “thank you” at the end, which I appreciated.

She also used the self-checkout again the following week, with the bag on the scale again. I handled it slightly faster the second time.

Now that must’ve been embarrassing for the customer.

Other people in the comments section have something to say.

Another employee shares an interesting observation.

This user is chiming in.

Another one shares their personal experience.

Here’s a hilarious comment.

And here’s a fair insight.

Check the scale first before accusing a machine of stealing.

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.