Unfiltered Story #106340

(I work at a department store, and our system goes offline. This means that debit cards have to be run as credit to work. This has no effect on the price or what the customer is charged; the only difference is that the customer has to sign for the purchase instead of putting in their PIN. Most customers are entirely understanding and more than happy to run their cards as credit. I have one customer who is about ninety years old, buying a few things for his granddaughter. At the end of the transaction, he gives me his card.)

Me: “Is this debit or credit?”

Customer: “Debit.”

Me: “All right, sir, I can try to run it as debit, but our system is offline today, and it may have to run as credit. Is that all right?”

Customer: “What? I wish you’d told me that before I picked these out. Is it gonna charge me extra?”

Me: “Oh, no, sir, it doesn’t change anything, it’s just a different way to get at your account.”

Customer: “Well I don’t want to be charged extra.”

Me: “Why don’t you try putting in your PIN to see if our system is back up?”

(He enters his PIN, and my screen comes up with an error saying that it needs to run as credit instead.)

Me: “Okay, sir, it does look like our system is still offline, so this will have to be run as credit.”

Customer: “I don’t want to be charged extra for this.”

(At this point, he literally THROWS the stylus for the signature device onto the counter and starts to walk off.)

Me: “Sir, you forgot your card!”

(He turns back to grab his card and then stomps off, complaining that he’ll never shop here again. It was the most childish thing I’ve ever seen, and I work in the kids’ department!)