Unfiltered Story #219101

I work as a cashier at a well-known big box store in the U.S. We’re expected to get people to sign up for our store card. This story takes place during a busy period halfway through my 8-hour weekend shift.

I was ringing a transaction for a woman in her late 30s. The whole time, she’s shifting her feet and sighing impatiently, obviously in a hurry. I expect her to say no, but I ask anyway.
Me: “Any interest in signing up for our store card today?”
Customer: “Might as well. How long does it take?”
Me: “About 2 minutes. It’s going to be either a credit card or a debit card. If you want to sign up for the debit card, I’ll need a check blank from you.”
Customer: “I’ll do the credit.”
I instruct her to answer the questions on the credit card reader and ask her to hand over her driver’s license so I can work on the identity portion of the sign up process. To sign up for our credit card, you need a valid photo ID, a social security number, and your household’s annual income. All of this information gets entered into the system, and applicants are usually approved instantly. This is what happened for this customer.
Me: “Hey, congrats, you’ve been approved! So here I have your temporary card. Keep this receipt on you until you get the actual card in the mail. This is how we-”
Customer (interrupting): “Is this a credit card, what I signed up for?”
Me: “… Well, yes…”
Customer: “WHAT?! I don’t want this! I thought it was a loyalty card! You didn’t tell me it was a credit card. It’s gonna ruin my credit score! I don’t want this.”
Me: “Sorry.”
Customer: “Just finish up here. I don’t have time for this s***. I’m already running late because of you.”
For the record, to sign up for the credit card, she had to select the credit option on the screen and enter some sensitive personal information (that SSN and annual income I mentioned earlier). So yeah, I bet she had no idea.