Unfiltered Story #241197

The card machine at our cafe is sometimes faulty owing to dodgy internet reception. This isn’t usually a problem as most people have cash but can be a bit of a hassle. This time the card machine was working but only for contactless payments. An older gentleman walked in and ordered food for his wife and attempted to pay with a card.

Me: I’m sorry, our card machine isn’t actually working at the moment except for for contactless payments. Do you have a contactless card?
Customer: [Stares at me confused]. You can’t take card?
Me: Not unless it’s a contactless payment I’m afraid.
Customer: [taking the card out of the machine] Do you have any cash? [to his wife]
They both fumble about looking for cash and I notice that his card is contactless and as is payment is under £30 he could use his card.
Me: [trying to be helpful] Oh, your card is contactless, you’re welcome to just use that.
Customer: I’m not using contactless it’s not safe!
Me: Oh, okay then.

(I don’t explain to him that him not using the contactless wouldn’t stop anyone else from using it if they stole his card and that if he doesn’t want contactless on his card he needs to actually tell the bank and instead just let them scramble around for money whilst the queue gets longer, but it is slightly irritating.)