An Extra Deposit Of Film-Worthy Crazy

A middle-aged woman comes into the store holding a single-use disposable film camera.

Customer: “Hello, do you do 35 mm film development?”

Me: “Yes, we do. We can send them off to get developed.”

I go through the options available to develop her single-use camera.

Me: “You will pay a £6.00 deposit to send it off, and that comes off of the total £11.99 you will have to pay the rest of when you come to collect.”

Customer: “Okay, well, I’m not sure whether I’ve used this camera properly as I couldn’t always get it to fire.”

These cameras are pretty straightforward to use as there are clear instructions printed on the cameras themselves. 1) Press the shutter button to take a photo, or 2) you pull a trigger on the front to activate the flash, let a light blink on to show it’s ready, and then take the photo with a flash, as well. That’s it.

The customer starts to fiddle with the camera in front of me, clearly not understanding how to use it. Not only that but she’s used the camera up fully somehow despite her confusion, so anything she tries now won’t work anyway. She gives up despite me trying to explain and show her this.

Customer: “Can I get this camera developed anyway and buy another to use?”

Me: “Sure, no problem.”

I hand her a new one for her to look at and get her head around as she’s still struggling. I grab another of EXACTLY the same product off the shelf to scan into the till, and she looks up at me doing so.

Customer: “Hold on. That’s a different one!”

Me: “No, miss, this is the same product; I’m just using this one to scan it into the till whilst you’re holding that one.”

Customer: *Getting very snippy all of a sudden* “No, it’s not! That’s different!”

Me: “I assure you, miss, this is the same product with the same barcode, so it makes no difference if I scan this one or the one in your hands.”

Customer: *Condescendingly* “Are you sure?!”

Me: *Confused and annoyed* “Yes.”

Never, in the fifteen years that I’ve worked in retail, has someone questioned me if I knew how barcodes work before, so this throws me a bit.

Customer: “Can I see them both?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but why?”

Customer: “Can I just see them?!“

I give up and don’t want to cause a scene, so I hand her the second camera. She then pulls out her reading glasses and directly compares the barcodes and packaging on both products despite the fact they look EXACTLY the same.

Customer: *Still not sounding convinced* “HMPH! Okay fine!”

She hands one of the cameras back. Carrying on whilst shaking my head, I total the payment for both the new disposable camera (£10.00) she’s bought and the deposit for getting her used camera processed (£6.00) which comes to £16.00 total. She hands me £20 to cover the total and I give her £4.00 change.

Me: “Please, may I take your name and phone number so we can contact you when your film is back?”

Customer: “Oh, well, when will they be back? I have a phone but I don’t use it, so I’ll just come back around the time they should be done.”

She says this whilst thoroughly shaking her head in disapproval of her own phone and any technology like it. Of course, she has a phone she doesn’t trust, either.

Me: “Okay? That’s fine, miss. Feel free to check back late next week.”

Over a week passes. The customer comes back. My colleague serves her, she pays for the rest of the charge for processing her camera, and she then leaves without any issues. A few minutes later, she comes stomping back into the store and speaks to me.

Customer: “Excuse me?! It says here on the receipt I paid a deposit for my film development. I did not pay a deposit. I will not be seen as someone who didn’t pay for what I owe!“

At this point, it’s been a busy past week and I can’t remember off the top of my head how exactly she paid for the deposit previously, as we get so many film processing orders, but I know for a fact she definitely did.

I double-check on the till to be sure though as I don’t wanna shoot myself in the foot by calling her out.

Me: “Okay, that’s strange as that doesn’t normally happen. Let me just make sure.”

Customer: “I definitely didn’t pay a deposit!”

Me: “Well, after looking through the till, nothing has been inputted incorrectly; you did pay the £6.00 deposit.”

Customer: “No, no, no, I didn’t. Here!“

She gets £6.00 cash out of her purse and slams it on the counter.

Customer: “Take it! I don’t want to be seen as someone who doesn’t pay when they should have!”

Me: “With all due respect, miss, we don’t want your money because you don’t need to pay anymore.”

Customer: “No! Take it!”

Me: “No, miss, you don’t owe us anything. If we have made a mistake somehow, then that’s on us and you get to keep £6.00.”

Customer: “I can’t accept that; check your CCTV and you will see that I did not pay £6.00!”

Me: “I don’t want to be rude, but we don’t want your money and you’re simply wrong, miss. I’m trying to save you your money. The till literally will not let us process a film development order without a deposit, and our till total wasn’t out at the end of the da—”

Customer: “Well, I don’t want to be rude, but no! I will not be seen as someone who doesn’t pay. Check your CCTV! You are wrong!”

She then stormed out, leaving the money. We ended up putting her now overpaid £6.00 into a charity pot. The funny thing is that my colleague told me later that she looked at her camera prints before leaving and most of them were blanks or bad quality.