Cashback, Self-Attack

I am picking up a small item at a well-known pharmacy chain and I use a self-checkout machine with a sign that says, “No cash, card only.” That’s fine because I don’t have any cash on me anyway; however, it is late, and in a moment of auto-pilot, I press the “cashback” button. 

“Is this amount correct?” the machine asks me, and I press the “no” button, but somehow it is too late and the machine has already processed my payment. One staff member comes over and gives me a huge eye roll and has to find a manager to fix it. 

The manager comes over and has to unlock the machine and manually take out the cash box to give me the cash. “I’m sorry,” I say, and offer to take a refund on the cashback but she says that’s not possible and makes a big show of how annoyed she is opening the machine. She says to me, “It’s a really big sign.”

Listen, I work in customer service, too. I’m sure these staff members deal with people who make this mistake all day and I’m certain that it is super annoying, but I’m human, okay? Save your snide comments for rude people instead of shaming the apologetic ones.