Cold Chance Of A Warm Reset

(Over the university holidays I am an intern at a major bank. At home I work as a support tech for one of the country’s largest department stores. I am also a customer at this cafe.)

Customer #1: “This stupid thing! You should really know how to get this working! It’s ridiculous! You are so rude!”

(I have been coming here since the day I arrived and know the cashier quite well, who I have never heard say a bad word.)

Cashier: “We have tried what we could. If you could just be patient we’ll finish your transaction.”

Customer: *grumbles*

Me: “I’ll just have a latte, thanks!”

Cashier: “Sure thing. Will you be paying with card?”

Me: “Yes! Let’s hope it goes through!”

(There is a communications error on the pin-pad.)

Cashier: “Ah, the paypass has been having issues all day. I’ll just get you to use this pin-pad. This thing is so unreliable; no matter what we try it just never seems to continue working.”

Me: “Ah, I see you’re using [Brand] pin-pads. I could fix that for you right now, if you like?”

Customer #1: “Fat chance. It’s s***!”

Cashier: “Are you sure? We have been having issues all day. I don’t know if you could fix this. I have tried everything.”

Me: “I’m actually on the [Department Store’s] IT account, and can fix this one for you. Have you tried this?”

(I perform the basic troubleshooting, a warm reset, while my payment is being processed on the other pin-pad.)

Cashier: “What did you do to it? It doesn’t look right!”

Me: “All right, I’ll just get you to log on to the pin-pad from your register. You’ll be all good to go again.”

Cashier: “I’m not sure. You just made the screen look all funny… That doesn’t fix it!”

(The cashier logs in to the pin-pad, goes to process next customer.)

Cashier: “Oh! It’s working. How did you know that?”

Me: “Like I said, I work on the IT account for [Department Store]. It would be pretty shocking of me NOT to know!”

(I then proceed to flash Customer #1 with a quick smirk, who then grabs his coffee, scowls, and marches off.)

Me: “If only we could perform a warm reset on HIM!”