Email Fail Safe

I work in the photography department of a tourist attraction. We take guests’ pictures on a green screen and then offer them for sale at the exit. A woman opts for our full package which includes the soft copies of the image sent to an email address.

The whole transaction is done on a screen in front of the customer which includes the till and emailing system. I switch from the till tab to the emailing tab.

Me:

“If you type your email address in here we will send all the pictures to your email address, too.”

Customer:

*Frowning* “You want me to put my email in there? Everyone’s email addresses are just up on the screen there. I don’t want mine on there.”

I am confused for a moment until I realise she is talking about the till screen which I just exited. For some reason, under all the cashiers’ names to log in to our till are our email addresses. It is an unnecessary feature but no one who works there is really bothered that a customer may glance at our email addresses as we always close the tab pretty quickly after putting transactions through.

Me:

“Oh, don’t worry, madam; those are employee email addresses to identify our accounts. Customer email addresses will not display on the screen.”

Customer:

“Well, that’s an awful system! You should change that!”

She really emphasises the “you” as if she expects me to change the system of a multinational company’s computing system. 

Me:

“Uh, okay, well, if you do want your digital copies, just type your email here.”

The customer turns around and glares at the family waiting behind her to view their pictures.

Customer:

“What, with all these people watching?!”

Trying not to sigh audibly or roll my eyes, I pick the screen up and turn it towards the wall. She enters her email and leaves without a thank-you.

Next Customer:

“I really didn’t care what her email address was.”

To be honest, her concerns weren’t outrageous, but the way she went about voicing them was weirdly disproportionate to the situation!