No Funds Given

I managed a convenience store. Like many convenience stores, we had an ATM for customers to use. This lady came in and went straight to the ATM, and she was one of those regulars whom I internally groaned whenever she came in because she was a massive pain to deal with.

Anyway, she’s over at the ATM for several minutes, then calls one of the associates over to help her. I can’t really hear what she was saying, but I could tell she was upset about something, so I went over to see what was going on.

She had a handful of ATM receipts and said she kept trying to get money out, but it was only giving her a receipt, but no cash. While I was standing there, she tried another transaction to get cash, and the ATM spat out another receipt. She shows it to me, at the bottom of the receipt, and all the ones in her hand it says, “transaction declined, NSF.” For anyone who may not know, NSF is insufficient funds, meaning the money wasn’t in her account to withdraw.

I explained that to her and that, unfortunately, there wasn’t anything we could do, and if she didn’t think that was right, then she needed to contact her bank. She got upset and said that was the same thing the associate had told her, and she wanted her cash. Again, I apologized and repeated that she needed to contact her bank if there was more money in there.

She insisted that she shouldn’t have to call her bank, and she just wanted her $100. I told her again that there was really nothing we could do about it, which, of course, wasn’t good enough for her.

I then made the mistake of asking her what she wanted us to do.

She insisted we take $100 out of the register to give to her since she couldn’t get it out of the ATM. I told her we couldn’t do that; if she can’t get it from the ATM, then we can’t help her. Quick note, we didn’t have a cashback option on the registers, so even if by some miracle her card went through for a sale, she still wouldn’t have been able to get cash.

After a back and forth that went on for way too long, she finally looks at me and goes, “well you really are not very helpful.” Stomped her foot like a toddler and stormed out of the store.

Of course, she threatened to call corporate on her way out. I sort of hoped she would, just because I wanted to know what they told her when she complained that we wouldn’t steal money from the register for her.