Trying To Pay With A Photo Finish
Customer: “Excuse me, can you help me with this photo machine?”
Me: “Yes, what’s the problem?”
Customer: “It printed all of my photos, but it’s telling me to bring the receipt to the counter, and it’s not printing a receipt.”
(Our kiosk’s receipt printer hasn’t worked in years, so we frequently have to give this explanation.)
Me: “The summary it printed after the last photo is what we use. It tells you how many pictures were in the order, and we can figure the price out from that.”
Customer: “But I don’t know how much photos cost!”
Me: “Well, they’re 29 cents each, and it says here there were 13 photos, so with that—”
Customer: “But it doesn’t tell me how much it’ll cost, or how many photos there are!”
(She begins counting the photos by hand, so I grab the calculator and work out the cost.)
Customer: “…twelve, thirteen. Now to get the cost. Thirteen times 29 cents…”
Me: “It’ll be $3.77 before tax, ma’am.”
(The customer ignores me and continues to write out the multiplication.)
Customer: “Okay, it’s $3.77! By the way, you don’t sell photo postcards here, do you? Or any of the stores in this square?”
Me: “I’m afraid we don’t; if anyone here does, it would probably be [Other Store], so I’d check there first.”
Customer: “Thank you. I’ll do that!”
(The customer immediately turns from the counter and starts toward the exit.)
Me: “Ma’am, you need to— Ma’am, you need to pay for those!”
Customer: “I did!”
Me: “No… you didn’t.”
Customer: “I paid it right over there, you can check my balance and see!”
(Fearful that she might have tried jamming her card into a slot on the kiosk, I rush around… only to find her pointing at the ATM next to it.)
Customer: “I slid it right here, and it says here you can check my balance to see.”
Me: “This is the store’s ATM, not part of the photo machine.”
Customer: “Well, can I check my balance?”
Me: “Uh… Yes?”
(With another customer waiting, I leave to ring them up while keeping the first customer in earshot while she uses the ATM.)
Customer: “It wants a PIN? It’s never asked for that before!”
(I finish checking the second customer out, right as the first customer walks back up to the counter.)
Customer: “Since when does it want a PIN for anything? Anyway, I guess I’ll trust that I still need to pay for these. But I’m using cash this time, not a card!”
Me: “All right, after tax, that’ll be four dollars even!”
(The customer pulls out a small wad of bills with a twenty and three ones visible. She returns to her purse, and I assume she’s getting a fourth dollar bill.)
Customer: “Feels like it’s been forever since I paid with cash!”
(She does pull out another wad of cash with another dollar bill, only to drop it and continue digging for two more handfuls. By the time she stops, I can see a five, a ten, a twenty, and far more ones than needed to pay for the pictures.)
Me: “Ma’am, you… have enough to pay for this…”
(Paying no attention to me, she begins straightening out some of the ones, the five, and the twenty. After she’s stacked twelve of them up, she sighs and slides me the ten.)
Customer: “Oh, just take it out of the ten, then.”
Me: “Um… Okay… And six dollars is your change!”
Customer: “Whew, never a dull moment, is there?”
Me: “Nope!”
