There’s No Thinking Happening Outside This Box

I worked for a bank where I would remotely assist customers at an interactive ATM (technically ITMs, or Interactive Teller Machines, but no one calls them that). I was pretty much in the basement of the bank with a bunch of computers, and my face would appear on the screen and help them make whatever transaction they needed.

Once I helped a customer who was a first-time user. The machine itself is a tiny ATM located in the middle of nowhere. I was halfway through the transaction when she said:

Customer: “Wow, it must be cramped in there.”

Me: *Confused.* “What do you mean, ma’am?”

Customer: “Inside the ATM. Must get cramped.”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m communicating with you remotely. I’m not… I’m not physically inside the ATM.”

Customer: *Flipping out.* “What?! So you’re lying to me?!”

Me: “No, ma’am. Interactive ATMs mean we can interact with you from another location.”

Customer: “Cancel! Cancel the transaction! I don’t know if you’re a man or a machine, but you’ve been lying to me, and I don’t trust you!”

I had to cancel the transaction. I was told she called the next day to complain that “the little man inside the ATM lied to her” and I had to be contacted to provide context to the very strange complaint.