Customers make me hate Christmas. Ba-damn.

Credit or debit? Doesn’t matter, beyotch, your card won’t work.

 

I was working at the Dollar store tonight as MOD (Manager on Duty). My cashier comes to me and says there’s a problem with the credit card this woman is trying to use. So I come up to the register, have her slide the card to see what it’s saying and we get the following message:

 

Visa TENDER NOT ALLOWED.

 

Okay? I had never seen this little window before. INVALID CARD, yes. But not this one. I turn to my cashier and say, “Did you try it as a DEBIT?” because sometimes cards like to do their own thing. My cashier says, “Yes, and it was saying invalid card for that one.”

 

Okay. Weird. I didn’t know what to do so I called my boss and HE didn’t know what the message meant either. While I’m talking to him, I happen to look at the screen that shows the item purchased and I see there’s an ATT phone card on the transaction. Duh! Dollar General’s policy for phone cards is they can ONLY be paid for with cash or debit card. So I tell the woman this and she rolls her eyes and says “that’s stupid. Wal-Mart lets me pay with a card.” So I kindly (and yes, I was nice about it because she hadn’t pissed me off yet) inform her that that’s Wal-Mart’s policy, not ours, and then I AGREE with her that, yes, it is stupid that you can’t pay with a card when purchasing minutes for your cell phone.

 

“Do you want to just take the phone card off?” I ask.

 

“Yes.” (she’s got her panties all bunched by the way—but I ignore it)

 

I take off the phone card and she proceeds to slide her card through the machine to pay for the rest of her stuff and I get the same message:

 

Visa TENDER NOT ALLOWED

 

I shake my head, confused. “It’s still saying it.”

 

She becomes Miss Snippy with an Attitude:

 

“Well I KNOW nothing’s wrong with my card; I just spent 500 dollars at Wal-Mart with it.”

 

I (still) kindly inform her that maybe that’s the problem. I say, “Some banks have a limit on how much you can spend in a day-” (I was going to tell her that the reason for this is a security precaution—the banks want to make sure your card hasn’t been stolen— and she may have to call and approve the purchase. I’ve HAD this happen a couple other times. A customer will have problems with their card and the only problem is that they’ve spent the day’s limit and need to approve the purchase)

But this broad interrupts me before I can finish:

 

“My bank doesn’t limit me.” Then she just stands there, like there’s some magic button I can push to make the computer accept her card.

 

“It’s not going to let you use it,” I tell her.

 

By now, she’s on the phone with someone and is dropping the F-bomb, saying “it’s not letting me use my bleeping card.”

 

She walks out, still on the phone. I cancel the transaction. My cashier and I start talking, venting to each other that we don’t understand why people get mad at US when it’s either company policy, THEIR problem, or a broken machine that won’t let them do what they want to do.

 

Ten minutes later I receive a phone call:

 

“I was just in there and tried to buy some stuff. What was my card saying? Was it saying it was declined?”

 

“No,” I (again) kindly inform her. “It was saying invalid card when you ran it as a debit, and tender not allowed when you ran it as credit.”

 

“Well, why didn’t you run it as a debit after you took off the phone card? I just called my bank (at 7:45? What bank is open at that time? But I didn’t say anything…) and they said nothing was wrong with my card. You should have run it as a debit to see if that would work instead of embarrassing me.” She’s using one of those voices where they’re being “too nice” and you know it’s sarcasm.

 

By now I know we’re going to have problems. My hand goes to my hip and I look at my cashier while I’m talking to this broad from hell and I start doing the head thing. My cashier starts laughing because she knows when I get that look I’m getting pissed off.

 

I know I’m about to get into it with this woman because she then asks for corporate’s phone number. Fine. I head into the office. My face is getting heated already.

 

“Ma’am, I was not trying to embarrass you. I never implied you didn’t have any money in your account, I was simply suggesting that your bank may have had a limit on what you can spend in a day-”

 

Aaaand, again she cuts me off.

 

“I’ve been with my bank for (such and such) years...” blah blah blah.

 

So, I cut HER off and say, “I can’t read your mind! How am I supposed to know what bank you’re with and what their policies are? I was only SUGGESTING that might be the problem because some banks need you to approve-”

 

And again, she cuts me off and starts yammering about this and that. I can’t even remember what she was saying. I’m now to the point where I’m shaking because I’m so angry and I yell into the phone:

 

“WOULD YOU LET ME FINISH?!”

 

“I don’t need to let you finish because I know what my bank does.”

 

“You’re not getting what I’m trying to say here.”

 

“Well, neither are you. You should have ran it as a debit.”

 

“We didn’t run it as a debit because it said invalid card. It wouldn’t have worked.”

 

“Did you try it after taking off the phone card?”

 

“No, because it said INVALID card. It wasn’t because of the purchase, it’s because the card cannot be used as a debit. I didn’t think it would work as a debit.”

 

“Well you work there, shouldn’t you know these things?”

 

Oooh. It’s on. It is ON.

First of all, if you think your card might work as a debit, YOU need to run it as a debit.

 

This woman knew SHE had to make the choice of “Credit” or “Debit.” WE don’t do that. We simply hit the button on the register that says “cash,” “check,” or “bank card.” Once we hit “bank card” it’s up to the customer to choose whether it’s debit or credit. And she KNEW this because she had already done it.

 

So, why didn’t YOU run it as a debit if you thought that would work?

I didn’t think to say this at the time. I was so mad that I wasn’t thinking straight. 

 

Second, it is my job to ring up items and specify the method of payment, and give change when it is needed. It is NOT my job to know what kind of card you have and how to use it. That’s YOUR problem.

 

I don’t own a bank card. I never have because I don’t want to get sucked into a mountain of debt or overspend by using a debit card. So, I am not familiar with how they work and it is not in my job description TO know. The only things I NEED to know are what cards we take (Visa, Discover, and Mastercard debit), and if we allow cashback or not. I will repeat: it is not my job to know how YOU can use YOUR card.

 

And, I found out a little while later that (surprise!) I was right. The card would not have worked as a debit anyway because it said invalid card. AND I find out from my cashier that, in the beginning of this mess, when SHE asked the woman to run it as a debit, the woman said: “It’s not a debit card; that won’t work.”

 

So, who’s the moron here?

 

It ended with me giving her corporate’s number through my teeth. And then she told me to tell the cashier that SHE has great customer service skills, and SHE was very nice, but that *I* am not and do not have good customer service skills.

 

I say “Whatever” and hang up the phone.

 

NOW I don’t have good customer service skills, bitch.

 

After I hang up with the broad from hell, I call my boss and tell him that I’m about to get a customer complaint put on me. He doesn’t seem to care because he knows people can be bitches. But I’m still mad enough that my face is red and so hot it feels like my skin is melting off and I’m starting to cry—which I hate.

 

So I have to sit in the office for 15 minutes to cool off and calm down. It’s not working so I get up and go to the bathroom, hoping to go unnoticed, but my cashier sees me anyway and asks if I’m okay. I say “Yeah, just mad” and proceed to the bathroom to wash my face with cold water and try to calm down.

 

My cashier knocks at the door a few minutes later and asks if I’m okay again.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Are you SURE?”

 

“Yes.”

 

I even go outside to get the wintry air on my face. It helps a little but I’m still red an hour later.

 

I’ve never had a customer complaint on me in the year and couple months I’ve worked here. NEVER. In fact, I get the opposite. People are always telling my group and I that we’re all very nice and very helpful.

 

And I had a witness to all of this. Another customer heard the whole thing and she came up to me a little while later and told me not to worry about it. That the woman just seemed like a miserable person who probably had low self-esteem and makes everyone around her feel like dookie to make herself feel better. She told me she had seen and heard all that had happened earlier and that I shouldn’t worry because I did nothing wrong.

 

My cashier remembered her then and said, “Oh yeah! She was standing by the cooler when the woman was here, shaking her head at the other lady because of how she was acting.”

 

I thanked the woman for making me feel better.

 

The thing that pissed me off MOST in this whole fiasco is that the woman would not let me finish a sentence so I could explain to her that I was never implying she was broke and just didn’t have the funds, but that SOME banks put a limit on how much you can spend due to security issues—I was trying to HELP this woman and give her some other options so she WOULDN’T think there was anything wrong with her card—and she just turned into Mega Bitch. But not to my face, of course. She was too much of a coward and had to call me instead.

 

She wouldn’t let me try to explain myself, she wouldn’t let me finish a sentence in order to get things straightened out. She’s just a miserable little (actually, she was rather large) woman who feels she has to spread her misery. And she probably needs to get laid. But good luck with that, psycho bitch. And I dare her to come back into the store and say anything else to me. I DARE her.

 

And yes, I do hope she somehow found this and is reading this and knows it’s about her. Store 10821, bitch. Sara, with no “h.”

...not finish a story, that is.

But, I'm in a relationship with someone right now and I care about him a lot and don't feel like I can finish this story right now. I'm just not interested in looking at the past when all I care about is the future.

I hate to leave ya'll hanging, so I plan on continuing VAMPIRES! as soon as I meet the deadlines of the horror anthologies. So, don't delete me because I will be posting that, or at least a link to my webpage so you can keep up with it.

Sorry if anyone was really interested in this story, I just don't feel it's appropriate to keep writing, nor am I interested in doing so.

If you're looking for the story I'm writing on this account, you need to add me as a friend to be able to read it. I'll add YOU when you add me, that way you'll have access.

I don't want just anyone reading it, just anyone to be able to leave comments. I want the people reading it to REALLY want to read it (in other words, I don't want any damn trolls).

--Rey