Nobody Puts Mrs. HM In A Decliner

Sweet Gummi Mary! I've had ANOTHER round of problems with a cashier! I'm pretty sure it's THEM, not ME! Right? Right?

This was not the gal I revealed on my not-so-secret blog, the assistant manager at the Casey's. She has a giant problem with anything I do. She's a Problem-Shouter. No, this yesterday problem was something that hinged on the card-reader at Country Mart. Which has in recent months been bought out by another company, and wants checks made out the them, while still using the giant sign for Country Mart.

Anyhoo... a Young Gal who was training last week was in charge of my checkout. The guy training her back then was telling her how quick she caught on. I don't disagree. She was friendly, and seemed to know what she was doing.

She rang up my groceries, and bagged them according to coldness and shape. Better than most shopping experiences I've had lately. She turned to chat with a co-worker passing through the closed checkout behind her. I put in my debit card, put in the information, coded it for cash back to have money for the lottery machine to get Genius his weekly scratchers. Then I punched the OKAY button to agree to the amount. Put in my PIN. The card reader said it was processing. Not to remove my card. Then it did the little BEEP thing. And the BEEP-BEEP sounds as the screen said to remove my card. I did. Young Gal turned from talking to that co-worker, and hit the button on the register like they usually do.

CARD DECLINED!

What in the NOT-HEAVEN?

I've never had a card declined! It has come back as unable to process, like when Country Mart was having all that trouble a while back with their card readers on every checkout. That was happening to everybody. But now I was DECLINED.

That's not the fault of the cashier. It's how she handled it that set me off. Oh, she never acted like I didn't have the money. I didn't have a care in the world about money in my bank. I carry a large cushion on that balance, because I drop off six months worth of insurance payments over at Newmentia. So there's plenty of money in there, with three months of premiums still outstanding.

Here's what Young Gal did: SHE ASKED IF I TOOK MY CARD OUT TOO SOON! As if I was some novice, who hadn't been using a debit card since before she was born! Let me tell you, I, myself, was not born yesterday. Which is, perhaps, the problem.

Again, Young Gal was perfectly polite. But I sensed a bit of a patronizing component to her assistance. Like when I took my mom for surgery one time, she being around 60 years old at the time, and the doctor talked to ME and ignored her. Like she was in her dotage. I told him to ask HER the questions. "She's right there." And he spoke loudly, enunciating on steroids, getting right in her face when he talked.

Anyhoo... Young Gal reset the register and told me too try again. I did. Halfway through, the screen went black, and then moved on to the final approval screen. Which I wasn't ready for yet. It didn't let me enter the CASH BACK information.

"It won't let me get cash back. The screen blacked out on that."

"Let's try again."

Anyhoo... Young Gal then took it upon herself to walk me through it!

"Here. Put in your card..."

"Yes. I've been doing that here for years."

"Okay, now hit NEXT..."

"No. I am getting cash back. Last time I tried, it went black at that screen, and shut off."

The card reader was currently on that CASH BACK screen. So I punched in my numbers. Hit NEXT. And it went to the final approval screen, like normal.

"Okay, if that's right, hit APPROVE."

"Yes. That's what I did before when it said DECLINED."

This time, the card reader did its beeping and beep-beeping, and showed REMOVE YOUR CARD. And APPROVED.

"Well. That's better than when it didn't work at all a couple months ago!"

Young Gal smiled a bit patronizingly, like she wanted to say, "Bless your heart!" Also a bit relieved that she was getting rid of this crazy old woman. She thanked me, and handed me my receipt.

"Um. You didn't give me my cash back. It's right here on the receipt."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay."

Young Gal reviewed her register tape and forked over the cash.

Life was so much simper when people paid in cash. Or bartered hogs and chickens. Though they're kind of hard to shove into the slot of a lottery machine...