Note to Self: Leaping across the Counter and Strangling Stupid people is WRONG...

[Nijiero]

Hey, everyone! Nice Night. And I finally have something to talk about besides Captain Dipshit and his Porsche of Failure.

As I'm sure anyone who work in Food Service or Cashiers Work knows, a Credit Card Machine works through PHONE LINES, meaning they are capable of, and occasionally DO, cease working for some technical problem that we have no power to affect upon. For us, this event occurs maybe once every four or five weeks apparently because God decides it would be funny to throw us a Curveball and open the floodgates for Idiocy. Today was one such day. (on Memorial day weekend, of all the friggin times!)

When this happens, we have standard procedure... Unplug the Line, Reboot the register computer, Excorcise the Demons (I need an OLD Tech, and a YOUNG Tech!), all that jazz, and then see if it decided to resume function. More often than not, it does, and the Machine is apparently just having a brain fart. When it fails to restore connectivity and run cards, we put up our signs, three of them, one on the front door, one at the start of the sandwich line, and one right before the register, saying, "We are VERY SORRY, but we cannot take cards. Please have Cash ready to pay for your order."

AND while they're down, we have whoever is woking the start of the line ensure that customers have seen and acknowledge these signs. This prevents the customer from acting surprised at the register and prevents us from wasting food that is not going to be paid for. We still get the same question, a thousand times over, "How Come it's Not Working?" but we explain it nicely, and they either turn and exit because they have no cash, or they check to make sure they can cover their bill in money. It's simple, and normally effective.
Unless you have the brain-power of your average Doorknob.

Enter Big Sammich Order Lady, hereafter refered to as "Dumbass".... Oh, Fine, we'll call her BSOL.

I happen to be at the start of the line, this time, and I greet her nicely, and casually guesture to our sign in front of me stating our appologies, but we cannot acced Credit Card Payments at this time. She tells me, and this is a direct quote... "No Problem."
Then she unfolds her Grocery List order form. All three of us behind the line silently groan, as she places her order for 9 footlongs, and all of them have those little nitpicky details that she wants done... "I want no more or less than 20 olives on it, and make sure the cucumber slices are all the same size across the sandwich" etc.... she was during a lul in the line, so we indulge with that fake smile we all learn to use, and soon, I am facing her at the register, her order all bagged up and ready to go. I ring her up, and I give her her total, and she pulls from her wallet what looks a LOT like a credit card. I raise my brow, and look at her, and politey reiterate that we cannot accept credit cards at that time.

BSOL: I know that. This is a Debit Card. Where do I swipe it?
Me: ....... Ma'am... We don't run Debit here, there's no Pinnumber pad... it all goes through as Credit on the same machine.... we cannot run that card, the Computer will not connect to the network.
BSOL: Oh... well, thats inconvienent. Does that mean my food is free today? (This was not a jest, she was ACTUALLY REQUESTING we let her have all this food for free...)
Me: Uhmm... No, ma'am... it's not. But there IS an ATM just a few doors down from here, at >Another Store< and we'll be glad to hold onto this for you, till you get back... (Said through gritted teeth.. I knew how this would end.)
BSOL: No, I don't want to pull any cash and pay a Withdrawl Fee. Just forget it.

And she WALKS OUT on a 9-footlong order... all of them with veggie and sauce combo's so revolting that none of us Employees wanted to eat ANY of them... what a goddamn waste.... And still no Milford in Sight (it's been four days now, he always at least walks by the store once a night.. maybe I've just been missing him somehow), who I'm sure would have loved this treasure trove of free goodies.

I've been at this job for over a year now... would it be worth loosing it, to just ONCE reach across and slap the stupid out of someone who deserves it?

In the Immortal words of Perry Cox, "In the Immortal words of Daffy Duck, 'I demand that you Shoot me NOW'!".

[ralerin]

What is a revolting sauce/veggie combo, btw? I'm picturing cucumbers with BBQ sauce, or olives with mustard...

[Calud]

I can't imagine any combo in a subways is so gross that I wouldn't want to eat it. I mean I could bath in that stuff if I wanted to.

But yeah, I hate when that happens. I usually don't have cash on me (cause it's running out so fast) but my card always works. But then again it seems I do read signs, so it wouldn't happen to me.

[Ree]

I would have just been specific from the beginning and said, "We can only accept cash sales at the moment because our machines are down."
That might have helped to clear up confusion and headed off the situation.
To be honest, as soon as I read this part:

I greet her nicely, and casually guesture to our sign in front of me stating our appologies, but we cannot acced Credit Card Payments at this time. She tells me, and this is a direct quote... "No Problem."

I knew exactly how this one was going to end. Having dealt with customer for so many years, I knew the customer was going to pull a, "You only said credit cards, not debit cards," excuse.

It's odd, your Subway is run differently from the one in my town.
In our local Subway, it's usually an assembly line where the first employee takes the order and starts the sub, then passes it to the next person on the assembly line, and so forth, for all the trimmings, and then it gets bagged and rung through by the last person.

Usually, the person on the cash has had very little to do with touching the food. I always assumed it was for hygienic reasons.

How come you ended up working both the start of the line, greeting and taking the order, and then ringing her through? Slow day and short-staffed?

[Nijiero]

We run the place Assembly line style, too, but we do a lot of jumping around. It's strange, yeah, but it seems to work well enough... When I, at the star of the line, bread/pre-hot meats section, finish with the last customer in line and pass all their sandwiches on to position 2, cold-meats and cheese, I pull off my food gloves and go down to the Register to start cashing out, so position 3 doesn't have to repeteatedly go back and forth from Veggie/Sauce station to the register, and put on fresh gloves every time he does so. Like I said, weird but it works.
Also, yeah, I might have been more specific about credit/debit stuff, but in all fairness the one at the start of the line DOES actually say Cash Only.

As for a revolting combo of items... Imagine something like, "Spinach, Cucumbers, Bell Peppers, Olives, Banana peppers, Jalapenos, then put both Sweet Onion AND Southwest Chipotle Sauce, and then put Parmesian and Salt and Pepper on it..."
Sure, that might sound tasty to YOU, and thats WONDERFUL, whatever makes it a better sandwich to your tastes, more power to ya, but like I said, the lot of US wanted to Yak at the thought of actually eating that combo.

[Boozy]

When our lines go down, I always say "Cash sales only" to our customers. People who haven't worked with these processing systems don't understand that credit cards and debit cards mean the same thing when it comes to communications lines. In every day life, credit cards are completely different from debit cards.

I'm sorry you ended up with such nasty sandwiches. You can pick off some of that stuff, but the sauces are pretty much there to stay.

[Peppergirl]

When our lines go down, I always say "Cash sales only" to our customers. People who haven't worked with these processing systems don't understand that credit cards and debit cards mean the same thing when it comes to communications lines. In every day life, credit cards are completely different from debit cards.

Smart idea. I have to admit, back when debit/credit cards first became popular, I went to a store (not food) who had signs up that the credit card reader was down. (I can't remember the exact store, but I'm pretty sure it was a Best Buy/Circuit City type of place.)


Anyway, I thought "No problem, since I'm using debit."

I felt like an idiot when I got to the front to pay. I didn't have enough cash on me, so I ended up putting a couple things back.

Of course, I laughed it off and blamed myself...god forbid SC's can do that.

[Ben_Who]

BSOL: No, I don't want to pull any cash and pay a Withdrawl Fee. Just forget it.

So she doesn't want to pay a $2 withdrawal fee to get enough cash to pay for a $45 order? I accept that the economy is in bad shape, but that's taking penny-wise and pound-foolish to a ludicrous extreme. Especially since in this state she'd be paying that much on the tax alone.

Love, Who?

[South Texan]

"We can only accept cash sales at the moment because our machines are down."

I agree with Ree.

People like Nijiero's Big Sammich Order Lady who lack the reasoning ability to comprehend that a store which suddenly cannot accept credit cards probably will have the same problem with debit cards are the types who caused companies to put "FLAMABLE" in big letters on a lighter fluid bottles.

It is best not to phrase anything in a way that could leave an expectation of thinking with those types.

[KellyHabersham]

I remember going to a consignment store near my mom's house because I needed to get some keys copied (they did offer that service there), I'd only taken my debit card into the store with me, and it wasn't until the guy working there had finished making the keys and realized I was paying with a debit card, did I find out that their card reader wasn't working. Fortunately, my mom was waiting outside for me in her van, and I was able to get some cash from her.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

'Sokay, I'll get her for you:

"Take THIS Dumbass Lady!"

BANG BANG!

...

Pause

...


Freakin, blanks... they just don't feel the same

Anywhoo, I tried, but murder is still illegal... just try and be happy that she's crapping herself in the middle of what looks like a heart attack right now... so it's not a total bust

*runs away before cops arrive*