Biggest Customer Meltdown Yet

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.70.70
Current Song - Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)

I've worked at gas stations since September 2006. I've seen a lot of customers during this time from the entire range of demographics. I can decipher what a customer's attitude will be when I look at their face, their license plate, and what car they drive. Because of this, I prepare for the possible conflicts that arise.

You cannot scare the crap out of me. I'm prepared for it.

Today I had a customer who pulled into the prepay pump. He walks in while I'm with a customer. He throws his credit card across the counter (mind you, I'm in the middle of a transaction), and orders me to start the pump for him.

Here's the problem: Inside registers do not have the capability to store your card information after you swipe it. Unlike a card reader.

Easy solution: SWIPE YOUR CARD AT THE PUMP!!!!

I give the card back to him.

"Can you hold on for a sec, mam ... Sir, it doesn't work this way."

(Imagine the voice of a Alaskan prospector) "It's a prepay pump! I'm prepaying!"

"You can't prepay an unknown amount with a credit card in the store."

"Here, give me that!" - He storms out of the store, and proceeds to move his car to the pump on the other side of the prepay one (this particular pump is not a prepay). Credit card in hand, he proceeds to pump his fuel the old-fashioned way. He comes in and pays with his card.

"Sir, the way it ..."

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT FROM YOU! (SLAPS HANDS ON THE COUNTER) I'VE ALREADY ... (I couldn't make it out) I'VE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM DOING THIS WITH ANYONE ELSE OTHER THAN YOU!"

What really makes this the biggest meltdown is the decibel level of his voice. It's louder than him striking gold. In my head I'm thinking "prospector"

I don't say a word. I just maintain my cool. I give him the signature receipt and his copy. He signs it and walks away.

Meanwhile, a regular is the next person in line. She is absolutely stunned at what had just happened.

"Was he joking?"

"No," I said, smiling. "What happened was ... Have you ever been to pump one, the prepay one? He doesn't know how to use a credit card at the pump." She is amazed on how I can put up with crap like this.

"In the end, what I'm going to remember from this is how much of an IDIOT he is."

This gentleman has been in the station before. He has used a card at the pump before. I was going to mention this, and the fact that he interrupted a customer in the first place before he screamed "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT FROM YOU!" His card was a Shell card, so the "account holds" rule does not apply to his card.

I shrug this off, and write a blog entry about it. I hope he finds this.

The sad part about this whole ordeal is that this happened two days after a robbery took place at our store. (Saturday morning - http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2009/07/06/42391334/index.xml). The clerk in the middle of the robbery was supposed to work today. I told her I would fill in for her. After all of that, I don't blame her for not wanting to work at night. In addition, her Godfather was murdered a week ago. This ordeal with the prospector would have sent her over the edge.

I can put up with a lot of crap. You just CAN'T phase me.