“I don’t have my credit card on me, but if I give you the details, can I pay that way?”
She stopped punching buttons on the register as she looked up at me and cocked her head sideways. Two seconds passed.
“Naah” she said. The deliberate button-tapping resumed.
Feeling that social mores called for it, and for the sake of making chit-chat, I offered my reason for enquiring:
“I was just over at another shop and –“
“No.”
“I’m sorry?”
“They don’t do it anywhere”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Using credit cards without having the card. I’ve never heard of it done anywhere”
“I was just over at Auto—“
“No.” She shook her head furiously as I tried to speak, and continued:
“They don’t do that anywhere”
Aghast, I looked at her incredulously. She looked down at her till for a moment, then back up at me as a thought occurred to her:
“Not even America”.
You just can’t beat that kind of rhetoric. Of course, I had just come from the shop across the road that was able to comply with my simple request without invoking the authority of other, more-progressive societies, but I wasn’t in the mood to escalate my request to a more competent member of staff.
I’d like to think that I could finish this post with some kind of “I won’t be taking my business there again” type message, but that’s not going to happen. For a total moron, she also happened to be a smokin' hottie, and at the end of the day, isn’t that all that counts?
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5 comments:
She's not exactly working off the most logical argument but I'd rather have her than some idiot who's willing to take the credit card details without the card.
Are you sure she intended America to be considered as a bastion of progressive thinking? I may be giving her too much credit but I'm going to assume she invoked the US as an example of mindless consumerism without regard for consequences.
*Takes off Devils Advocate hat*
You can leave your hat on - it makes things more interesting.
I left out some details for the sake of pacing, but when using a company credit card, most shops that are used to dealing with commercial entities have little problem in punching a sale through as a 'phone sale' if the credit card isn't physically present.
What amazed me was the way this girl shook her head vigorously as I tried to tell her about this practice - it reminded me of any conversation with any faith-head, or alternative-medicine proponent. People just won't listen to something that opposes a belief.
I'm glad you riffed on the 'mindless consumerism' of the US, I was going to make that the meat of the post, but then decided that ~300 words was enough writing for one day.
I'll say what I always say to you Sul: misogynistic pig! (Just for the hottie comment at the end)
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin. Dude knows his shit.
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