A Little Lick

Sadly I have not posted a Mommee-Truth since returning to work outside of the home a couple of months ago. There's simply no time! But my brief interaction with a stranger today made me laugh aloud more than once and I promised myself I would take the time to share it in the hope that it put a smile on at least one person's face!

My job involves providing customer service and taking payment in return. Today I helped a colorful character who chose to pay using his debit card. The first time I put the payment through his card was declined. As is usually the case he wasn't sure why this had happened and so I asked if he would like to try again. The second time I put the transaction through it also was declined. The gentlemen was truly perplexed. He remarked that there was 'lots of money' in his account and that the transaction should go through. So I suggested he try a different form of payment - a credit card perhaps. Yes, he had a credit card. And although he had never used it before he wanted to give it a try. So I attempted putting the amount owing through on his credit card and that, too, was declined.

So far during the day I hadn't had any issues taking payment. I began to wonder if it wasn't an issue with the bank this person used. As he was sure that there was 'lots of money' in his bank account, I suggested that we try his debit card one more time. This time, however, I suggested that if he had pressed 'chequing' during the previous attempts, he should try pressing 'savings' this time. Sometimes people simply forget which account - chequing or savings - their money is in. I don't know if the gentlemen was listening to me or not, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed that he had inserted the chip-end of his banking card into his mouth and was licking it. I keyed the amount owing into the terminal as quickly as possible and prayed it would go through. This gentlemen's time and mine together needed to come to an end! And just like that my prayers were answered and the transaction went through. I finished doing what I needed to and handed the gentlemen his receipt. He smiled, winked, and holding his debit card up said, "I guess all it needed was a little lick."

Now professionalism mandates that I not give voice to the thoughts in my head.  Believe-you-me there were ALOT of thoughts! But at the end of the day I decided to give credit where credit was due - often times things DO work out better when you get 'a little lick'!