We can't accept that as payment...happy ending though

[Dreamstalker]

An older woman came through my lane yesterday. She was Asian and spoke poor English (important to the story).

She has two packages of cookies; I ring them up, and she takes out a state ID, I figure that she wants to write a check. No big deal. After a few minutes of back-and-forth during which I'm able to establish that she doesn't have any cash or checks on her, I decide to call a manager over because we can't really understand each other (general noise, she's very soft-spoken). When I ask about a debit card she points to her ID

We determine that somewhere, somehow she was told that you could use a photo ID as payment (it's possible that whoever told her this was thinking of the credit/debit cards with photos, that's the only explanation I could come up with anyway). We can't accept it. Poor woman tries to use her senior Charlie Card (which, while it has a photo, is RFID and does store value, can't be used as payment for anything other than transit fare and even if it could we don't have the proper readers).

We're both apologetic to the woman and I'm feeling sorry for her at this point; I can tell she's embarrassed. As I start to void the order...

...the customer behind her speaks up "I'll pay for those!" These aren't the store-brand cookies either, they run about $4 a bag.

That was unexpected (especially in this town) and I think the woman was very surprised as well (the customer who bought her the cookies had to chase her down).

[Pixilated]

It does seem that this was a case of genuine confusion and not an attempted scam. Poor woman; I hope somebody sorts it out for her. She may not get quite such a cordial reception from the next shop!

And the kind customer who was paying attention to what was happening and offered to pay is definitely an Nice to know people like that still exist.

[Brojekk]

I like reading about stuff like that.

[Dreamstalker]

I did try my best to explain what went 'wrong'; I'm not sure how well it sunk in. I was feeling a tad embarrassed about having to get a manager, but there was a 'language barrier' of sorts

The reduced-fare transit pass does require meeting with someone and filling out a form, but it's possible that a friend or relative did it for her so she didn't understand what the card could and couldn't do. I do hope she doesn't run into any more trouble before she can get it all sorted out.