To be completely embarrassed

[Toothsil]

I have no idea what happened in Tesco this morning and I am SO embarrassed. I used the self scanner and did a full weekly shop. There was one item that said it couldn't scan so I gave that to the assistant and she put it through. All was fine. I went to the car and started putting the shopping in when I heard someone say "excuse me, you didn't pay for your shopping" 🙈 It was the assistant who had clearly run out after me. She said it was all still up on the screen. The worrying bit is I have no idea what on earth happened. I remember selecting the card payment option and thinking I'll have to put my card in because it's over £45 but after that - nothing. I didn't notice that I didn't have a receipt or that it obviously didn't say transaction approved on the card machine. I have absolutely no memory between thinking I would have to put my card in, and pushing the trolley out of the self service area. I remember that because I said thank you to the assistant as I left. I remember exactly who I was walking behind going out and everything else after that.

I don't know whether it's something wrong with me, or whether my mind was just a elsewhere but I was so embarrassed having her run out to the car after me and having to go back in with the trolley. And after struggling to fit all the heavy bags into the car I had to take them all back out and take them back into Tesco. Aaargh.

[Toothsil]

And I didn't mean to enable voting 🙄 I am clearly not having a good day!

[jessstan2]

I am so sorry you have been through this embarrassing. Such things just happen sometimes, nobody's fault. Please put it behind you, you won't be the only one. The assistant said you hadn't paid for your shopping, not that you didn't intend to.

[Oriflamme]

Sympathies OP. Twice I’ve left my card in the card reader this week - once I spotted it just as I was leaving and the second time the assistant had to run after me. It must be in the air!

[SissySpacekAteMyHamster]

Why couldn't you just go back in with your card, why on earth did you have to lug all the shopping back?

[lilsquish]

Dont worry OP, it's easy done.

Likely your mind was on other things.

I once scanned all my shopping and paid for it before walking out leaving it all on the bagging area.

[labazsisgoingmad]

we all have days like that. Least it was kind of the assistant to come after you not the store detective!
have a nice cuppa and a rest you are probably just overtired

[sqirrelfriends]

Oh OP, it happens. I once went through the self scan till and discovered I hadn't scanned loads of stuff. I had a 2 week old at the time, the cashier was lovely and probably thought I was desperate .

[IHateSuzie]

@SissySpacekAteMyHamster

Why couldn't you just go back in with your card, why on earth did you have to lug all the shopping back?

Do the self check out machines reset maybe after so long? If so, she'd have to rescan everything

[Mittens030869]

I’ve had that happen to me, but that was at a Tesco Express with a fuel station forecourt. I paid for the shopping but completely forgot the petrol I’d put in my car. The checkout workers are supposed to ask every time, but even so it was highly embarrassing. Thankfully, I’m well known there as it’s local to us and we go in there a lot, so there was no issue.

Don’t feel too embarrassed, we all have off days.

[Smallsteps88]

Are you stressed OP? Sometimes your mind can be on something else and you have no memory of doing the thing you’ve just done. I’ve had that happen before. Don’t worry. It’s over. Just take some time to chill out and let yourself wind down if possible.

[bluedelphinium]

Don't worry OP! could've been a machine glitch. You'd spoken to the assistant and asked her to help scan something so I'm sure she didn't think you'd done it on purpose

Not to worry you but if it keeps happening (blanks, not walking out without paying!), you might want to have a word with your GP- i have epilepsy and have absence seizures that are sometimes just a few seconds lost.

[sm40]

I've walked out of the shop before
With a trolley of unpaid shopping. I was even at the checkout!!!!!! I had just received an rather grumpy email from my ex sil and so was shouting at her in my head!!!
The check out lady ran after me and I paid and apologised. Haven't worried about it since!

[ClaudiaWankleman]

I don’t think it’s too unusual for you to blank on what happened - it can easily happen when your mind is elsewhere and you are doing something mundane.

It could have easily been that you tapped your card and it didn’t go through properly - I was chased down the road by the chemist a couple of weeks ago for the same reason.

[IndieRo]

Happened me a few years ago. I was incredibly ill at the time and just walked right out of the shop without paying. The security officer stopped me, I was brought to a back room and they called the police. It was the worst experience of my life. When they rang my husband he thought it was a practical joke. My husband and father in law came up straight away and explained that I did not intentionally walk out without paying. I had my bank card/cash in my bag. Husband wanted to pay for shopping but they refused and took me to the police station. I was cautioned. Its only really sinking in now what happened tbh. This was my local supermarket and they said I was not banned. I still go there regularly. I'm thinking maybe the police were a bit heavy handed.

[amusedbush]

I used the self-serve checkout last week and I tapped my card to pay and was about to leave when I noticed a message on the card reader that said ‘error, please insert card’. It hadn’t beeped or anything, it was lucky that I noticed it!

I could have easily walked out without paying and been none the wiser.

[Anordinarymum]

I am that person who drove off with the petrol thingy in the petrol thingy of my car. These things do happen to sane people. Ask me how I did it..I have no idea, but I did, and I damaged the flap thing on the petrol cap. Luckily I managed to get one from a scrap yard because they are the sort of thing that never gets damaged :)

[S111n20]

Don’t worry about it you won’t be the first or the last. Could be worse you could have got home and a few days later seen your face splashed in your local newspaper.....theft in Tesco 😳😳😳😂😂😂 now that would be embarrassing 💐

[GrapeSodas]

I did the opposite in primark recently. I took back some things and the assistant asked me to hang the items on the rail behind me (new covid system) I then for some reason thought it was the end of the transaction and wandered out of the store. Was just leaving when i thought "did i get my refund?" as i must have twigged i hadn't used the credit card machine to be refunded. Walked back and the assistant was looking confused telling others what had happened. No one came running after me though!

[Toothsil]

Thank you all so much - I feel so much better knowing it's not just me!

@SissySpacekAteMyHamster I wondered that too, because she sent me off with another assistant to a proper till but she only asked for my card and didn't rescan any of it. I thought they must be going to put the whole lot through again.

I suppose I am a bit stressed with everything that's going on and I'm not sleeping too well so it could be that. I wonder if I just tapped it out of habit and it wouldn't have accepted it because it was £85. I once left my card in the machine when I was rushing to collect DD from school and people had been so slow all the way round so it's probably just that my mind was elsewhere.

[DratThatCat]

I work on self scan at a supermarket and trust me, it happens more often than you'd think. We can always tell when it's a deliberate walk off rather than a 'just got distracted' thing. Don't worry about it.

[Latenightreader]

I was once chased down the road after leaving a restaurant without paying... It was in the States a few years back. At home we had chip and pin and I was out of the habit of signing. The restaurant had scanned my card, I had put a tip on the bottom but forgotten to sign. Luckily they were lovely about it!

[Serendipity79]

in the past couple of months I've handed in 3 bank cards which were left in self pay tills, and shouted a lady back who used the cash point ahead of me and left the money hanging out and walked away!

I think people are just a bit stressed at the moment, and its easy to forget things when you have lots going on in your mind. I honestly wouldn't worry.

Years ago I got money out of a cash point, but forgot to take my card out and the machine sucked it back in. It was a Sunday before all these 24 hour call centres came in so I had to wait til Monday to ring my bank - thankfully I had picked up the cash!

[JoeCalFuckingZaghe]

My partner did this at the start of lockdown except he just walked away and didn’t pay anything. We tweeted Tesco and they basically said don’t worry about it. DP expected his photo behind the tills the next time he went in.

[workhomesleeprepeat]

Don’t worry I literally did this last week at self service, except when the store person was like “excuse me miss” I ignored them because I had my headphones in and walked off, security had to go after me! I looked like a proper stealer, except I wasn’t running away.

We all have brain fart days OP! It’s ok! I’ve even been back to the shop that I did this in already Mainly cause I don’t think they will know it was me cause of my mask!

[Saladd0dger]

It happens often. It’s usually the checkout. They are so slow and by the time the payment has failed people have walked off