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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be completely embarrassed

142 replies

Toothsil · 24/09/2020 13:32

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.

OP posts:

Zaphodsotherhead · 26/09/2020 10:44

The trick is not to walk away from a contactless payment (even if you hear a beep) until the assistant has told you it's cleared.

SO MANY of my customers just plonk their card on the machine, hear a beep (it beeps when it tries your card, the beep isn't the payment going through) and then pick it up and walk out. I have to stop at least three people a day from walking when their payment hasn't gone through and the card needs to go into the machine.

Cheekychunkyredmonkey · 26/09/2020 14:02

I used the new scan and go app. When through ok lovely lady put my vouchers in. Got home and thought I never used my card. Turned out she saved the transaction instead of putting it back to shopping mode. I phone customer service to be told not to worry it wasn’t my mistake. I didn’t like that response so I drove back to the store to pay for my shopping. The lady was very shocked and told any member of staff who walked by as apparently most people wouldn’t bother going back. It was a shop with clothes included I couldn’t just leave it my conscious wouldn’t allow it.

MayIJustAsk · 26/09/2020 14:08

If it makes you feel any better I once arrived at a fancy dress party dressed as a full on witch with face paint on to find it wasn't a fancy dress party. And I stayed. Obviously had no shame. I did try to wash the face paint off in the bathroom and removed my fangs.

Hillary4 · 26/09/2020 14:52

It was worth a try.....

Mypathtriedtokillme · 26/09/2020 15:06

I’ve done a shop at the supermarket, paid for it and left without anything when my baby started crying.

It’s an autopilot thing. Brains busy doing something else and it’s just skips over the details.

myfaceismyown · 26/09/2020 15:13

Don't worry OP happens to the best of us. My lovely Mum once came back from the wholesalers and on unpacking realised she had packed an absolutely enormous jar of pickled onions by mistake, which must have been on the side, and she had no intention of buying.... Many discussions about how she could not have noticed packing it and on what to do with the thing, before a red faced Mum returned it. You just had a pickled onion moment.

Original poster

Toothsil · 27/09/2020 12:43

I think I've discovered what happened. I braved Tesco again yesterday, just for a couple of things so didn't use the self scan but I still went to the self service check out. It came to under £10 but I still put my card in because I had used it a few times already and it was probably about to ask for me to do that. I put the PIN in and it all looked as if it was going through ok - even said approved - but i thought I'd just give it another minute just to make sure - then suddenly the card machine did a funny beep and said it hadn't gone through, and the list of shopping came back up on the screen, having previously gone on to the next stage. So I did it again and this time it printed the receipt. I just have just not thought about the receipt last time, given that I was obviously in a world of my own. If I had, I'd have noticed. I'd never actually seen it do it like that before even when it's not approved the transaction, it's normally very quick at telling you and doesn't look as if it's going through. I've got over the embarrassment now thanks to you lovely people and your funny tales 🙂 But I think the assistant could have been a bit more discreet about it, she was very loud and also said in a horrified voice "your shopping is still up on the screen!"

OP posts:

Zaphodsotherhead · 27/09/2020 12:47

"your shopping is still up on the screen!"

The problem is that, when you work there, you KNOW that the till still showing your shopping means that the transaction hasn't gone through. Ordinary members of the public aren't necessarily to know that's how the till works. Same as waiting when you pay contactlessly; the beep doesn't mean the payment has gone through, it's just the machine acknowledging the attempt to pay. But, if you've never worked a retail till - how would you know?

To the assistant last time, it was obvious you hadn't paid. But, if you aren't used to tills and you aren't really paying attention (as most shoppers aren't) you wouldn't know.

Glad you had a better experience this time round!

Loulablake · 28/09/2020 22:11

I did this in Asda, I was with my baby he was fine no stress Shop was quiet I just walked off....got to the kiosk and said crap (out loud) the assistant asked If I was ok, I said no I forgot to pay and it was all on the screen still. I think they can tell when it’s genuine

Tillygetsit · 29/09/2020 00:17

Bwfore Covid I went to a lovelt tea shop with my friend and the dc. The lady who owned it was chatting away and we all had a lovely time. Afterwards, we were queuing in the Post Office next door when she came in and said we hadn't paid I nearly died of embarrassment. Ds was about 4 and asked very loudly why I hadn't paid several times, usually in public places. Mortifying.

Noti23 · 29/09/2020 00:22

I once walked out after having a massage without paying! I had to pay over the phone when they called me a few days later...I was mortified

liquoriceallsortfamily · 29/09/2020 00:37

@MintyMabel

I went to the McDonald’s drive thru last week. Ordered. Paid at the window. Then drove off without stopping to collect my grub. Got home and it wasn’t until DP asked where his quarter pounder was that I realised

Brilliant!!

I've done that too 🙈

Lincs90 · 29/09/2020 00:44

I did this a few years ago after a late event at work. I'd left the shop and crossed the road before realising I didn't remember paying. Going back into the shop was embarrassing

littledrummergirl · 29/09/2020 01:03

Years ago I did similar in whsmiths. Talking to dh about the college course I had enrolled and choosing stationery I made my final selection and walked out. Once outside I was confused as to why I didn't have a bag, realised just as we were passing a second set of doors and ran back inside to pay.

My most expensive moment was when I was taking the car for a windscreen repair the day before we were going on holiday. I had stopped to put fuel in car, was running through the checklist in my head of everything that needed doing, final packing list etc. I filled the tank up from empty, hit around £50 and realised that I was in the big car, not my small petrol car. The big car is diesel.
A lovely man helped me to push it away from the pump to the air pump and I had to call the a company that could drain the tank. £250 later plus another £65 on top of what I'd already put in- I could have cried. Thankfully the glass people were able to still fix the window despite me being late and we had a fabulous holiday.

That was the year the insurance company (lloyds, bloody brilliant) were putting the house back together after a kitchen fire a couple of months earlier so I also had that on my mind.
These things happen.

Choccylips · 29/09/2020 01:25

It can easily happen I wouldn't think of it again if I was you.

PumpkinPie2016 · 29/09/2020 16:53

Ah OP these things happen to us all at some point

Before the lockdown, I left a garage forecourt without paying for my fuel Had absolutely no recollection of not paying! In my defence, my Nan was dying at the time and my mind was somewhat elsewhere. I was completely mortified though despite the very lovely police officer who knocked on my door later that day and the garage staff being very understanding!

Lillygolightly · 29/09/2020 17:29

I once unintentionally stole sunglasses, was in a clothes shop with a friend. We were looking at the sunglasses and I saw a pair I liked, took my own ones off my head and popped them in my bag to try the new ones on, liked them and intended on buying them so left them resting in my head whilst we looked round the rest of the shop. I then saw a dress I liked, took it too the changing rooms to try on, decided it was a winner so took it to the till to purchase. Lined up, paid, walked out with my friend feeling pleased as punch with my new dress. Got back home later that day and pulled my sunglasses out my bag to grab my keys, thought that’s weird as my sunglasses are on my head, except they weren’t my sunglasses, they were the ones from the shop....and I had stolen them!!!

Rang the store and explained and as it turned out the pair I tried on and had intended on buying were a display pair as didn’t have a tag so they weren’t bothered, was told to basically not worry about it and enjoy my free sunglasses.

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