Customer demands to charge her phone at supermarket

[Jdot]

She came into the supermarket wanted to pay for her shopping on Apple Pay but her phone is dead. I saw her talking on the phone in the store.

Supermarkets and other places that people pay for products and services - restaurants, retailers, leisure places etc are NOT responsible for people’s mobile batteries and them not carrying their physical cards on them.

It’s happened to me. My phone went from about 20% to off in minutes. The bloke on the till unplugged his phone (it was charging there) and plugged mine in for a few minutes. Very kind and solved the problem.

This happened to me in Asda - I was using their app to do scan and go and my battery drained from 60% to zero in 45 mins. The lady at the checkout said this is a known issue and had no issue letting me charge for the 2mins it took to be able to pay.

Odd that she carries around a charger with her!

You know chargers last more than one charge and are likely plugged into the shop’s electricity. I’m not sure the angst about personal chargers is justified.

There may have been rudeness in how the request was made. The actual request wasn’t intrinsically rude

Obviously it makes sense to let her so she can pay you, but I haven't got much sympathy for anyone who just never bother to carry cards or money anymore and only relies on their phone, and then makes their disorganisation other people's problem.

Networks go down, signal is dodgy, phones run out of charge or are glitchy. Why wouldn't you have a back up in most situations?
And if expecting to use my phone a lot or rely on it (eg tickets on an app) , I take a portable power bank.

And a supermarket isn't comparable to places that will only let you use an app/ encourage your tickets to be online because they take multiple forms of payment, and arent encouraging you to only use your phone.

In the days before mobile phones no I never carried an emergency tenner. And even if I did carry £20 what would I be doing with it? It certainly couldn’t pay for a supermarket shop! I can’t hail an Uber with it. If I was going to get a black cab home I’d just get my card from home once I got back.

And frankly if you are organised enough to carry a charger about, why not just carry round a portable power bank instead?

Can you not guide them to a cctv blind spot and accidentally give them a good kicking?

Isn’t the problem with customers charging their phones at shops not so much the cost of electricity but they might want to leave their phones while they do more shopping and then it’s a big deal around insurance and potential (or feared) access to the data on their phones

I’ve charged my phone in store before it died between putting in clubcard and paying. So annoying. I apologised and asked them to just hold the shopping and aid go to car and charge but they said they have a wireless charger as it happens all the time. A few minutes and it had enough juice, I paid and left.

It wasn’t a big deal atall.

What are the safety implications of not having a mobile phone? I managed quite fine for 30 years, I don’t see the crime figures are any worse now except the rise of phone thefts!

Oh I would absolutely hate to be so reliant on my phone.
It worries me the amount it intrudes on my life as it is without making it my only source of paying for things.

Excuse can i charge up my phone for 1 min so i can give you lots of money, who's gonna say no

Each to their own. I think it’s amazing. I don’t need a cumbersome wallet. Everything is all in one place. I don’t have worry about dropping cards anywhere and having a Billion different loyalty cards loose. When I go shopping I only step out with a tote bag now and can’t remember the last time I took a handbag with me.

How was she rude? You haven’t actually said what she said that was rude?

I work in a supermarket and we keep a variety of chargers and have zero issues with people who need 5 minutes charge to pay for their shopping, as long as they stay with their phone or accept that we take no responsibility for it if they choose to leave it charging.

Did she have a charger? I would have plugged it in a socket at Customer Services for her.

Why wouldn’t you?

😋

You can usually charge it enough to pay in under 5 minutes. In my view there's no harm in asking if there's a charging station or similar available as long as the customer doesn't do their dinger if there's not. And while people ideally should be prepared (e.g., carry a power bank & cord) it's possible to be caught out for reasons other than complete carelessness - I had a situation where my iPhone was fully charged and then suddenly dropped to 3%; restarting it took it to 100% then down to 2%. Turned out the battery was faulty and the fault was also causing the battery health meter to read as high when it was really low. Easy enough to fix in a few days with a battery replacement, but definitely took me by surprise!

The same can be said for a wallet surely? You lose your wallet then you have to cancel all your cards. You lose your phone you just get a new phone and download it all back on to it. No cancelling required. Much better.

So.... she had her phone charger with her did she?

Obviously supermarkets aren’t ‘responsible’ for charging people’s phones. We all know that but I just don’t see why you are so up in arms about it at all.

Well yes but the worry about losing my phone, having it stolen, me damaging it by dropping it or getting it wet, it getting hacked, running out of charge, being in a place with no signal etc etc would just stress me out so much it would negate any benefits.

I was at the hospital urgent care department last week, they had power banks that you could rent. Maybe supermarkets should do the same.

Bold comment.
Almost always, when a woman does not complete her journey home safely it is not a lack of capability, but a lack of male ability to control themselves & their urges.

@Buddrinker84 please tell us about the safety implications of a woman getting home from a supermarket without a phone?