Idiot

It's funny how when somebody gets angry, they’ll continue being angry with other people until they completely let it out. Or at least some people work like that. Rational people will dissolve the anger in some positive way, like evaporating negative thoughts or calming themselves.

When somebody is angry with an event linked to their credit card, and they’re also irrational, they’ll fuel their anger (with whatever misguided intention) by posing some retarded rebuttal against every logical remark I make. For example, aujourd’hui I answered the call of a very disgruntled customer who was told her card was declined. Well, actually the machine gave some indecipherable code that she assumed meant “delined”, but this was only revealed once I checked the recent activity and failed to see a record of any charge.

She said she used another card of ours and everything went through perfectly fine. I checked it and verified that that was true (I can see a charge before the merchant can even verify that if it’s approved, and our system is eerily 100% accurate), so it became evident that one of two scenarios have come into play; either the first swipe was a fluke and didn’t get read or the strip has become demagnetized.

Now, if the case was that it was just a fluke, why had she not rerun it and tried a second time? Why would she just assume, “Oh, this card isn’t working, Goddammit, now I have to use another card!” Why? Why?! I’ve swiped my credit cards before, and there have been instances where the first time I swipe it, it doesn’t go through. Do you know what I do? I swipe it again, at a different pace, and it works that time. Wow!

But aside from that, after I explained to her the two possible reasons why the card did not work, she irrelevantly noted that she’s only had the card for a month. OK, but again, this is more likely what’s happened. She blindly responds that the card is in her pocket, it’s not stolen.

“Well, I didn’t say it was… I’m not sure if you understand, either the machine misread it or the stripe has become demagnetized. Of course, we have no reason to decline you,” I told her.

“Oh, OK,” she said almost to my relief, until she made the obscure comment, “but the card isn’t cracked or anything.” Has she ever looked at the back of a credit card? Does she not know there’s a magnetic stripe? Then why doesn’t she understand that that’s what I’m referring to, I don’t literally mean the card is damaged like it’s gotten caught in a bike spoke. I would be so bold as to say she’s not an idiot, she just let her fury get in the way of her logic, as it will inevitably do, but then I guess that very defective trait is what makes her an idiot.

(Shaking my head.) Idiot.