Ce n'est pas possible!

"Ce n'est pas possible!" (That's not possible) That's what the woman said to me today at least 3 times as I explained what happened to me and Alex.

Alex and I went shopping for a few things for Janice. After we picked them up, we went to the checkout stands. The lines were long but not at the self checkout stations. (I am usually loathe to use them but for some reason today I thought we could just go thru quickly. Boy, was I wrong.)

After we scanned the items (and, don't you know it that one of the items - some avocados - wouldn't scan because their number wasn't in the system) pressed the "we're done" button and then pressed the "we're paying with cash" button. The total came to 21.26 Euros. I inserted two 20 Euro bills. Almost immediately the machine spit out two 10 Euro bills. I thought "That's strange, maybe it doesn't like the two 20's". I was just about to insert a 10 when I noticed that the total due had not changed. It still said 21.26.

After a few seconds the cashier in charge of the self checkout stands came over to us. Below is our dialog, translated for you in English (and paraphrased for you too since I do not know everything she said.... but her meaning was sure clear).

Lady (L)
Me (M)

L- Your total is 21.26 Euros. You put the money in here and then get your change over here.

M - Yes, I know. But, I already put in two 20 Euro bills and the machine gave me back these two 10 Euro bills and the total still reads 21.26.

L- Ce n'est pas possible (That's not possible.)

M - C'est possible parce que la machine a mon 20 Euro. (That is possible because the machine has my 20 Euro bill.)

L - Ce n'est pas possible. (At this point, she grabbed the two 10's from me and proceeded to put them into the machine.)

All the while I'm saying, (No! No! No!) Well, guess what, the machine spit out two new 10's, which she ignores (i.e. - she doesn't even hesitate to think that maybe there's a problem.) She leaves and comes back a few minutes later with another woman who spoke a bit of English. So, I tell the second woman, in French, what happened. She was skeptical to say the least. Well, they take the machine apart and eventually show me that in the tray that accepts customers' money the last two bills are 10's. So, she says, "See, these are 10's, not 20's". Hello! So, I tell her, "Well of course they are because those are the two 10's that she - the first lady - put into the machine". My comment is ignored. They tell me that I can come back in the morning and complain. To which I responded, "But I need my groceries". She then says "Then pay here" while pointing to the machine.

Well, all I had on me was the two 10's and a 1 Euro coin. Thankfully, Alex had a 50 cent piece. We paid and then walked over to a customer service kiosk with the first lady whereupon she took my name and wrote a nice little story about me and then asked me to come back tomorrow to complain and/or get my 20 Euros back.

Tomorrow should be fun. I get to explain again in severely broken French how their stupid self service checkout machine did the impossible.

I'll try to let you all know how this turns out.

Othewise, we had a good day.

sf