The card terminals that my workplace uses requires that the customer presses ‘confirm’ to make sure that their total is correct prior to charging their card. Pretty simple, right? The card terminal clearly indicates that the customer needs to confirm. Unfortunately, this isn’t how it plays out in practice.

In practice, it goes something like this:

*terminal says to confirm the total is $10.53*

Customer: It says I need to confirm the total

Me: Uh huh.

Customer: So what do I press?

Me: Umm, is there a problem with your total?

Customer: No

Me: Then push confirm 🤡

Why can’t people follow simple directions? It’s written in plain English on the screen.