I work at Target and I was on a check lane today today. A man brings a woman up in a wheelchair (I presume they are in a romantic relationship). I say hello and the woman raises her shampoos with a smile, okay, fine enough. I ring everything up, and she shows her phone in a kind of confusing angle but somewhat in my direction.
Her husband’s not even looking at the phone. Now, at Target, we scan barcodes on phones almost all the time. Sometimes the phone screen times out and we just tap it for it to come back on.
Now normally if I’m touching the phone extensively, like if the guest needs help with the app, I ask if I can see it and the guests are usually more than happy to let me have it. I didn’t ask here because it was just a phone screen timeout m, it was completely blank and I’m thinking she’s trying to show it to me so I can scan it.
So I just tap the phone so it can come on, and immediately she retracts it, holding it close to her heart and says that it wasn’t for me, what I did was very rude, raising her voice and to never ever touch a guest’s phone without permission. I apologize and she continues on her tirade, and her husband does not even take a gander toward her or I.
She then explains that she was trying to show her husband something but I “messed it up” and now she can’t show it to him, even though it was off. All the whole her husband is looking solemnly to the ground. She then goes off in a huff and the husband just pays for the things and leaves.
I explain the situation to my team lead and he agrees he would have made the same assumption (just tap the screen) and that was weird, but to always just ask if I can touch it going forward. I say ok and that was that. Am I the ahole for tapping her phone though?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
neoprenewedgie said:
NTA. Take a hint from the husband – he has dealt with her tirades many times before and he was embarrassed to be seen with her.
Purple-Haku said:
Your manager agrees, it’s normal for employees to tap a customer phone to prevent it from sleeping. You’re fine. NTA.
ConflictGullible392 said:
YTA although not a big one. You should ask for permission or ask her to tap it herself. Some people don’t like their things touched.
kereur said:
YTA. She held her phone “somewhat in your direction?” Surely that warrants asking before touching it.
Slachack1 said:
ESH you shouldn’t touch people’s phones without their permission.
Absinthe-van-Night said:
NTA she was seemingly holding the phone out to you and muscle memory kicked in. You probably didn’t think ANYTHING of this interaction until she blew up in your face.
cbizzle85 said:
NTA. You should tell everyone you can’t touch their phone from now on. They are gross AF. I’ve seen things I can’t unseen in people’s phones that I was trying to help. I have the rule now that I don’t touch other people’s phone at work. Grosssssssssssss.
OG_Fe_Jefe said:
NTA. It was a reasonable assumption, based on the circumstances.
