Glitches while making payment can occur from time and time and are often harmless. But what are the odds that a single glitch can cost you your job?
This was what happened to a veteran worker at the Ford Motor Company in the US, where he found himself booted from the job over chocolate chip cookies he allegedly didn’t pay for.
Bought cookies during work shift
Speaking to The Post about the incident, Kurt Kromm, who had been working at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky for 11 years, said his blood sugar had dropped to 60 during his overnight shift on Apr 9.
He then headed to a self-checkout kiosk to buy two chocolate chip cookies for $1.95 (approx. RM8). When he swiped his debit card, the payment screen showed that the transaction had failed.
Kromm swiped his card again and this time, the machine didn’t show the usual green approval checkmark, but it didn’t reject the payment either, leading him to believe payment had been made.
Fired
A week later, Kromm was summoned to the labour office by two supervisors, who showed him CCTV footage of him not paying for the cookies.
They just terminated me, walked me out of the building. I had to get the union steward to even go get my personal laptop because they wouldn’t let me go get anything — ‘you are terminated, get out.’”
Determined to prove his innocence, Kromm began gathering evidence and asked a former colleague to photograph the break-room kiosk showing the cookie’s actual price.
When he checked his bank records, he saw that his credit card was indeed charged for the purchase and immediately emailed screenshots of the transaction to Ford labor executives and union officials.
Refused to return
Weeks passed and Ford eventually acknowledged that it had falsely accused Kromm of stealing the cookies. It then offered to give him his job back, along with a full back pay of $33,000 (approx. RM136,400).
However, Kromm rejected the offer and said he’ll never step foot into the company again.
“I emotionally couldn’t go back. I worked with 8,500 people. I didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody. I’d been there 11 years.
“There was no apology. There was no serious, ‘We’re sorry, ’” There was just, ‘Oh, you’re not coming back?’ No, I am not interested in coming back.”
Kromm added that Ford had just lost an exemplary worker, saying: “I’m a pretty damn smart guy. I fixed every piece of equipment you asked me to work on. And in the end, you did this to me.”
Not an outlier
According to Times of India, a veteran electrician at Ford claimed the self-checkout kiosks were notorious for transaction errors, with some instances leading to workers facing disciplinary action over disputed purchases involving drinks and snacks.
Following Kromm’s termination, Ford reportedly agreed to replace its immediate termination policy with a suspension while payment disputes involving self-checkout kiosks are investigated.
A Ford spokesperson, who declined to discuss further on the matter due to privacy concerns, only said that the company admitted the case “could have been handled differently.”
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