"The Customer Who Didn't Pay Came Back and Left a Letter"—Unmanned Store Owner Shares an Unexpected Story [Warm News]

[Financial News] A customer who belatedly realized that a payment had not gone through at an unmanned store walked for 30 minutes to return to the store, completed the payment, and even left an apology letter.
On the 3rd, JTBC's 'Scandal Supervisor' featured the story of A, who runs an unmanned ice-cream store.
According to A, a customer purchased one drink and one ice cream at the unmanned store at around 2 a.m. on the 31st of last month. The customer believed the card payment had gone through and left the store. However, while checking the card statement later, the customer discovered that no payment record had been registered.
The customer immediately called and texted A, but, unable to make contact, returned to the unmanned store, which was 30 minutes away, paid the outstanding amount, and left a handwritten letter explaining the situation.
In the letter, the customer wrote, "At around 2 a.m. today, I bought one ice cream and one drink at the ice-cream store and thought I had paid, but there was no record of the transaction on my card." The customer added, "I called and texted you this morning, but you were unavailable, so I came back, made the payment, and left."
The customer continued, "I would appreciate it if you could read this after checking the CCTV," and added, "If there is any problem, please contact me at my number."
A was reportedly moved by the customer's thoughtfulness and shared the story, saying, "After realizing the payment had not gone through, the customer walked for 30 minutes to return to the store, paid, and even left a letter apologizing."
Meanwhile, kiosk payment errors do occur from time to time at unmanned stores.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA), a total of 45 consultations related to unmanned ice-cream stores were filed with the 1372 Consumer Counseling Network over the three years from 2021 to 2023.
The most common types of complaints were cases in which payment could not be completed because of a kiosk error (payment errors), cases in which change was not refunded (refunds), and cases in which food past its expiration date was sold (product quality), with 11 cases each (24.4%). Looking only at payment- and refund-related complaints, there were 22 cases (48.8%), accounting for nearly half of all consultations.
[email protected] Kim Soo-yeon Reporter