Ford is reportedly facing scrutiny over its payment kiosks. The automaker fired a longtime employee after a self-service payment kiosk allegedly failed to process a $1.95 purchase for a Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie, a report claimed. Kurt Kromm, who worked at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant for 11 years, said he was terminated after video footage showed a failed transaction on one kiosk, despite his claim that he completed the payment on another machine.“My direct supervisor came to get me and said, ‘We need to go to the office.’ I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ And we sat in the labour office for like half an hour, waiting. Then the union bargainer came in. He says, ‘This is bad’, And I’m, like, ‘Bad? I haven’t done anything.’ The bargainer says, ‘They’re going to terminate you. They got you on video stealing a cookie,’” Kromm recalled, as reported by Shifting Gears blog.According to Kromm, the incident occurred around 3:30 a.m. on May 9 when he attempted to buy a cookie after experiencing low blood sugar. He said the first payment kiosk displayed a failed transaction, prompting him to use a second kiosk before taking the item. He later found that the $1.95 charge had been deducted from his bank account.“The video captured a red screen on the payment kiosk rather than a green check mark that reflects payment. I said there are two kiosks in the break room. It either went through on that one or the other one,” Kromm said.“I earned over $200,000 last year. Why would I steal? I spent $1,200 last year in the canteen mainly on Diet Cokes,” he added.Payment records led to reinstatement of Ford employeeKromm said he was escorted out of the Kentucky Truck Plant by security a week after the incident and later submitted screenshots of his debit card transaction as proof of payment. Ford subsequently requested notarised bank records and contacted Aramark, the company that manages the payment kiosks, to verify the transaction.After reviewing the documentation, Ford informed Kromm that he would be reinstated and compensated for lost wages. However, he chose not to return and accepted another job closer to home.“But I’m thinking, this is the way my career at Ford Motor is going to end? There’s no way I’m coming back. First you tell me I’m a thief and then you tell me I’m a liar for saying I didn’t steal. They were so confident I’d stolen. And then I look in my checking account statement and the $1.95 is frickin’ there,” he said.Ford spokesperson Jessica Enoch said, “We don’t talk about individual cases, but there are times when we look into things and realize it could have been handled differently. When that happens, we try to rectify it. We value our employees and want to be as fair as possible.”Ford workers cite recurring kiosk issuesKromm said payment kiosk failures were not unusual at the factory and that employees had encountered similar issues previously.“I know the machine malfunctioned. I swiped the debit card. The video showed payment didn’t go through. A payment went through at 3:38 a.m. Actually, I didn’t think anything of it because those machines failing happens all the time. When you go into that room, there’s food sitting out. People go up to pay and it doesn’t go through so they leave it there. The (payment) machine asks you to try and try again,” he said. Aramark said it cooperates with investigations involving its systems.“We fully cooperate with investigations of this nature. At the same time, we remain focused on providing convenient, flexible snack options that support our hardworking customers every day,” Chris Collom, the company’s vice president of corporate communications, said.Kromm also said he was later informed by a UAW International representative that Ford planned to change its approach to cases involving suspicious kiosk transactions by suspending employees rather than terminating them during investigations.
