There I go, annoying the counter person again

I went into a store today where in the past I have experienced genuine curtness from the counter person. I would definitely go to their competition (who are very friendly and helpful) in a second - and do for big jobs - but, for small jobs, this place is just so much closer.

This same counter person, an attractive young woman, came out of the chute way better today. She helped me, in a very nice, friendly fashion, with the self-service machines. Then, a few minutes later, I swear I only could have been looking lost for a couple of moments when she again very nicely asked if I needed more help. I was impressed.

Then there was a little slip. I went over and got her because I was having a problem with the machine again. I showed her in a very non-critical fashion what about the machine was confusing me. She showed me how it worked in a way that indicated I was an idiot. I then asked if I had to pay for the little bit of work that came out wrong. "We usually don't do that, but ok." (Disgusted - here they have to write off that 20 cents because of my stupidity.)

Then, when I checked out, she bounced back amazingly. "You know, that machine really is marked in a confusing way", with a very engaging smile - and then a big smile as I left.

So, she seems to me to be in transition - still caught in some old irritable habits, but really wanting to move to more care for the customer.

There also is a system glitch here - a machine that is not customer-friendly, and a practice of just turning the customer loose on the machine, without explaining the confusing machine. It occurs to me that some of her crankiness may have been caused because she knows the machine is problematic and part of her is just feeling defensive about the whole process - which she either has not yet figured out how to fix or feels it's the boss's problem to fix, or whatever.