he was actually checking out

Question

Joe: …but still, y’know, so, uh, yeah, so when he was actually checking out of the hospital, um, they actually told him, “Hey we, we know that you don’t have a job. And you, you told us you don’t have much money. So, uh, y’know, don’t worry about the hundred bucks. Uh, we’ll just write it off.”

Source: A.J. Hoge, Effortless English, Real English Conversation

May I ask about verb tenses in the context above?

1) Does the verb will (in the contraction we'll) shows promises in the context above?

2) But I am not sure why Joe use past continuous verb tense in the first bold part instead of, for example, simple past?

Answer 1

1/ "We'll" may indicate a promise to do something, as it appears to in this case, but it may also just show a simple intention to do something which may or may not occur, e.g.:

I will do my homework after dinner {if I don't forget}.

2/ Check the following site for how the past continuous can be used (British Council). Based on the dot points at that site, your question is addressed by the first dot point. Checking out of a hospital is a process that can take a few minutes. If the statement in quotation marks was said during that process, then the past continuous would be the correct tense to use.