Sometimes the customer is wrong.
The Woman At Target Who Can’t Do Basic Math
Her daughter next to her was embarrassed. ‘Not if this isn’t resolved!’ the woman spat.
‘Hypothetically, if there wasn’t an issue, I’m guessing you would and you would use that 15 dollar gift card on your future purchase. If we let you return this controller for 55 dollars then you would have a free 15 dollars. That is why the return price is fifteen dollars less…I can do the return for you over here if you don’t want to go back to guest service.’
‘I didn’t want to return it, I just wanted to know why the return price was so much less,’ she said. She picked up her controller and receipt and began to walk off. Her daughter, clearly ashamed of her mother, thanked me and followed her out.”
An Attempt At Saving The Woman Some Money From the Deli
Tyler Olson/Shutterstock
“I used to work for a grocery store in high school as a cashier. One busy Saturday, an older lady came through my long line with about $150 worth of groceries. Among her items was a prepackaged piece of meat from our deli department that is normally priced by weight. Her meat did not have a printed sticker on the package, and I would’ve needed to find a bag boy or manager to run to the deli to get it priced. Because we were super busy, I decided to wing it, and set it on my scale.
‘Looks like it’s almost a pound, so…let’s say…$2.77? Does that sound fair?’ I began to ring it as a miscellaneous item.
‘No it does NOT sound fair!’ she yelled. ‘You need to get that priced!’
Groans began from the line behind her, as I found a bag boy to run and get the price sticker. A manager came by to see what the commotion was about, and the lady explained the situation. I explained why I had made the decision I made. The manager, of course, stuck up for the lady (which we laughed about later) and she accepted the apology. We then waited for what seemed like an eternity of eye-contact avoidance and thumb twiddling.
The bag boy came back and handed me the pork. I smirked and showed her the price. ‘$2.78. Huh, I would’ve saved you a penny!’ The man behind her chortled. Never saw her again.”
Finding Evidence At Best Buy…
“I used to work in Best Buy services. It was sort of like Geek Squad before Geek Squad, and it dealt with everything like TVs and VCRs and random junk. One day we had a guy come in and complain about his little video camera not working. I agree to take a look at it even though there’s not much I can do but send it back to the manufacturer for him. It will take some time but that was 90% of the problem people had with services. Naturally, this guy wants a new one on the spot and he starts getting REALLY loud about it.
So I call the manager because I can’t pee in Best Buy without getting manager approval. While I’m waiting for the manager to come up I’m still tinkering with the camera in the back. I get some tools out and, hey, look, I got the thing open for the guy.
A minute or so later, I come back out when the manager gets there. The manager is talking to the guy as I move a computer up to the counter. I jump in and say, ‘Hey, I don’t think we should give this guy a new unit.’ The guy gives me dagger eyes and the manager is like, ‘Oh? Why’s that?’ Then I play the footage of what is unmistakably someone running around a pool, dropping the camera, which tumbles into the pool.
He had taken out the tape but it was recorded to the memory stick. Guy takes his camera and quietly leaves the store. Worth 2 years of an otherwise pretty annoying job.”
Exploiting The Service At Jimmy John’s?
“I work at Jimmy John’s. At JJ’s, if you’ve never been, it’s mostly self-service: you get your napkins, and if you need a bag, you get them yourself. Our sandwiches are wrapped in a way that you generally don’t need one, and everything is made ‘to go.’
A lady came in one day and ordered like 4 or 5 sandwiches. As always, I redirected her to the end of the bar to pick up her sandwiches and grab whatever napkins and bags she wanted. Now, if someone asks us to bag something FOR them, we will. People generally don’t (unless they’re really old in which case we’ll do it for them regardless) but nobody minds if they do.
This lady never asked once for someone to bag her food. She stood at the bar, quiet, bagging all of her sandwiches up, and then left. 15 or 20 minutes go by. Her husband calls the store and asks to speak to a manager (me). I pick up the phone and the conversation goes like this:
Me: ‘Hello, how can I help you?’
Guy: (shouting) ‘Yeah, since when is it y’alls policy for people to bag their own food? My wife just came from there and told me she had to bag everything herself!’
Me: ‘I’m sorry sir, but it’s technically always been our policy. Everything is self-service here at Jimmy John’s. We certainly would have…’
Guy: ‘WELL I’M GOING TO BE SURE TO TELL EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT THE KIND OF SERVICE YOU GUYS OFFER OVER THERE!’
Me: ‘Okay, well, thanks, I guess? I mean, it isn’t any sort of secret…’
(hangs up).”
Returning Fail At Ikea
“I work at Ikea in customer service. On a daily basis, we have customers come in with items that have been used, broken, old, without their receipt, some not even Ikea products, and they are DEMANDING a refund.
But the couple that really takes the cake tried to return a broken and rusty ironing board. It was obviously used and without a receipt, so I’m limited with my options. We can only offer store credit if the item can be returned to stock in its original packaging. Obviously, it wasn’t. With a receipt, you have 90 days to return your item in any condition.
After I refused the return, they decided to take it a step further.