I am working at the customer service desk of a popular grocery store. Just prior to closing, an older lady marches up to the desk and slams down a half gallon of milk.

Customer: *Loudly* “This milk is sour!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ll be happy to—”

Before I can complete the sentence to say, “—give you a refund,” she cuts me off.

Customer: “Don’t you dare tell me you’re going to give me a refund!”

At that point, I know what I am dealing with and page the manager on duty, who comes up all smiles.

Manager: “Yes, ma’am, how can I help you?”

Customer: “I want to know what your policy is not only for refunding me the cost of this sour milk, but also reimbursing me for my time and trouble for having to come back to the store, and for my inconvenience this morning because I couldn’t have my coffee because I didn’t have good milk!”

The manager ends up offering her replacement milk, a full refund, and a free package of coffee because she couldn’t have her coffee this morning. She refuses it all.

Manager: “Well, ma’am, what can I do that would make you happy?”

Customer: “You’re badgering me! I will never accept anything from you and will never set foot in this store again!”

She marches toward the automatic door, and as it opens, she turns to glare at us. I get the biggest smile on my face.

Me: “Thank you, ma’am, and you have a wonderful evening!”

If that door had not already been open, she would have broken the glass. After she was gone, I looked at the milk. It had expired six months before she brought it in. Our store routinely sells out of milk; there’s no possible way it sat on our shelf that long.

Related:
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 23
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 22
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 21
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 20
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 19

Eons ago, we went out to dinner with another couple, all of us enjoying a child-free evening. We decided to try a place that had recently opened. Three of us were drinking water, and the fourth had a lemon-lime soft drink, which, of course, looks like water if you don’t notice the bubbles.

At one point, the waitress came by and refilled all the glasses with water, including the soft drink. When it was pointed out what she did and a replacement was requested:

Waitress: “Well, how much of it did you drink?”

Seriously? She was going to bring a partially full glass as a replacement? No big surprise that the place closed down within a few months.

I stop in at a well-known fast food restaurant in order to get some food and coffee as I’m gearing up for an overnight shift on a Sunday. After ordering, twice, and pulling up to the window, I realize she didn’t hand me my coffee.

Me: “Oh, um, my coffee?”

Cashier: “What coffee?”

Me: “I ordered a large black coffee.”

Cashier: “Yeah, but I didn’t ring you up for it so it’s okay.”

Me: *Beat* “Oh. Okay, never mind, then.”

I didn’t have time to press the issue, so I ended up getting coffee from a gas station on a break, but how is your reaction to someone ordering something just a blithe, “Oh, I didn’t bother with that.”?

At least my food was fresh, so there was a silver lining.

It is around the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One. We have a store meeting about the new consoles coming out, their launches, the holidays, and protecting our product throughout the season.

Technically, we keep our products locked up behind our counter and have empty display cases out on the floor. If a customer wants to look at something before they’re sure whether or not they want to purchase it, we’re supposed to go out on the floor and show them a display case for them to look at. We’re only really supposed to let them see live product at the time of purchase. Otherwise, they could possibly just bolt out of the store with it in their hands and we’ve lost the store product and money, and we’re not allowed to leave the store and go after them.

A few days after that meeting, last Wednesday, a gentleman was in the store asking about the FIFA/360 Controller bundle. The box had a special edition FIFA 14 controller and the game brand new.

He first asked if I could take out the controller and allow him to hold it and look at it, and I informed him that I could not open new product behind the counter without the item having already been purchased. So, he asked if he could hold the case for it, and I informed him that live product was not allowed from behind the counter, period, until time of purchase.

The customer got irate and began to talk about how at the other [Store] he’d been going to for twenty years, they would always allow him to hold something. While I said that, yes, typically, if we have a regular, trustworthy customer who we are used to seeing in the store, we’re pretty lenient; however, since he was not a regular at our store, I couldn’t make the exception.

He then asked to speak to a manager and I told him that I was the current manager on duty and that it is company policy. He asked if he could look at the brand-new NBA 2k14 that was behind me, and I said he could pick up the display case out on the floor but I couldn’t let him hold the game itself just to look at. And I even informed him that we had just had a store meeting involving this very subject a few days prior.

Two other customers, who are regulars and who typically don’t ask to look at things behind the counter, came to my defense, telling him I was just doing my job, and that just because other employees at another store might bend the rules, it didn’t mean I necessarily could in my area.

But the customer was so upset that he recorded a video of me on his phone saying that it was company policy that I could not allow someone to look at live product from behind the counter without having to physically ring them up through the transaction and have them pay.

The gentleman then went to another branch of our store and showed them the video of me saying that. They even told him there that I was correct, and doing my job properly, and that he really had no complaint against me. After he left, the manager on duty at the other store actually called me and told me about him stopping by and about them defending me. It was a nice experience, to be generous about it.

I have no problem with the customer; if his home store does it for him, then fantastic! We do it for our regulars half the time, as well. But I was going by the book for someone who I did not know fairly well, and I may have miscommunicated my attitude about the situation, but I made it very clear I was doing my job properly and thoroughly.