Unfiltered Story #207098

(I work at the service desk at a large grocery store chain. In my state, it is illegal to exchange or return alcoholic items. An elderly lady approaches the desk with a bottle of wine and the cork is clearly damaged.)

Customer: I’d like to exchange this wine. I bought it a week ago when it was on sale and I can’t seem to get the cork out of it.

Me: I apologize, ma’am but I can’t do any exchanges or returns on this as it contains alcohol. It is against state law for me to process the exchange.

(Usually people are pretty understanding after that and leave, but not this lady.)

Lady: Well I can’t open it! If I try to use a corkscrew on this, it’s just going to shred the cork and get in my wine!

Me: Again, I’m sorry ma’am but my register wouldn’t even allow me to process the exchange. I can’t even override it. It is against the law, ma’am, but I can talk to my manager to see if there’s anything we can do.

Lady: You do that! The same thing happened to me six months ago and the manager let me exchange it!

Me: That manager broke the law for you, then, because there is no way for me to process the exchange from my register, or any register, but I’ll see what my manager can do.

(I call up the manager and she tells me I cannot process the exchange and that it is against the law. I tell the customer this.)

Lady: Well I want to talk to that manager! The gentleman that I talked to six months ago let me exchange this for the same problem!

(I call the manager up, who explains to the customer the same thing I said to her, that it is against state law for us to return or exchange alcoholic beverages, but she’s not having it.)

Lady: I’m going to call corporate and tell them that this policy is stupid and needs to be changed!

(The lady took her wine and left. The manager and I just exchanged looks and smiled, knowing that this customer would get absolutely nowhere. It wasn’t our policy that we couldn’t return alcohol. We had reiterated that it was a law, yet it seems that some customers think they can work around that.)