Unfiltered Story #248231

Brace yourself, this is a long one.

I work in a nursery added on to a building supply/lumber yard, in our off season we bring in Christmas trees for the Holidays.

To set the scene, it’s about 30 degrees outside and the sun had been down for almost an hour, its COLD. A woman in her late 50s early 60s comes in wearing a jacket that would make more sense during the summer. I’m in our heated office working on paperwork but I have a large window in front of me so I can observe the nursery floor. My shift partner approaches her and begins showing her around. (After the fact he told me she didn’t even let him get out a greeting, she just started in on her list of demands for the tree she needed.) About two minutes later I notice them both heading for the office, which is red flag number one.
Coworker: Hey (My Name), the lady here talked with someone over the phone about 6ft trees at (extraordinarily wrong price). Do you know anything about this?
Me: I’m not sure, Ma’am could you explain to me who you talked to and when?
Customer: I talked with a man on Monday at 9am (shows me the time stamp on her phone for said phone call) And I know he would remember me because we went into great detail about how I’m from (adjacent state) and I wanted a tree like the ones I used to go and cut in my childhood. (Here she goes into great detail about the exact shape and texture of the needles from the trees she remembers.) He listed off a bunch of names for the trees that frankly made no sense to me and I asked him to describe the needles of the trees to me. I wanted one that was exactly 6ft tall and in a previous phone call I had talked with (sister store that’s just a hop skip and a jump over the state line) and they told me they were all out and directed me over here.
Me: I’m sorry ma’am but that doesn’t make sense as (sister store) has far more room than we do and I know for a fact their stock isn’t hurting at the moment. Let me call up my manager and ask him if he was the one you spoke with. (One quick call later and we have No Idea Who Told This Woman These Lies.) Whoever you spoke with was mistaken but I’ve been told to try and work with you to find something that may work for you.
Customer: *obviously put out and getting angry* Well I just don’t know why I would be told one thing over the phone and you guys won’t honor what I was told but fine! Lets go look at the trees again, besides it’s too cold out there and too hot in here and I have menopause and it’s giving me a hot flash!

So we give her another tour around our trees, I have Noble Fir, Nordman Fir, and Grand Fir trees, the third option had needles matching the description she gave. She declared them “f***ing ugly” and unacceptable. She wanders over to our Nobles (which she has already declared “too full for my ornaments”) and grabs one.
Customer: This one, this is just the perfect amount of space and it looks like it’s exactly 6ft!

It was actually very close to 7ft and in a different price range than the shorter trees. I told her as much and she flew into a rage and demanded she speak with my manager (who was off that day, and I’d already called him once) So I call him again, I explain the she isn’t satisfied with what we have and very upset that she was told we would have exactly what she was looking for by someone who had No Clue what they were talking about. He agrees to speak with her. She flies off the handle at him over the phone and gives him the whole sh-peel about (adjacent state) childhood trees, needle shapes, and the man who promised her a certain tree for a certain price and she wasn’t going to let us swindle her out of her perfect Christmas tree. Eventually the phone is handed back to me.

My Manager: (still on the phone where the customer can’t hear him) I don’t know what the f*** is wrong with her, give her the tree and get her the h*** out of the nursery.

Hold on, we aren’t done yet.

She asks us to tie the tree to the top of her car, which for liability reasons I’m not allowed to do. I can help them get the ropes in the right places but I’m not allowed to make any of the knots. So she shows us to her car. It’s a small truck with a cover over the bed, and the bed is stuffed full of old tires. There aren’t any rails or knobs or Anything on top of her truck to tie this tree too in the first place. She asks us to tie it upright on the bumper (which is bent at about 75 degrees and Nothing is gonna stay on there) which I’m pretty sure is a big traffic hazard. I tell her I’m pretty sure I can get it in on top of her tires in the bed. I direct her inside, tell the cashier whats up and dip out as fast as I can cause I just don’t want to talk to her anymore.

My coworker and I are in the middle of jamming this tree (gently, cause we are Good At Our Jobs) in her truck when the cashier calls me on the radio and asks…

“Can the customer use a coupon on this sale price?”

I later called our sister store and got confirmation that None of Us had talked to this woman over the phone. Merry Frickin’ Christmas.