Unfiltered Story #66961

(I’ve recently been promoted to keyholder at a chain clothing/skateboard shop in the mall. This morning I’m opening alone and taking care of some store-to-store transfers. A woman comes in with a return.)

Me: Hi, how can I help you today?

Woman: I’ve got a return from another store, but their computers were down so the receipt was handwritten.

Me: Well, let me take a look at it and see what I can do.

(she hands me the handwritten receipt, which has the printed credit card receipt stapled to it, so I can tell it’s an actual transaction and not a fake. I check the totals, and they match, and as I check the date, I notice that the purchase was almost three years ago in a store out of state. Our return policy is within 90 days.)

Me: Ma’am, I’m sorry. But you bought this almost three years ago, I’m not sure that I can take this return.

Woman: But I paid for it! The tags are still attached and I have the receipt!

Me: Yes, I see all of that, but our return policy is thirty days for cash back, ninety days for store credit.

Woman: I want to speak to the manager.

Me: I’m the current manager on duty, I’m sorry, but I can’t take this return.

Woman: Is there anything you can do?

Me: Give me one moment.

(I call my store manager, who will be in later on. I ask her if there’s anything I can do, she tells me I can return the item for whatever price it rings up as in the computer, but I can’t do a full return. I explain this to the woman.)

Woman: Well what do you mean?

Me: Well, you bought the item so long ago, it may have gone on sale since then, or moved to an outlet store only.

(the purse is marked at $29.95, I scan it into the computer to check it, and it is coming up as $19.99)

Me: Well, that’s not so bad. Sometimes items can go down below a dollar after this amount of time. Do you still have the credit card you used to purchase it? I can refund you the $19.99 to that.

Woman: That’s unacceptable, I want to speak to your boss.

Me: Ma’am, I just got off the phone with her, she is the one who is even letting me do this refund.

Woman: Well, then I want to speak to her boss!

Me: Umm… Alright.

(I call my district manager, and leave a message telling her to call me back right away regarding a customer complaint. While we wait for her to call me back, I apologize to another woman and her son who I was helping find shoes before the woman doing the return came in. My district manager calls back, I explain the situation, she tells me the same thing my store manager told me, and I tell her the woman wants to talk to her. I give the woman the phone and she argues with my District Manager for about ten minutes.)

Me (to second woman and her son): I am so sorry about all of this, if you’d like to leave your items here and come back in a little while, I’ll be able to ring you up.

Second Woman: Oh, don’t worry about it, sweetie. Honestly, I don’t want to leave you alone with her in case this gets bad.

(The woman gets off the phone with my district manager, and hands the phone back to me.)

Woman: YOU are the reason retail is a failing industry!

(She takes her purse and receipt and storms out of the store.)

Second Woman: If I were you, I’d be pretty proud of being the reason for an entire economic downfall!