A Gross Grocery Error

(This woman is a regular problem customer at our store. She comes up to the service desk, at which I have been working for a little over a week.)

Customer: “Yes, my husband was here last week and you overcharged him. I added up what he bought and you charged him too much.”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. May I see your receipt so we can take a look and get this figured out?”

Customer: “I don’t have my receipt. I threw it out. But you overcharged him. Here.”

(She proceeds to hand me a handwritten list with about eight things written on it, none of them over a dollar. She then starts lifting empty packages with mark-down stickers on them from her cart, as if that’s proof.)

Me: “Um… so you don’t have your receipt?”

Customer: “No, I threw it out. But you overcharged him.”

Me: “Well, we’ll have to look it up then. Do you have your customer card?”

Customer: “Yes.”

(She hands me her card and I write down the number on the back of it so we can look it up.)

Me: “And what day was your husband in here?”

Customer: “Uh… I don’t know. Thursday? Yes, Thursday.”

Me: “All right, give me a moment. I’m new up here so I’m going to need to get someone to help me look up your receipt.”

Customer: “Fine. But I need the money to buy groceries.”

Me: “Um… Okay, ma’am. Just give me a few minutes.”

(We look up the receipt from the day and two come up, both well over the amount she is telling me. So we print off the receipt and I go back out front to talk to her.)

Me: “We found the receipt and it looks like there are several others items on it.”

Customer: “No, he just bought these things. They must have made mistake. It doesn’t add up. You overcharged me.”

Me: “Well, I can’t give you any money back because the receipt says this is what he bought. If you want I can have someone check the cameras to make sure.”

Customer: “Okay. I’m going to go shopping and I’ll be back for my money. I need it for the groceries.”

(I call up the co-manager on duty and he goes back to check the cameras. The lady comes back about forty-five minutes later and the co-manager comes up to talk to her.)

Co-Manager: “We checked the cameras and your husband bought everything on the receipt.”

Customer: “No, they made a mistake. Overcharged me. I want my money back. I need it for groceries.”

Co-Manager: “Yeah, no one made a mistake. You weren’t overcharged. He bought everything.”

Customer: “No, it is a mistake. I need the money for my groceries.”

Co-Manager: “I’m sorry to hear that. Have a nice day.”