A Receipt Offender

A customer comes up to the customer service/returns desk with some items. She looks a little familiar to me.

Customer: “I need to return these.”

Me: “Can I see the receipt?”

Customer: “I lost it.”

Me: “It’s just… some of these items look out of season. In fact, I think I remember this one from a couple of years ago.”

Customer: *Sighs.* “Get your manager to do what they need to do to get me my refund then.”

My manager is called over, and she goes wide-eyed when she sees the customer.

Manager: “I understand you want to do a return without a receipt?”

Customer: “Having a receipt shouldn’t matter! You can tell these are yours!”

Manager: “I can indeed tell that these items come from this store. Normally, a receiptless refund would go on to a gift card.”

Customer: *Sighs.* “Fine. I guess I’ll take the gift card.”

My manager goes through the process of taking down the customer’s details (required for a refund) and asks me to stay at the desk while she goes to “process something in the back”, which is odd since we don’t usually need to go into the back to do anything.

My manager comes back a minute or so later and continues talking to the customer for a few minutes, until the shopping centre’s security guys have arrived and walked up behind the customer.

Manager: *To the security guys.* “That’s her.”

The customer turns, sees the security guys, and immediately bolts for the exit. She’s cornered there by yet more security, and she gives up.

Me: *To my manager.* “What’s going on?”

Manager: “Did she look familiar to you?”

Me: “A little.”

Manager: “She’s a notorious shoplifter in this shopping centre. We’ve been after her for three years. I’d say she’s stolen a few thousand quid’s worth of clothing. She was almost caught last year, and we thought she’d never be back. I guess she hoped we’d forget her and thought it was safer to swindle money out of us from a ‘refund’ instead of stealing again. Talk about pushing your luck!”