Has No Interest In Understanding How It Works

I work at the customer service desk at a well-known home improvement store chain. A middle-aged lady and her also middle-aged husband come storming up to the desk (which is, sadly, quite common). I saddle up, take a breath, and brace myself.

Ninety-five percent of what we do at the customer service desk is process returns, so it’s typical for people to have armfuls and/or cartfuls of items they’re returning when they approach the desk. It’s also typical for customers who have the store credit card to not bring their receipt when returning items and just have us run their card to process the return.

The angry couple has a cart with a few items in it, and the husband angrily chucks their store credit card onto the desk in front of me and just stands there silently glaring at me. I assume from the format that this is a standard return.

It’s also sadly common how many people behave this way when returning items: not saying anything, but expecting us lowly workers to read their minds and process their returns with as little verbal interaction as possible.

Me: “Is this a return?”

Husband: “Yes!”

Me: “Okay, let me just—”

Husband: *Interrupting me* “Your card is trash!”

Me: “Pardon?”

Husband: “Your card! It’s worthless! It has a zero balance!”

Now I’m confused. Then, the wife jumps in and starts bellowing at me, leaning over the desk toward me, and stabbing at the card still lying on the desk with her finger.

Wife: “We paid this off. And now we can’t use it!”

Me: “Um, I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand.”

Wife: “It won’t let us use this worthless store credit card to buy things because we paid it off!”

I glance at their cart of items, still confused.

Me: “I’m sorry. Are you trying to return these items?”

Husband: “No!” *Looking at me like I’m stupid* “We’re buying these! And the card won’t let us!”

Me: “Okay, I apologize. I thought you said this was a return. So, your store credit card won’t process at the checkout. Is that what you’re saying?”

Both: “Yes!“

Wife: “We had a balance on the card from last time, and instead of making payments like they want you to do, we just paid it off. And now it won’t work!”

Me: “I apologize for that. It does sound very frustrating. There should be a number on the back—”

Wife: *Cutting me off* “You would think we would get rewarded for paying off the entire balance, but noooooooo. They want people to just make the little payments as they go, and then they charge interest! It’s a scam! Your store credit card is a scam!“

I take a breath and try to stay calm in the face of this lady being up in my face about something I have zero control over.

Me: “Okay, as I was saying, there should be a number on the back of your card here—” *flips over the card to show her* “—where you can call the customer service line for the card to see what the issue is. Unfortunately, here at the store, we have no way to look up the information or to solve the issue.”

Wife: *Grumbling* “This is so stupid. Why don’t we get rewarded for paying off our card balance? Charging people interest to make payments is such a scam. We never should have gotten this card. You and your stupid card are a big scam!“

Thankfully, she picks up their credit card and huffily sits down on the bench with her husband to call the number on the back of the card. They’re there for about thirty minutes, and I can’t hear any of the conversation, but I’m expecting her to hop up and yell at me some more when they’re finished. Instead, when they’re through, they stand up and wheel their cart around the corner toward the checkout area, not even so much as looking at me, let alone offering any follow-up information.

My coworker comes over, having been near the desk during the initial conversation with the couple.

Coworker: “So… she was mad that you get charged interest when you buy stuff with a credit card?”

Me: *Shrugging* “Welcome to credit cards, lady!”