Laying It All Out On The Broken Table

A customer wheels in a garden table. The legs are bent, there’s a huge hole smashed through the top, and it honestly looks like someone got drunk and used it as a trampoline. He drops the receipt on the counter.

Customer: “I want to return this.”

I check the date. Five months ago. Our return policy is thirty days on non-electrical items.

I also recognize the table, not because we sold it, but because we didn’t. We never carried this model, and the competitor that did stopped months ago. The item on the receipt definitely isn’t the same table.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t return this. It’s outside the thirty-day window, and this isn’t the table listed on the receipt.”

Customer: “Get your supervisor.”

I call my supervisor on the private line.

Me: “Hey, I’ve got a return that’s five months old—”

Supervisor: “—you know how to do returns.”

Me: “…yes, but it’s the wrong item, damaged, and—”

Supervisor: *Snapping.* “You know how to do returns. Just do it and stop complaining.”

He hangs up. I call the line again. No one answers. So, I process the return exactly as instructed. When the returned table is actually LOOKED AT by the returns team, there are actual squeals.

Next shift, I get called into the office. My supervisor is at the desk, and the store manager is sitting in the background.

Supervisor: “What happened with that return yesterday?”

I start explaining.

Me: “The table was damaged, five months old, not ours. I called—”

Supervisor: “—You should have checked the policy properly.”

Me: “I did check—”

Supervisor: “You didn’t explain it clearly.”

I pause, then look at the store manager.

Me: “I tried explaining it then, just like now. But as you can see, I’m not being allowed to finish. That’s what happened on the floor, too. If you still want to blame me, you’ll have to replace me, and we’re already short-staffed and losing people.”

The room goes quiet.

The supervisor gets chewed out for the incident. He ended up quitting less than a month later.