Not In Receipt Of All The Facts, Part 2

A woman comes up with a bag full of books and plunks them down on the counter.

Me: “Hi, how can I help you today?”

Customer: “I need to return these.”

Me: “All right. Do you have your receipt?”

Customer: “No, but I brought this.”

She pulls her credit card bill out of her purse, showing an amount charged at our store several weeks ago.

Me: “I’m sorry, but without a receipt, I can only issue a store credit for the lowest sale price of each of these books.”

Customer: “No, you don’t understand. This is what I paid for these books. It shows right here! *Points to bill*

Me: “Yes, it shows you spent a number of dollars, but it doesn’t tell me what you spent it on. The books aren’t itemized on your credit card bill, see?”

I hand the bill back to her.

Customer: “This is outrageous! You are trying to rip me off! I demand to speak to your manager!”

Me: “Certainly. Let me page her up here.”

I page the manager, who comes up, but before I can explain the situation, the customer jumps in.

Customer: “I have my receipt and she won’t give me my refund on my card! She said she’d only give me a store credit!”

Manager: “Oh, no, if you have your receipt, of course, we can issue a refund on the card.” *Turns to me* “Seriously? You’ve been here how long? You know better!”

Me: “She does not have a receipt; she has a credit card bill. It doesn’t show what she bought, only that she spent money here a few weeks ago.”

Manager: “Oh.” *Turns to customer* “She’s right; that’s not a receipt. We will have to issue a store credit.”

Customer: “This is outrageous! You are trying to rip me off!”

Manager: “Actually, no, we’re trying to prevent being ripped off! We have no way of knowing what you bought.”

Customer: “If you add up those books, it will be the same amount as on the credit card receipt! You’re just trying to rip me off!”

I look at my manager, and she looks at me and shrugs and mouths to go ahead, so I look the books up in the inventory system. The amounts are close, just a few dollars off, but accounting for the lowest sale price makes it around $10 less than what she says she paid. I report this back.

Customer: “You will refund the entire amount back to my credit card. Right now!”

Manager: “No, actually, we will give you a gift card for the amount she told you. Or you can go home and find your receipt and come back.”

Customer: “I’ll do that! And get you all fired!”

She snatches up her bag and takes off. A few days later, I’m cashiering again and I see her return and my heart sinks. She marches right up to my register and slams down her bag of books and a receipt.

Customer: “There! You remember me? Refund my money right now!”

She’s practically screaming at this point, and people are staring. I quickly take the receipt and look; it’s about $50 less than the credit card bill she previously showed me. I open her bag and find that none of the books match the receipt. I report this back to her with no small amount of trepidation.

Customer: *Completely losing it* “You didn’t say it had to be the receipt for these books! Just a receipt!”

I immediately got my manager, and we ended up having to have her escorted out by security.

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Not In Receipt Of All The Facts