One Extra Mile Towards Losing Faith In Humanity

(I work at a popular coffee shop as a supervisor. One year we have a promotion going on that if you buy a pound of coffee you get a free airtight coffee container. A day after the promotion ends, the containers go from being free to being $14.95, about the same price as a pound of coffee. As I am doing inventory, a customer approaches me holding one of the containers.)

Customer: “Excuse me. I thought we got a free pound of coffee if we purchased this?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but that deal ended yesterday.”

Customer: *looking sad* “Oh… I wanted to send it to my son in Iraq. I know that coffee lasts longer this way, but I can’t afford to buy both. Thank you. I will just buy the coffee, then.”

Me: “Ma’am, thank you for not asking me to somehow extend this sale for you. I very much appreciate it. My husband is also in the military and just got back from Iraq himself a couple of months ago. I know how important those care packages can be. I actually get a free pound of coffee every week as a mark out, and I would like to give it to you for your son.”

Customer: “Oh, my! That is so nice of you! Thank you so much. He will love this.”

(I get her rung up and get her the pound of coffee, and she leaves happy. I go back to doing inventory. About twenty minutes later the phone rings. One of my baristas answers it and calls me over; it is someone from another store. Supervisors always deal with these calls, as they are usually someone looking for help covering hours at their store, or they are out of a product and are calling around to see if anyone else has extra.)

Me: “Hi. This is [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Other Supervisor: “Hi, [My Name]. This is [Other Supervisor] from [downtown branch]. I have a customer here, and she said that you gave her free coffee and told her you would have given her more but were out of the promotional containers.”

Me: “No… We have a ton of those containers; I gave her my coffee mark out.”

Other Supervisor: “Yeah… I thought it was something like that. I will deal with her.”

(I love working customer service, but every time something like this happens it makes it harder to go the extra mile for my next customer.)