Refund A Third Time’s The Charm

(A customer approaches my register asking to do a return.)

Customer: “This hair product was recommended to me by one of your cosmeticians, but it isn’t the right one. I want to exchange it with this one.”

Me: “Okay. So, what I’ll do is refund this one and then ring up this one. Do you have your receipt?”

Customer: “No.”

(I’m a bit taken aback, since our return policy states that you need your receipt, and it’s mercifully rare that people try to return things without the receipt.)

Me: “Oh. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do a return without the receipt.”

Customer: “I was in here the other day, and one of your cosmeticians recommended this product to me. But this is neither the appropriate product for my hair type nor is it the right colour. So I want to get this one, instead. Why can’t I just exchange them?”

Me: “Unfortunately, we can’t do straight exchanges. I have to refund the original item and then ring up the new one separately, and I can’t give a refund without the receipt.”

(The customer stares at me for a few moments with a blank look that feels like she’s trying to bore a hole into my skull… though that could just be my interpretation.)

Customer: “Can I speak to a supervisor?”

Me: “Sure!”

(I page the supervisor on duty. When she arrives, she first examines the product to verify that everything is still in the box. Then, she recommends that the customer take the product to the cosmetics counter to see if they can do anything, but she warns her that they probably won’t refund it without a receipt, either. The customer heads in the direction of the cosmetics counter. Less than a minute later, I hear my supervisor being paged to the cosmetics counter, which almost certainly means that the customer was denied a refund again, and that she asked for a supervisor AGAIN.)

Me: “Seriously?!”

(When I get the chance, I find my supervisor:)

Me: “When you got paged to cosmetics, was it the same lady who was trying to return the hair colour without a receipt?”

Supervisor: “Yeah.”

Me: “You didn’t do it, did you?”

Supervisor: “No.”

Me: “Oh, thank God. I would’ve been so mad if you had.”