Our store lets customers get up to $40 cashback on a check with a customer card.

We have a particular customer who is very loud and usually wrong. One evening, he comes through the line and gets $40 back. I hand him his cashback and his receipt and he leaves. I think it was an unusually smooth transaction for him, but of course, I was wrong.

About half an hour later, he’s back.

Customer: “You didn’t give me my cash or my receipt.”

Me: “I’m pretty sure I did, sir.”

Customer: “Well, I don’t have it. I always wrap the receipt around the cash and put it straight into my wallet, so I go home and enter it in my checkbook. Straight into my wallet.”

Me: “Well, all I can do is call a manager and have her count my drawer.”

Customer: “Call her, then. I need my cash and I’m in a hurry.”

I call the manager, but she is tied up with another customer and will be a few minutes before she gets there. The customer stands there grumbling, in a loud voice, about incompetence and how no one can do their job right.

Finally, the manager gets there and I fill her in.

Customer: “I got cashback and she didn’t give me my money. I can prove it, too.”

He then shoves his hand in his pocket and pulls out the receipt. The receipt he just told me he ALWAYS put back in his wallet and that I hadn’t given him in the first place. He then unfolds the receipt, and what is all wrapped up in it?

Two $20 bills.

He stands there for a moment with his jaw open.

Manager: “I guess I don’t have to count the drawer after all. Good thing, since you’re in such a hurry.”

The customer just shoves the receipt and cash into his pocket and practically runs out of the store. The manager apologizes to the customers who have been waiting to check out this whole time.

Other Customer: “Well, he did wrap the cash in the receipt. He wasn’t wrong about that.”

I got everyone through the line as quickly as I could, apologizing to them. The loud customer came back into the store on other occasions, and of course, he never apologized. But why should he? He was never wrong!

Related:
Cash Back Attack, Part 16
Cash Back Attack, Part 15
Cash Back Attack, Part 14
Cash Back Attack, Part 13
Cash Back Attack, Part 12

About ten years ago, I worked at a bookshop. There was going to be a changeover with the website, so I created a very simple placeholder webpage that listed the contact details for the store. I double-checked all the contact details and, satisfied it was correct, put the page online.

The next day, I received a call while at home.

Me: *Answering on autopilot* “Hello, [Bookshop]. How can I help you?”

As I spoke, I realised what I had done and readied myself for an explanation.

Caller: “Ah, yes, hello. Can you tell me if you have [Book] in stock?”

Me: “Uh… of course! However, can you please call this number, instead?” *Gives the actual store number* “I’m afraid the number on the website isn’t for the shop front.”

Caller: *Slightly confused* “Okay… Thanks!”

After the call ended, I immediately contacted my colleague, who managed to update the site. Somehow, in checking the contact details, I hadn’t noticed that I’d entered my personal address and landline instead of the bookshop’s! In fairness, however, they were on the same road and shared an area code.

Thankfully, there were no other calls to my home number… and I never answered the phone in the same way again!

I’m a woman in my early thirties and have been driving for over seventeen years. I have a pretty good driving record, only getting pulled over four times.

The fourth and most recent time I got pulled over happened when I was twenty-eight. I had moved up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and lived in a very rural area. It was summer and my sisters were up visiting me. We had spent the day on Lake Superior. We were all hungry and tired driving the forty-five minutes back to my house.

The speed limit was fifty-five, but the car in front of me was bouncing between forty and sixty miles an hour, driving me absolutely crazy. I didn’t have a clear way to pass them, and it seemed like every time I might have had a chance, they sped up. Finally, we came along a passing lane. 

For those that don’t know, passing lanes in the Upper Peninsula are when the two-lane roads add an extra lane on either side for a few miles to allow faster vehicles to pass slower vehicles. Usually, this lets people pass slower-moving logging trucks.

Seeing my chance, I got into the other lane and sped up to pass the car… which also sped up. I sped up even more because I was absolutely done with them and did not want to spend another twenty or so minutes behind them. Right as the lane ended and I was pulling in front of the car, I saw a state trooper in the oncoming lane. He went past, did a U-turn in the road, turned his lights on, and came after me. Great, just great. I pulled over. 

Trooper: “You were sure in a hurry! You were doing seventy-two in a fifty-five!”

Me: *Horrified* “WHAT?!”

He took my license and registration. I was freaking out. I had no idea I was going that fast. It was seventeen over the speed limit. I could get in serious trouble and possibly get my license suspended. My sisters were trying to help calm me down but weren’t having much luck.

The trooper came back to the car.

Trooper: “Where were you going in such a hurry?”

Me: “We spent the day at [Beach], and we’re headed back home and we’re really hungry.”

Trooper: “Oh, yeah, that’s a great place! There’s a nice fishing spot near there.”

Me: “Oh, yeah? Where?”

The trooper gave me directions to the fishing spot.

Trooper: “It’s pretty peaceful there, even if you don’t want to fish. I hope you ladies have a nice dinner when you get home. Just slow down, okay?”

Me: “Oh, absolutely, sir. Thank you. Have a goodnight!”

I still cannot believe that I did not get a ticket for that one. He could have given me a lesser speeding ticket, at the very least. He was super nice. I think he was just honestly concerned that I was driving so fast and wanted me to be safe.

I have been super careful since then and have not let my anger get the better of me. Knock wood, I haven’t been pulled over for any reason since then.

This happened years ago when you made car payments at the bank and dinosaurs roamed the earth. I deposited my paycheck, paid my car payment with the coupon, and collected cash back. The cash felt a little too heavy as I pulled away, so I stopped and counted it. It was exactly my car payment too much money, but my coupon was marked paid. I walked back to the window.

Me: “I think you made a mistake.”

Employee: *Quickly* “We can’t give you any additional money since you left the window.”

Me: “You gave me too much.”

She reached out and grabbed the envelope fast as lightning. Evidently, THAT they could do after you left the window. I didn’t even get a thank-you. But I figured I built up a little good Karma that day, and I do pride myself on being honest.

I’m using a prepaid phone and bought two cards at the mall so I could top up my account. The first card went through without a problem, and I set it aside in my wallet to scratch off the second one. At the time, I was so sleep-deprived from the holiday rush and bout of depression from two of my indoor/outdoor cats dying during the New Year celebrations that I was on autopilot.

I somehow managed to put the second card aside and slept, woke up four hours later, and tried to top the second card up. I kept getting an error message saying the service was unavailable and that I should check my account. I was sure I only topped one card up. I checked and the expiration date was still good, so I contacted customer service.

It took an hour with me waiting for the agent to reply once every three minutes and then put me on hold for so long that at one point I was on hold for fifteen minutes. I worked at a call center before, and everything about this was just so bad that if I hadn’t been so fatigued I would have been that yelling, cursing customer. In the end, I just resignedly asked if I needed to bring my receipt and the actual card with me to the store. The agent said that would be best and ended the call.

I had a free card that had a value of a fifth of the amount of the problem card, so I started rummaging in the card section of my wallet for it, went to get a coin, and lo and behold… the card I hadn’t used was in my coin purse, folded like a bill.

I had become that customer.

To the poor agent, I am so sorry. There was no chance of you resolving a problem when there was none but my stupidity.