Yesterday, a lady came into the store to return two gifts that were still wrapped. They were meant to be wedding gifts, but the wedding was cancelled.

The store chain I work for offers a full refund within thirty days of purchase if the goods are new and still in the original packaging/tags attached, and the customer can provide the original receipt. After thirty days, the customer can exchange for other items or get a store credit that’s valid for a year in all of our stores. 

We accept returns if gifts with gift receipts, also within thirty days of purchase, but we don’t offer refunds for those, only exchanges for other items or store credit.

These are services we provide; stores are not obliged to offer refunds/exchanges by law here in Norway (for faulty items, the rules are different). 

The conversation with the customer went something like this:

Customer: “I want a refund for these. They were meant to be wedding gifts, but the wedding was cancelled.”

Me: “Let me see what I can do for you. Do you have the receipt?”

Customer: “There should be gift receipts in the gifts. I asked for that.”

Me: “To issue a refund, you need to provide the original receipt. With gift receipts, we offer exchange for other items or a store credit.”

While I explained, I unwrapped the two gifts to find out what it is the customer wanted to return and if I could find the gift receipts. They’d been issued in June, so we were far beyond the thirty-day window. Since the items she wanted to return were regular stock items we sell all year, I decided to offer her exchange or store credit as an extra service.

Me: “I see these were purchased back in June, that’s more than three months ago, so even with the original receipt, I won’t be able to refund you. But I can offer an exchange for other items or a store credit.”

Customer: “But the wedding was cancelled.”

Me: “I understand that, ma’am. But you’re here well past our thirty-day window for returns and don’t have a receipt. We don’t have to offer you anything, but as an extra service, we can offer an exchange for other items or a store credit.”

Customer: “This is horrible service! The wedding was cancelled.”

Me: “That doesn’t affect our policies, ma’am. We could refuse this return altogether since you’re so far past the thirty-day return window, but we are offering you exchange or store credit as extra service. Whether you take it or leave it is up to you.”

After a bit more back and forth, she realized defeat and reluctantly accepted a store credit while moaning about how poor the customer service was. She felt she shouldn’t have to “suffer financial loss due to a cancelled wedding”. Maybe I should’ve suggested that she ask the bride and groom for a refund since they cancelled their wedding?

I worked in a hardware store about twenty years ago. We had information desks in the store, one in the kitchen/homewares department, one in hardware/seasonal, and one by the paint mixing counter.

It was basically a small desk with a desktop computer and a phone. The desks had an “information” sign above them. There was nothing indicating it was a register/check out. No scanner, receipt printer, pin pad, etc.

Almost daily, someone would come up to a desk if a member of staff was working there and dump their stuff on the counter and demand to be checked out.

Me: “Sorry, can’t check you out here. There’s no register here, so you need to go to the check-out up front.”

Customer: “But there’s a line, I want to pay here.”

Me: “Well, you can’t pay here. I don’t have a way of taking your payment. Please take your items up front to check out.”

Customer: “This is horrible customer service! I’m never shopping here again!”

And because this is a sparsely populated part of Norway that doesn’t exactly have an overabundance of hardware stores:

Me: “Right… See ya next week…”

My car radio suddenly died, and my (then) two young kids started to get bored. It was a long ride, and therefore I started a switch-the-letters word game with them.

They gave me the word “pancakes” and I answered “canpakes”.

I know it’s silly, but it worked for a good while.

Me: “Strawberry.”

Them: “Brawsterry! Now do popcorn, mom!”

I’m not going to spell out the word that came to mind.

And we decided we should count trees, cows, and tractors instead.

I’m American, planning a vacation to Norway with a friend who has never traveled much, and never left the USA, but recently decided he wanted to explore the land of his ancestral heritage. I’ve been all over the world and lived overseas a few times as a freelance English teacher, so he’s asked me to go with him and help him with things like planning and getting around without a car.

We get together a few weeks after we decide that the trip is definitely happening – still several months before the actual trip itself – to talk about our itinerary.

Me: “Have you looked up some things you want to do?”

He proceeds to list off nearly twenty things, making it clear that all he’s done is open TripAdvisor and list every possible result.

Me: “[Friend], we’re only going for two weeks. There’s no way we’re going to be able to do all of that.”

Friend: “I think we can. It’s only like twenty things, and we’re there for fifteen days. We’ll have to double up for a few days, but we can get it all in.”

Me: “You’re really overestimating things. First off, you’ve never experienced jet lag before, so it might take you a day or two just to feel good enough to leave the hotel room after we check in.”

Friend: “Then we’ll just double up a few more things later in the trip, or even triple up.”

Me: “Even if we did find a magic schedule that lets us cram everything in, with travel time, food, and everything else, that’s going to leave us completely exhausted.”

Friend: “Okay, then what do you suggest we do?”

Me: “The way I plan a trip like this is to plan on doing one big thing for every two or three days. So that means taking your list, and choosing five things you DEFINITELY want to do, and we’ll make sure to schedule those at some point. After that, find three or four things that you want to do, but don’t really HAVE to do. That gives us something to do if we have extra energy someday, or if it’s close to something else that we’re doing.”

Friend: “But that’s only ten things. We’re there for fifteen days. What do we do with all the extra time?”

Me: “Find a nice place to hang out and just experience the culture and how things work in Norway. Or walk around for a while and see if something looks fun even though it’s not advertised on TripAdvisor. Maybe find a restaurant that looks like it has good food instead of eating at McDonald’s or some overpriced tourist hotspot.”

Friend: “That sounds boring.”

We discuss it for a while, and then I propose a solution.

Me: “How about this? We’ll take the first five days of our trip – starting with the first day you feel like getting out of bed after being jet lagged – and do it your way. You put together a list of things you want to do, and we’ll do them. After that, we’ll spend five days doing it my way. Any extra days at the end of the trip, you can choose which method to follow.”

Friend: “Sounds like a deal.”

We proceeded to plan the trip following that plan, and we arrived in Oslo. As predicted, my friend was in bed jet lagged for a day and a half after we landed, pushing his five-day schedule back because he had planned on doing something big in the evening a few hours after we landed. He finally dragged himself out of bed for dinner on our first full day in Oslo and declared that we would start following his itinerary tomorrow.

We spent three days following his INSANELY busy schedule, basically trekking back and forth across Oslo for twelve hours a day or more, before he asked for a day off because he was exhausted. I suggested that, after taking a day to rest, we try out my method for a day or two and went back to his schedule when he was ready to go again.

We never went back to his schedule. By the second day of traveling my way, he admitted that his planning had sucked. We spent the rest of the trip doing what I had originally suggested – wandering around finding cool, fun things to see and try, with the occasional “must do” activity every few days. It ended up being a really fun, rewarding trip, and we started talking about other trips we should take.

I know some people do enjoy having a firm and busy itinerary when they travel, but sometimes it also pays to slow down and just… be there.

Reading this story, I was reminded of something that happened to me a few years ago.

I was selling my apartment because I had just managed to buy a house. Obviously, I wanted to sell as quickly as possible, at the asking price (or higher).

The process started well, with the estate agent handling most of the paperwork. Cleaning down the whole place wouldn’t be a problem either; I was going to hire a crew for that. Preparing for the viewing, I bought flowerpots and tidied up the yard to make things prettier.

So, when did the problem start? You guessed it: not when dealing with professionals, but when dealing with potential buyers.

First, the estate agent called me and said that there was a potential buyer who wanted a viewing outside of the time he had set up. This would mean that I would have to be there and show them around myself, exactly the kind of thing I’d hired an estate agent to handle for me. I also had to tidy up, since the cleaning crew hadn’t been there yet. Honestly, I could have refused, but I desperately wanted as many people as possible to come to view the place, to increase my chances of getting the price I needed. The lady arrived, and I showed her (and her two small kids) around the place. She was pleasant but ended up not wanting to make an offer. 

A couple of days later, the agent called again. ANOTHER person wanted a private viewing. The timing was awful, as I was swamped at work, and I also had to do more cleaning and tidying up before he arrived. I didn’t feel like doing this extra work, after all, the estate agent was supposed to be handling the viewings, but once again, I allowed it.

This time, a young man arrived and looked around the place. After showing him around, it became obvious that he was a first-time buyer. Why? Well, sometimes, in a hot market, a buyer will try to ‘snipe’ the home by making an offer directly to the seller instead of going via the estate agent. It’s a practice that’s frowned upon since it means fewer buyers get to actually see the place, but it happens quite a lot. It can be good for the sellers, though, because the buyer will have to bid above the asking price to convince the seller to sell without showing the home to any other buyers. Apparently, though… this guy didn’t know that.

Potential Buyer: “I’m interested. Can I make a bid now?”

Me: “Well, you can talk to the estate agent and…”

Potential Buyer: “How about [price almost 10% LOWER than the asking price]?”

Me: “Uh… no.”

As soon as he made that low offer, I knew he didn’t know what he was doing. In order to tempt a seller to take the home off the market, the typical thing a buyer will do is bid higher, not lower. I wrapped up the meeting, got him out of there and immediately decided not to do any more private viewings.

That same evening, the same potential buyer started sending me text messages, again, directly, instead of talking to the estate agent.

Potential Buyer: “Bro! Sell me your apartment, I really like it!”

Me: “You’ll have to talk to the estate agent. The reason I hired him is so I don’t have to deal with these matters myself.”

I also wanted to say that I wasn’t his “bro”, but I held my tongue.

The rest of the process went okay, but the estate agent told me he hadn’t had many people coming to the official viewing, so I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to sell. Eventually, though, there was one person who made a bid just under the asking price. According to the estate agent, he was a nice guy, so I accepted his offer and prepared to move on. Enter: the afore-mentioned ‘sniper/bro’. 

He sent in a bid at the asking price five minutes before the deadline. This might work on eBay, but not in the housing market. When making a bid in this country, you have to give the agent time to inform the seller about the offer, as well as the other bidders, and give them time to react. Taking the advice of the agent, I rejected that offer and accepted the first one, even though that was slightly lower.

The estate agent said he would do his best to ‘educate’ the late bidder on the correct process.