so i am making a an address label for a customer and after i am finished this happens.

Me: Mam if you would like we can email you this file so you don’t have to wait for us to make it an we can print straight from it

Customer: No that’s to much trouble you guys can just remake it next time i come for labels

Me: Mam we don’t save files we make so we will have to remake it

Customer: Yeah its just too much trouble to email you the file over

Me: Alright then see you next time

Every week we have specials on certain items. One particular item, normally 35¢, was discounted to a lower price and shown in the ad as “4 for $1.00.” A customer went to a register with four of the item and the cashier was ringing them up.

A minute later she called for the manager over the walkie-talkie system, “These items are supposed to be four for a dollar, but they’re ringing up at 25¢ each!” It was the first time I heard five different employees laugh in five different parts of the store at the same time.

(I am working the busiest day of the back-to-school season. Our line has reached the back of the store and is wrapping along the back. Every register is open.)

Me: “Your total comes to—”

(Suddenly, the whole store goes black before I can finish. We have lost power, including the registers.)

Me: “Looks like we have lost power. Hopefully it will come back on soon. We are going to give it five minutes, but if it is still out after that, we are going to have to close; it’s a safety hazard.”

Customer: “Well, I am not leaving without those dividers; they are the last ones and I need them!”

Me: “Hopefully we can get the registers back soon so we can get them for you.”

(After a few minutes, the power comes back, but our registers are locked out and require additional boot-up time.)

Me: “We are booting this back up. It should just take a few minutes.”

Customer: “Can I just give you the money and get the item?”

(Store alarms are going off and computers are trying to turn on.)

Me: “Once I get the register to work again, then yes.”

Customer: “Why is this taking so long? The customers before us didn’t have to wait this long!”

(They are, of course, referring to customers that left before the power went out. I stand there trying to remain composed as the managers run around trying to appease the growing lines.)

Customer: “Can’t I just give you the money and go?”

Me: “I can’t open the cash drawer, and I don’t know the total for these items.”

Customer: “Why don’t you know the prices of what you sell?”

Me: “We carry over 70,000 items, and they go on different sales every week; I couldn’t possibly know the price for every one.”

Customer: “I just really need these dividers.”

(I don’t know why the dividers were that important, or what the customer expected me to do in a power failure.)

(I am working the register at a popular office supply store. The store has frequent coupons and a rewards program for which customers receive information via email. It is common for customers to complain about not getting their rewards immediately, as they think it is a discount.)

Customer: “I want to use this coupon.”

(The customer holds up his phone displaying a coupon from the week prior.)

Me: “This coupon is expired, so I can’t apply it.”

Customer: “You guys always do this; you send out deals and I can never use them. You are trying to trick me.”

(The customer scrolls through emails and settles on one that is just an ad for an online sale we have, not even on the product he is buying.)

Customer: “Can I use this coupon?”

Me: “This isn’t a coupon; it’s just an ad for a chair.”

Customer: “See? This is all a scam! What about this one? This one says, ‘Last day.’ I wonder if I can use it?”

Me: “Again, sir, this coupon has expired.”

Customer: “Always! You people always send me coupons that are expired.”

(The customer scrolls past the email with a valid reward, and I point it out to him.)

Customer: “Finally you decide to do your job and stop scamming me.”

(Yes, because the store sends out expired coupons and is misleading you when they write, “Last day,” in the subject line. It isn’t our fault you tried to use the coupon three days after the last day email was sent.)

Related:
The Couponator 9: The Passive Aggression
The Couponator 8: The Fabric Of Reality
The Couponator 7: The Forgotten Coupon

(I’m the manager on duty this night, and my associate calls me over for help)

Associate: Can we return somethings onto a credit card without a receipt?

Me: No, we can only do store credit. Why, what’s going on?

Customer: I just, I bought these *items* and I don’t need them anymore. But I don’t want a store credit, I need the money back on my credit card.

Me: Well if you have the card with you, I can look the receipt up.

Customer: Well that’s the problem, I don’t have the card with me either.

Me: How would we put the money back on your credit card if you don’t have it with you?

Customer: Well I thought you could put it on a different card.

Me: No, I’m sorry, we can’t do that. Even with a receipt, it has to go back on the same card it was purchased on. And even now, without a receipt, there’s no way to tell how it was purchased, or if it was even purchased here. Do you know when you bought it?

Customer: No.

Me: Hmm, ok, well there isn’t much we can do. All I can do it give you store credit.

Customer: Well isn’t there a manager I can talk to about this?

Me: That’s me.

Customer: … oh …….

Me: Yeah. If you had the card on you, I would be able to find the receipt for you, and then put the refund on it. Do you happen to have the card number? Then maybe I could just let it slide for this one time and put it back on a different card for you, as long as I get proof of purchase.

Customer: No, I don’t even have the card anymore. I don’t want store credit.

(I go to the computer and try looking up all the transaction history on the item she’s trying to return, and the last time it was sold at our store was over 8 months ago)

Me: Well I’m not showing any record of this being sold since before May, so even with a receipt, I would only be able to give you store credit, and even then that’s giving you a lot, since our return policy is 30 days.

Customer: (huffs) fine. I’ll just take the store credit