A lady comes into the store with her husband, carrying a rug.

Customer: “I want to return this rug.”

We go through the return process.

Me: “I will be returning $99 back to the card you purchased the rug with. Can you please swipe your card?”

Customer: “Uh… I don’t think so. You have it on sale for $129! I want $129! And I want it in cash!”

Me: “You purchased the rug on sale, ma’am, so we can only return it for the same price you purchased it at.”

Customer: “No! You will honor your current price! Get me your manager!”

I got my manager and handed the customer over to her. I felt really bad for her forty-five minutes later when I was finishing my shift, and I saw that the customer was still yelling at her as I left.

I work returns in an electronics store. The policy is that if it’s unopened and within twenty-eight days of purchase, that’s fine. If it’s opened or used and not faulty, we won’t accept the return.

One day, a young lady comes in trying to return a TV.

Me: “Did you open this?”

Customer: “No, I haven’t opened it. Everything should be in there.”

I have a look at the tape and it looks like it’s been resealed. I open it and can clearly see that it’s been out of the box and everything. Plastic is torn and everything is just a mess.

Me: “You told me you didn’t open it.”

Customer: “I didn’t.”

Me: “It’s been used. We can’t take it back if you opened it”

Customer: “I DIDN’T OPEN IT! MY BOYFRIEND DID!”

Me: “Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter. If anyone has opened it, we can’t return it.”

Customer: “You said if I hadn’t opened it, we could return it! GET ME A MANAGER!”

I happily went and got a manager to deal with her. He was so dumbfounded when she said again that she hadn’t opened it; her boyfriend had. I left them to it and dealt with another customer.

Five minutes later, I saw my manager moving the TV to the back, so I asked what was up.

He had f****** returned it.

I don’t miss that job and the spineless management.

 I work for one of many self-employable delivery apps that deliver food for various restaurants.

On this particular day, I have gotten assigned two orders that are relatively close to each other. I pick up the first order and get the second, too. The first order, of course, gets dropped off first. It takes me about ten minutes to get to the first address and drop off the order, but I can’t drop it off immediately since I have to hand it to the customer. This takes an additional five minutes since it takes them forever to answer the door. Once that has been completed, I am on the way to the next address.

I get to the next house to drop off this order, and this one also requests that I hand it directly to the customer. I knock on the door and a lady answers. She has this look on her face like I just kicked a puppy or something. She crosses her arms.

Lady: “Took you long enough! We saw you go all over the place except here to drop our food off. Care to explain?”

I am kind of shocked, but using my best customer service voice, I reply:

Me: “Sorry, ma’am. I was assigned two orders, and I was instructed to take the first order first since it was closer, I assume. If there is an issue, you can contact [Delivery App] support and they can try to work with you.”

She is not happy about this.

Lady: “I want my order remade, and I want it for free, or I’ll call the restaurant and have you fired!”

She has been very rude to this point and I really don’t want to help her further.

Me: “Ma’am, I don’t work for the restaurant. I am an independent contractor. I am so sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”

After that statement, she becomes irate. She starts to clap her hands.

Lady: “Okay. You wait right here. I got something for you.”

I decide it’s time to leave. Before I can completely get off the front porch, her husband comes out! He is at least six feet tall, and he starts to scream at me to hold it right there.

Now, for further context, I have trained in multiple martial arts and self-defense for years. I hear this man come out and yell, and I immediately turn to face him because you never want someone who is potentially aggressive to have your back. I am still backing up, but now I have turned to face him, only feet away.

He starts advancing toward me, screaming.

Man: “You are going get us our f****** refund or else!”

I reply with the same statement I told the lady, but in a softer tone to attempt to de-escalate this man. As I am in mid-sentence, he pushes me back hard. As soon as he pushes me, my instincts and training kick in. As I regain my footing (I didn’t get knocked down), I square my stance and put my hands up to my face in case he tries to swing at me. I start to yell back at the guy and order him not to get any closer or put his hands on me. (This is my warning.)

He then throws a wild punch which I slip back with a lean, and then I counter with a front kick to his stomach. This lands flush, confirmed by a notable “Oof” sound. He folds slightly, exposing his face, so I followed up with a one-two as trained. After eating a one-two, he falls to one knee. I move back slightly to disengage and tell him to stay down so I can leave. (Once again, you never just turn your back on an aggressor.)

He gets up, red in the face. He screams at me again.

Man: “F*** YOU! I’LL KILL YOU!”

And he attempts to charge me. He throws another wild punch and another. I eat one but slip and duck under the second to get around to his back. From here, I attempt to wrestle him down. He keeps trying to punch me and even elbows me once in the face before I am able to trip him and take him down. I do my best to pin him, but I’m not successful until he rolls toward me and I mount him. He is mad!

Man: “I will f****** kill you! Get the f*** off me!”

He tries to bench-press me off of him and almost gets up a couple of times. He is strong!

Me: “I’m not getting off of you until you calm down!”

Now, he starts to punch, scratch, and bite me. In response, I give a good couple of hammer fists to get him to cover up, and once he does, I get higher on his chest to pin his arms above his head. We remain there until the cops come.

Once they arrive, they order me off him and PUT ME IN CUFFS! I am put in a squad car until a cop comes to get my statement and asks me what happened.

Me: “They wanted a refund, and I couldn’t give it to them since I’m just a [Delivery App] driver.”

Cop: “The lady here called and said you threatened her and that you were assaulting her husband on their front lawn. Do you have any way to prove your side?”

Lucky for me, I have a dash cam in my car, and I left the windows down. The cam caught some of the action from the front door on video and the rest caught audio of the man demanding a refund and threatening me, me telling him to back off, some audio of the struggle, him telling me he was going to kill me, and even me telling him to calm down.

Apparently, a neighbor across the street had a doorbell camera, and it also captured the incident with video and some audio.

The cops then let me go. They got my information and told me that my story seemed straight. I pressed charges against the man and was told by the cops they would call me if they had more questions.

I also reported them to [Delivery App] and included a copy of the police case number from the record in my county. That should be sufficient to get them banned.

Related:
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 32
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 31
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 30
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 29
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 28

I work in customer service and handle all the returns. One slow night, a woman comes in to return a 13″ MacBook Pro. Normally, returning laptops isn’t a big deal as long as they’re within the return policy of thirty days. While making the usual small talk, I glance at her receipt and see that she bought it about a month and a half ago. Okay, now we can only return or exchange it if there’s something defective with it.

Me: “I’ll put in the register that it’s defective and see if the system will let me return it; some companies make us send their products to the service center before they’ll authorize the return.”

As soon as I say this to her, she starts freaking out.

Customer: “You mean I won’t be able to exchange this right now?!”

Me: “I don’t think so, ma’am. What’s wrong with it, exactly?”

Customer: “I got a link in an email that went to a website where some really mean-looking guy’s face took over my screen and started saying satanic messages, and now my computer is acting all funny, so he must have given me a bug!”

I assure her that that’s very unlikely while browsing around on her computer, which is working fine. She starts yelling.

Customer: “But that’s what happened! How dare you call me a liar?! I have to have this laptop for work to access my work email! This defect is already costing me money!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am, but as your computer is outside the return policy, we can’t return it.”

Customer: “SO, I MIGHT AS WELL SMASH THIS COMPUTER TO PIECES ON YOUR COUNTER?!”

Me: “It’s well within your right to do so, but then you definitely won’t get your money back.”

She just stares at me. I finish putting it into our system, and lo and behold, it won’t let us return it without sending it to our service center first. Cue epic freakout. I call my supervisor over while this woman starts crying hysterically about how this isn’t her fault, she just wants her money back, that scary mean face gave her a bug, we’re so evil, etc.

The general manager of the store comes and takes over, along with the supervisor of tech support. They both examine the laptop and determine that there’s nothing obviously wrong with it and tell the woman the same thing: we have to send it to service before we can exchange it.

She starts SCREAMING at the top of her lungs.

Customer: “This is bulls***! You’re f****** me over! You’re not giving me any f****** choice here!”

Customers were now wandering up from the very back of the store to see WTF was going on. The woman screamed something about threatening us with a gun, which is when my general manager motioned to the supervisor to call the cops. Being that this is Montana, there was a good chance that she DID have a gun — or at least easy access to one. She kept screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs and added in that she had cancer and we were killing her.

The cops showed up, patted her down, and hauled her away.

I’m the manager of the front end/customer service area and frequently work as a go-between when it comes to angry customers; it’s my job to shut them up and give them what they want without getting an actual manager involved if it can be avoided.

A man comes in wanting a refund on a copy of Microsoft Office. Immediately, red flags go up for me, because under no circumstances are we allowed to refund software unless it’s faulty in some way, and even then, we can only do an exchange for the same product. Any actual returns have to be processed through the manufacturer, and all their information is printed on every box of software.

I walk this guy over to the customer service desk where I examine the copy of Microsoft Office he has thrown on my counter. I’ve worked in retail for a long time and have seen people do all kinds of stupid backhanded stuff just to get their money back, but this guy doesn’t even try to make the package look unopened. It’s duct-taped shut, plain and simple.

I very politely try to explain that I cannot process the return, and he completely loses his s***. He swears up and down “that’s the condition I bought it in” (yeah, okay, buddy) and that “you have to refund my money!”

I decide to call over a manager without him even asking me to because I know that sometimes just a manager’s say-so will shut up the rudest and most ridiculous customer.

My sales manager comes over, and I calmly explain the situation to him while this guy is screaming his head off about how we’re trying to rip him off to anyone in his vicinity. Other employees and shoppers are now staring at this point. My manager tells the guy that there is no way he’s walking out of this store with a refund, but he’d be glad to do an even exchange for the same product.

The dude continues to flip out, shouting racial slurs, etc. This goes on for a few minutes, until finally, he gets fed up, throws his duct-taped copy of Office on the counter, points right at me, and screams, “THAT WASN’T EASY!” (“That Was Easy” is our store’s motto, of course.)

I told him to have a nice day, and he stormed out.