I work as a volunteer for a charity shop that helps people in other parts of the world. During lockdown due to the health crisis, we had a new till system put into our building. We’re all still trying to get the hang of the receipt printing options and the new till in general. This morning, I’m working on till for a bit while we wait for another volunteer to be available. A woman approaches with a dress.

Customer: “I’d like to return this, please. I just bought it yesterday and it doesn’t fit.”

Me: “Can I see your receipt?”

Customer: “I wasn’t given one. They said I could return it anyway.”

I internally groan.

Me: “Without a receipt, I can only do an exchange, I’m afraid. Sorry that the till didn’t give you one. We’re still getting used to the till.”

Customer: “Well, that’s not my fault. I won’t be accepting an exchange. I want a refund.”

I repeat what I said again and offer the exchange.

Customer: “You’re breaking your promise. I know my rights. I deserve a refund as it was your fault I didn’t have a receipt!”

She is starting to get angrier. I’m not good with confrontation, so I try again to respond nicely.

Me: “Again, I’m sorry that you weren’t given a receipt, but as I’ve explained, we have a new till and are having a few learning difficulties with the first few runs of a day while we figure the printing out.”

The lady begins to tell me off as she believes I am in the wrong. At the end of her rant…

Customer: “I am the customer and the customer is always right. Give me my refund.”

By this point, there was a small queue forming with the other four customers that had been allowed in and a queue growing longer outside to come in. My boss was at the door that morning, so she suggested that we switch places as she could tell I was starting to get a bit worried with the woman yelling at me.

My boss ended up giving her a refund to get her out of the shop, and as she walked past, she smiled at me and was as sweet as possible, as if nothing had just happened!

I work at customer service at a home improvement store. I am training a coworker. He and I have been processing returns and we’ve been really busy. I notice there is a problem with the return he is processing, so I stop what I am doing to find out what’s going on.

The customer and her husband paid with their store credit card. Immediately after their transaction, they paid off the bill. They want cash back for the return, which is a little over $600.

Me: “Sorry, ma’am, we can’t do that because it has to go back to the original tender.”

Customer: “I don’t understand.”

Me: “You can’t get cash for the return; it was paid with the credit card.”

She keeps repeating that she doesn’t understand.

Me: “Would you like to talk to a manager?”

Customer: “No. I don’t think that’s how it should be.”

The return is processed, and they stand off to the side and call someone. They talk for a couple of minutes and leave, thank goodness.

A couple of hours later, we’re slammed. I’m coming back to customer service when who do I see? The same lady and her husband. They are also joined by another woman and a toddler.

I don’t have the pleasure of dealing with them. The seasonal/outside supervisor gets called because he is the only available manager. It goes back and forth for a while. He calls the credit center to find out what can be done, which is nothing! All four of them finally leave after wasting time and gas because they thought they could get a manager to override it.

Don’t expect cash back on a return just because you paid off the bill. There are some things that not even managers can do.

Customer: “Can I return this shirt? There’s a hole in it.”

The shirt is made of thin athletic fabric, and there’s a gaping hole in the side seam like it’s been ripped in half. The fabric tag is lying on the counter.

Me: “Oh, no! What happened?”

Customer: “I was just taking the tag off when this happened.”

Me: “This… this fabric tag? You were taking this tag off?”

Customer: “Yeah, I just ripped it off and this happened. So, I want to return it for one without a hole.”

Me: “So you ripped this tag out yourself?”

Customer: “Yeah, I took it off and it left the hole. So can I exchange it now?”

Me: “…Um, no. I’m afraid you can’t.”

Customer: “Oh, okay. Never mind, then!”

I take calls and chats for a big gaming company, so I get a lot of people that are upset when something doesn’t work right. I get a mother as my first chat of the day that had started a refund request the Saturday before I got her. We can’t always give out refunds, so we have requirements that need to be met. She has met them, so she had the request sent to our back office by the first agent and was told to wait ten to twelve days for the refund.

The next day she gets in the chats again.

Mother: “I got the first half of the refund an hour after I had the request put in.”

Agent: “I don’t know why that’s happened like that. I’ll get the refund request sent to the back office again, but you will still have to wait ten to twelve days for the other half.”

The chat with the agent ends. Monday comes and I get Angry Mom.

Mother: “I bought some in-game currency for my daughter’s birthday, but it didn’t show up in-game!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that; let me see what I can do. Do you have the serial number from the console so that I have all this information on record?”

Mother: “No one has ever asked for the serial number before!”

I can see the last guy did.

Mother: “I’m not going to give it to you.”

I mark down, “I couldn’t get the serial number,” and move on. I can see all weekend she’s tried to get this worked out, so I ask my supervisor if I should send this refund request to the back office for a third time.

Supervisor: “No, if the back office has it, they will get to it.”

I go back to the mother.

Me: “I see you have a request set up already, so please wait the eight to ten days you have left.”

Mother: “No, I had the first half back an hour after I talked with the first guy and I want the rest of the money back now.”

I still don’t know how or why this happened like this, but my info says it takes ten to twelve days and I tell her this.

Mother: “That’s bulls***.”

At this point, she doesn’t care what I say unless I give her her money back, but I still have to follow what I’m told by my supervisor. I nicely ask her again to wait and again she says no. I give her the number of our tier-two help to see if they can make it any faster for her.

Mother: “No. I don’t have a phone; that’s why I have been using chat.”

Me: “Then I am afraid I can’t do anything for you. You can either wait the rest of the time or use someone else’s phone to call in to get further help.”

She goes off about how she just wants her money back and this was a gift for her daughter’s birthday and how it’s being ruined because she doesn’t have the money to get her stuff in the game.

I stop feeling sorry for her and feel worse for the kid having to live with that. I still say I’m sorry to hear all this and that I can’t do anything to make this go faster. 

Mother: “I’m going to contact the cops on you all and say that you’re stealing my money.”

This was the first time I’d had something go this far, and I was still new at this point, so I had ZERO idea of what to do. No one else knew what to do, either, really. After I saw that she’d left the chat, I ended the contact.

I don’t know if she ever got her money back or if she did go to the cops about this, but I also haven’t seen any news about the company getting sued over $10, so who knows?

Related:
Refunder Blunder, Part 54
Refunder Blunder, Part 53
Refunder Blunder, Part 52
Refunder Blunder, Part 51
Refunder Blunder, Part 50

I work at an amusement park known for tiny buildable bricks and having everything be awesome. I’m a shift lead in the retail department. One of my employees comes to the back and asks me for help.

Employee: “There is a guy who wants to do a return, and it’s a lot.”

The customer has a bag that is FULL of build-sets of all different kinds, ones we don’t even carry in our small store. The customer hands me his “receipt”, which is a printout of an order form from the company’s retail site. As we are a theme park, that site has nothing to do with us.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, I’m not going to be able to process this return for you today. You’ll have to go to a [Brick Store] location or return them by mail. The closest brick and mortar store would be down in Fashion Valley, but there is one downtown if you’re continuing your vacation up there.”

Customer: “What do you mean? You’re a [Brick Store]; return these.”

Me: “While you’re technically right, we’re just licensed to sell these brick products. We’re not owned by the company, so these items you’ve brought to return wouldn’t even be in our system.”

Customer: “You’re kidding me, right? No. You’re going to return these. I called and they said that I could.”

Me: “Sir, I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t return these.”

The customer becomes irate, grabbing products out of the bag and throwing them at me and at my employee, who has been silently observing this whole time.

Customer: *Screaming* “Call your supervisor!”

While I’m ducked behind the counter, I happily oblige while simultaneously radioing for security.

My supervisor and security arrive at the same time, and the customer gets red in the face and spits everywhere as he’s yelling that I am refusing him service.

My supervisor starts to get mad at me until I tell her to look at his receipt. She then starts giggling to herself once she sees it and neatly folds it and hands it back to the customer.

Supervisor: “Sir, this receipt is not from the same company that owns this park. Since you’ve chosen to harass our park employees and ruin other guests’ experiences, I’d like you to follow me so we can get your paperwork filled out.”

Customer: “Paperwork?”

Supervisor: “Yes, I’m banning you from this park.”

As the customer is being escorted out by park security and my supervisor, I turn to my employee.

Me: “Sorry for that fiasco, but well done for doing the right thing and getting me. I would have hated for you to deal with that on your own.”

Employee: *Shrugs* “I’m just trying to figure out why he lugged that big bag to the top of the park instead of trying to return it at the giant retail store at the entrance.”