I had someone buy chainsaws and then return them, claiming they just stopped working. This happened four times before the manager said she wasn’t allowed to buy chainsaws anymore since she keeps breaking them and getting refunded.

After the last return, the employee who dealt with her actually said:

Employee: “Let me see what’s wrong with it.”

And he checked. It was out of gas. She never filled them with gas. She just returned them and claimed they stopped for no reason.

I was working the fitting room check-in at a big box store. The policy was for us to count the customer’s clothing items and then give the customer a plastic number thing so we could identify the numbers of items in and out.

A woman came up with a lot of clothes. I reached for the clothes to start counting and the customer literally punched me!

It turned out that she had hundreds of dollars of merchandise she was planning on stealing hidden between the layers of clothing.

Related:

On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 27
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 26
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 25
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 24
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 23

I sold an internal door online on a local selling group. It was brand new and a bargain; I only sold it as the previous owners left it behind.

I took plenty of photos and supplied the measurements. The guy collected when he said he would and paid cash. I thought it was all good until a few days later when he messaged me.

Customer: “This door is the wrong size; I want my money back.”

Me: “I supplied all the measurements with the ad. You can see I even took photos of the tape measure.”

Customer: “It doesn’t fit my door frame; I want to return it.”

Me: “I’m not a shop. I don’t do returns.”

Customer: “You have to! It’s the law!”

Me: “No, it’s not. You bought as-is. The door was described properly. It sounds like you didn’t measure the door frame properly.”

Customer: “I am coming right now to return the door.”

Me: “Do what you want, but I’m not taking it back and I’m certainly not giving you any money for it.”

A few hours later, he showed up with the door, knocked, and rang the bell, but I ignored him. To my surprise, he left the door, which left me with a problem: it was still his property and I was supposed to take reasonable care of it. I stuck it in the garage and told him to collect his door. He ignored me.

A few months later, I still had a door I didn’t need and his money that he wasn’t entitled to, so I sold the door again, this time without issue.

It was the most problematic and profitable sale I ever had to make.

I was looking after a friend’s child and had three of my kids with me, so I had a double pram, one child on a scooter board on the back of the pram, and the tiny baby in a sling. I needed to go to this kitchenware store as something essential for cooking dinner had broken and needed replacing.

It was one of those stores where the entire stock and then some is out on the floor. There are huge, teetering piles of saucepans and boxes of drinking glasses all over the place and the cashier is right at the back. It’s dangerous for someone in my position, but the kids were being awesome and I was feeling positive.

I told all the kids to keep their hands in the pram and explained that we’d do this quick shop and then head to the playground. I then carefully navigated my way through the maze to the desk.

I spoke to the cashier, found what I wanted, and was about to pay when one of the kids picked up something small from the huge pile of tempting, colourful trinkets at the counter.

Me: “Oops, [Kid], put that back down, please.”

She put it down, immediately, without my having to intervene.

The cashier snapped loudly, right at the two-year-old:

Cashier: “You don’t touch things in here or you’re going to be in big trouble! I’ll be very, very mad if you touch!”

Me: “Um… I’ll do the parenting, thank you. I think we’re done here.”

I started to reverse my load back through the maze, putting my wallet back in my bag and leaving my item on the bench.

Cashier: “What? It’s my shop! How about showing me some respect?!”

Me: “Ah, how about showing your customers some respect? We won’t be shopping here again.”

She kept shouting after me until we were out of sight. Passersby were staring.

Luckily, the supermarket next door had what I needed. That shop has had about five “closing downs” and “reopened with new management” in the last few years. I still can’t bring myself to go back.

I am selling two nightstands/end tables on a popular social media networking site, on their buy and sell section. In the price section, I put $50 (to increase interest), and in the description, along with the explanation of the condition of the tables, I say they are $50 each. I get a couple of people sending offers for both or for one, and then, one potential buyer messages me and asks if I would deliver. Usually, I don’t, but I am feeling nice, and they are located just a few minutes’ drive away from where I will be working tomorrow, so I agree and set a time with her.

The next day, I finish my job and message the buyer, telling her that I will be there in ten minutes, right on the time we’d decided yesterday. No response. I pull up to the apartment building and message her that I’m there, and she still doesn’t respond. I go up to the buzzer, and someone answers!

Buyer: “Oh, okay. Give me five minutes.”

My level of frustration rises, since we set the time yesterday, and I’m being nice enough to drive there. In the meantime, I decide to grab one of the tables and bring it to the door. When I get there, a guy is waving around a $100 bill and asks me if I have change. Confused, I confirm that he’s there for the tables (I guess he’s living with the buyer), but I say that the tables are $50 each. He tells me that the buyer is in the shower and he needs to go check with her. Sure enough, when he comes back out, he tells me that she isn’t interested.

Me: “The listing said $50 each!”

I grabbed the table and stormed off to the car. I hate people sometimes.