A customer walks in drinking from a can of soda.

Me: “Hi! Welcome to [Toy Store]. May I help you with anything?”

Customer: “Yeah.”

She takes a sip from the can.

Customer: “I was in here a couple of days ago, and your manager said you guys would donate some items to our Christmas toy drive.”

This is not an unusual request, and the store’s owner donates to several charities throughout the year.

Me: “That’s great! I hope you get lots of donations for the kids. I just need to get your charity ID number for our tax records.”

Customer: “I already gave all that to the manager. I’m just here to pick up the toys you promised.”

Me: “Oh, okay. Let me check the book, then. If you gave your information to the manager, the paperwork will tell me what items we’ve donated.”

Customer: “I don’t have time for that; just give me the stuff.”

Me: “I’m very sorry, ma’am. I have to fill out the proper paperwork or we won’t be able to account for the donated items in the inventory.”

Customer: “I don’t care! That’s your problem, not mine. Just give me the d*** toys so I can go.”

The manager has heard the customer screaming and come up front to see what’s going on. It’s obvious from her expression that she recognizes the customer.

Manager: “Is there a problem here?”

Customer: “Yeah! This stupid little b**** won’t give me the d*** toys you guys promised!”

Manager: “Ma’am, I told you before that if we don’t have your charity ID number, we can’t authorize any donations.”

The customer turns and throws her soda can at one of the display shelves and storms out.

Manager: “I’ll get some stuff and we can clean up this soda. If she comes back, call security.”

This happens at a huge chain toy store that also offers price-matching. After finding an item I want, I check to see if any other stores have it cheaper since this store charges more for anything they have than anyone else does. I discover that one store has it cheaper; it’s not at a location near me, but they do have it in stock. I go up to the customer service to get a price-match.

Me: “Hi! I found this item that I would like to price-match.”

Cashier: “All right. Let me just check the website to see if they have it.”

Me: “Great. The item is [item]. It was a bit tricky to find on their website, so you have to be specific with the name.”

Cashier: “Okay, I have the website loaded up. May I see the item, please?”

I hand her the item and think this will be easy. I have price-matched at a different location before, so I think this will go as fast. After a few minutes of looking on the website, the cashier turns back to me.

Cashier: “Okay, so they don’t have it on their website.”

Me: “What do you mean? Did you look up the item’s name?”

Cashier: “No. I used the UPC and nothing showed up.”

This is where it starts to go bad. The UPC doesn’t work to look up the item. The other location couldn’t find what I priced-matched when searching the UPC, either, but when they put in the item’s name, they found it easily.

Me: “Well, I have it pulled up on my phone, so they have it. Just search the name and you’ll find it.”

Cashier: “I can look at the UPC again, but it’s not showing up.”

Me: “Could you please just put in the name and look that way?”

Cashier: “The UPC still isn’t showing anything. I can’t price-match this.”

At this point, I would normally just let it go. However, the cashier then ignores me and starts taking care of other customers while I am still standing there. I decide to wait and talk to them and show them my phone since they clearly have the item in stock. After fifteen minutes and three other customers, the cashier finally acknowledges me again.

Cashier: “Did you still need something?”

She is starting to get a rude attitude and clearly just doesn’t care anymore. I hold out my phone.

Me: “Look. You can clearly see the item on their website, as well as the fact that it is sold by them. If you would just look it up by the name, you’ll find it. Searching by UPC doesn’t work.”

Cashier: “I’ll just price-match it. It’s only a few dollars and I don’t really care.”

In the end, she did price-match it. I sent in a complaint that was followed up by their customer service representatives. They kept saying how sorry they were while not addressing my issue or anything else. Despite my trying to tell them what caused my problem to begin with, they just kept saying that they were sorry that their customer service wasn’t good enough. Needless to say, I won’t be back.

I order a Hotwheels set online for my daughter for Christmas. The toy company sends me an expansion instead of a base set that I ordered. I call customer support, and they promise they are going to ship me the correct item and a postage-paid box to return the old one and I should receive those within three days.

I wait over a week and this doesn’t happen. On the receipt, it says you can return the online items to any [Toy Store] location.

I go to the nearest location of that store with my receipt and item and get in the line for customer service which is out the door. I finally get up to the desk.

Me: “I ordered online and I was sent the wrong item. I’d like to get a refund on this. Here is my receipt.”

Clerk: “We don’t do online returns here. You have to call customer service and arrange shipping.”

Me: “I already did. And I never received the item I was supposed to or the box to ship this back. It says on my receipt that I can return it here.”

I point on the receipt where it says that.

Clerk: “The last time a lady like you walked in with one of those online orders, she left with it.”

Me: “We’ll see. I’m going to need to talk to your manager.”

Clerk: “You don’t need to talk to her. She will tell you the same thing.”

Me: “I’d like to talk to her anyway.”

The clerk rolls her eyes and goes to get the manager.

Manager: “What can I do for you?”

I explain the situation as I did before.

Manager: “Not a problem at all. I’ll just need the receipt for your order number.”

The manager takes the receipt and starts typing.

Clerk: “If you do it for her, they will all think they can!”

Manager: “They can! It’s store policy.”

Clerk: “It’s a pain to enter that stuff!”

Manager: “That’s not the customer’s fault. Now stop.”

The rest of the transaction went smoothly, though the clerk glared at me over the manager’s shoulder the whole time.

At my store, we sell a book that has pictures of the most iconic license plate of each US state. A customer is looking through it with her elementary-school-aged daughter. One license plate from New Mexico is BRIGHT YELLOW with red and green text. It’s VERY distinctive.

Daughter: *To her mother* “Wow, look at that one!”

Mother: *To the daughter* “That can’t be real.”

She approaches me.

Mother: “Why would you have this book? It doesn’t even have real license plates!”

Me: “Actually, that is a real license plate! I saw a lot of them when I was driving through the southwest last summer.”

Mother: “Well, I don’t believe you!”

I am taken aback and responding without thinking.

Me: “You don’t have to believe me. It’s still true.”

The mother scowled at me, grabbed her daughter’s hand, and dragged her out of the store.

(In our magic section, we have some fortune-telling items. They’re obviously meant for little kids and none of us take them seriously. One day, I see a customer looking very disapprovingly at that section.)  

Me: “Hi, is there anything I can help you with?” 

Customer: “No, but you can tell me why you’re selling pendulums and tarot cards for kids.” 

Me: “For fun. They’re just little toys.” 

Customer: “No, they’re not for fun. I’m a psychic medium, and you’re actually generating spiritual energy with those. Pendulums and tarot cards are dangerous, as well as ouija boards. They are not for kids, and they are not to be played with.” 

(At this point, I have to excuse myself; I can’t keep a straight face anymore. A couple of minutes later, I’m at the cash desk, and the same customer comes up, still looking very disapproving. At our store, all transactions begin by asking for the customer’s phone number.) 

Me: “Can I get your phone number, please?” 

Customer: “No, but you can get me the head office’s phone number.” 

(I gesture my manager over, who gives the customer the head office’s number while the customer complains to her.)

Customer: “I don’t agree with you selling pendulums and tarot cards to kids. I’m a psychic medium, and low-level spirits can actually be summoned with those, and they can attach themselves to kids, and it’s not pretty when they do.” 

Manager: “Well, we appreciate your feedback, ma’am. Here’s the phone number for our head office, and if you call them and give them your feedback I’m sure they’ll take that into account.” 

(The customer leaves, still not very happy with us. My manager and I managed to keep straight faces the whole time, but I’m starting to smile a bit about it now.) 

Next Customer In Line: “Man, that lady was a nutcase.”