Taking Account Of The Counter

(I work at a Make-Your-Own-Stuffed-Animal chain store. It’s two days before Christmas and it’s extremely busy. I am cashing out this woman who has put a bunch of things from her hands onto the counter. I put her son’s stuffed animal in a large paper bag, because the animal is fairly large, and nudge it closer to her because the counter is pretty long and the bag is tall. I don’t realize me nudging the big bag knocks off something she had placed on the counter.)

Me: *handing Customer her change* “Thank you and have a great day!”

Customer: *nearly snatches my fingers off while grabbing her change* “Give me my stuff!”

Me: “Uh?”

(The customer begins to angrily pick up the bag I knocked over and inspect it. The object inside has broken.)

Customer: “You knocked this off the counter with your bag!”

Me: *getting anxious* “I’m sorry, ma’am; I didn’t see it on the counter.”

Customer: “This was the last one, so now I’m out money on this!”

Me: *apologizes as she storms out angrily*

Manager: *ringing next to me* “Don’t worry about it.”

(The customer comes back in not even five minutes later and demands my manager’s attention to get compensation for the broken item, claiming I knocked it over forcefully and on purpose. The manager gives the customer a gift card to the store, and then tells me what happened.)

Manager: “I told her we couldn’t do anything about it, since we don’t sell the item, and you wouldn’t do anything like that maliciously. She acted like she wanted me to go to the back and get money from my own wallet to pay for the item broken that she put on our counter! I gave her a gift card for the value of the item.”

(It was a $10 picture frame.)