That’s One Way To Throw The Book At Him

I worked at this bookstore for over ten years. I loved it, honestly, but when I got an offer for a better job, I took it without any questions. My bosses and fellow coworkers were really happy for me, and since I still shop there weekly, they still see me.

I bought several books a few weeks ago, and when I went to read one of them, it was completely blank. The first few pages were printed but the rest looked like the printer ran out of ink.

I took it back to the store to just exchange it. The store has a policy that if it’s something like that, they can exchange it for free as long as it’s within a month of the receipt. I stood in line and let the cashier know what I needed to do. He was new, and instead of radioing to a manager to let them know what was going on, he told me that he couldn’t return a book in that condition.

I told him, politely, that he could and that it was part of the publishing return clause.

Employee: “This is in an unsellable condition.”

Me: “Right, it’s a publisher’s mistake, so you can exchange it for one that has all the printing and you guys will just return this book to the publisher and they will get you a replacement.”

Employee: “We can’t do that.”

Me: “Yeah, you can, and you will.”

Employee: “I am refusing you service! You need to get out of here now.”

Me: “Dude, you need to do two things: first, chill, and second, get a manager.”

Employee: “I’m not getting a manager. You are banned from the store.”

Me: “Okay.”

I stepped out of line with the book and texted one of the managers that I knew, asking if they were at the store. Turns out they were, and I asked if they could come up to the front to explain to the new cashier about the publishing return policy.

Not even three minutes later my old manager and the general manager came up. The cashier saw them and smirked at me.

Employee: “Now you’re going to get it.”

Both of them greeted me, asking about the new job and how I was doing, and then asked what was wrong. I showed them the book and let them know that the cashier told me that I couldn’t return it and that I was banned from the store. 

Needless to say, it was quite a lovely shade of whitish-green that he turned when both of them let him know that, yes, they could return it and that he had absolutely no power in banning people. 

I got my book exchanged, and when I went back there a few weeks later he was stocking and apparently not allowed to be on the cash register for a bit.