The Vacuum Between Her Ears Still Works Just Fine

When I first started working at a store, they told me that people would try and exploit the return policy because, at one point, you could return anything at any time, no matter how used it was, and get your money back. They had just changed it within the last year or so. Because of this, they had a lot of people who still came in with vacuums and blenders they’d been using for ten or more years and try to return them only to be told that they couldn’t.

One lady came into my line on a Saturday.

Customer: “I need to return this vacuum cleaner that I bought in 2010. It’s acting weird.”

Me: “We can’t accept a return from that long ago.”

Customer: “Your return policy says I can return things whenever I want to return them! I want my money back!”

She held up my entire line trying to explain this to me. I wanted to tell her, “Ma’am, it’s a ten-year-old vacuum cleaner with a ton of wear and tear on it. Just buy a new one.”

I couldn’t believe that [Store] ever had a return policy where they’d take back anything, any time. There’s only one reason a person would try to return an item they’ve gotten a ton of usage out of, and that’s free money. It just never made sense to me.