There Is A Bright Light At The End Of This

A difficult elderly customer is picking up stools and lamps at our furniture store. Even after being told last week that they would arrive unassembled, he is very upset that he will have to assemble the stools himself. My manager manages to calm him down, and she convinces him to take the unassembled stools and his two lamps home.

The cashier offers to carry the lamps to the front door, my coworker bids him a good day, and my manager holds the door for the customer as he carries the lamps to his car.

A few days later, the customer returns, this time with his very angry wife.

Customer: “You people ripped me off! Where are the lamps I paid for?!”

Coworker: “Sorry?”

Customer’s Wife: “We paid for two lamps from your store and never got them! What are you people trying to pull?”

Coworker: “Sir, I saw you pick up the lamps the other day, and our cashier even carried them to the front for you. Are you sure you didn’t misplace them?”

Customer: “Are you calling me a liar?!”

Customer’s Wife: “How dare you insult my husband?!”

My manager approaches and calms the customers down again, allowing them to pick out new lamps for free. As they are leaving, the customer stops to talk to my coworker again.

Customer: “I know you never gave me those lamps. How is it possible for a person to completely forget ten minutes of his life?”

Coworker: “…”

The next day, the elderly customer came back to our store. My coworker immediately grabbed our manager to deal with him. To everyone’s surprise, he was bringing back the extra lamps. The customer confessed that he and his wife had just moved, and their house was filled with boxes. Apparently, he had taken the box of lamps home and gotten them mixed up with moving boxes. To apologize, he brought us a big container of chocolate, and we haven’t seen him since.