When The Customer Is HD-Oh-My!

I work for a big wholesale retail company that’s membership based. I work in the electronics section primarily selling cell phones but occasionally I’d need to cover the sales floor and advise on television/other sales as needed.

An elderly woman comes in with her husband. Her TV just broke and she’s looking for a new one. The member explained that her old TV had screen issues, but she liked it because it was easy for her to connect an HDMI to it and watch her Eastern European news channels on the screen itself.

I’m like that’s cool, you can get a Vizio that has built in Chromecast capacities so you can mirror/cast things from your phone to the screen.

We spend a while discussing her options. The woman’s husband is disabled, and she is elderly, so I suggest that she buy online to have it delivered to her house or to purchase the straight-to-home delivery service. She does, and that’s that.

A week later, this woman comes in on a complete rampage!

Customer: “I can’t get the TV set up! You lied to me about what it could do!”

Me: “How did you plug it in?”

Customer: “Well, I haven’t actually plugged it in yet, but I still want my money back!”

Me: “Where is the TV?”

Customer: “I don’t have it with me! Refund me and then I’ll send it back in!”

I call my manager over as this is crazy.

Manager: “Ma’am, you need to bring in the TV. We could get fired for refunding a product that isn’t in the store.”

Customer: *Scoffs.* “Well I’d risk it if I were you because I’m upset!”

Manager: “I have kids to feed; I’m not getting fired over your TV.

Customer: *To my manager.* “We all have kids to feed!” *To me.* “You sold me the wrong TV, you b****!”

Now I know why her husband was in the parking lot playing with the birds; to avoid this drama!