You Give Them An Inch, They Throw Stuff At You

I work at a store that’s known for very generous coupon and discount policies. At the service desk, we pay extra attention to the discounts that were used on the customers’ original purchases, and we do our best to preserve these discounts when possible.

A lady comes up to the service desk with a bedding set.

Customer: “I bought this set and I want to exchange it for a different one.”

Me: “No problem, I can definitely help you with that. Do you have your receipt?”

Customer: “Yes, I have it right here.”

Me: “Okay, you have two options. You can do an even exchange at any register, but only if both items are exactly the same price. This is the simplest transaction, and it will preserve all of the discounts you got on your original purchase as well as the [Store]-Cash you earned that day. But I know that in the bedding department, there aren’t typically very many things with the exact same price point, so more than likely you’ll need to come back here to do it as a refund/purchase. I’m happy to take care of both parts of that transaction here if you don’t find an item that qualifies for an even exchange. In order to leave both options available to you, I won’t do anything with your return item just yet. Go ahead and find the new item you want to get, and then, if you do find a same-price item, you can go to any checkout. Otherwise, come back here and I’ll take care of you.”

The lady heads out to the bedding department with her original set.

A while later, she comes back up with a different bedding set. She hands me the receipt for the original purchase, but she doesn’t have that first set with her anymore.

Me: “Okay, and the item you’re returning?”

Customer: “It’s on the receipt, right there.” *Points*

Me: “Ma’am, I still need the original item in order to process this as an exchange.”

Customer: “You mean I have to go back out there and haul that thing back up here again? But it’s so heavy! Have one of your associates bring it up.”

Me: “Well, you would still have to go back there, too, since you know where you actually put it.”

Customer: “I put it on the shelf, where it goes. But the numbers are right there on the receipt.”

Me: “Yes, but I would still have to actually take the item you’re returning from you in order to apply its refund value toward the other item you’ve selected.”

Customer: “But I already put it back! Why can’t you just use the numbers from the receipt?”

Me: “If I did that without actually taking the item back, what’s to stop someone from just saying they put an item back in order to get a refund for something they didn’t actually return?”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I didn’t come here to be accused of stealing!”

She continued to rant for a while, and then she proceeded to throw the bedding set across the counter at me and storm off.

I let our Asset Protection officer know about the situation. I never did find out whether she was trying to pull a fast one on us or if she genuinely did think that just putting her return item directly back on the shelf was actually the way it was supposed to be done.