Yuck

(‘m working a fairly slow shift with my manager when a young woman with her two children enters the store carrying a bag.)

Me: “Hi, welcome to [Store]. What can I help you with this evening?”

Customer: “I bought these candles a couple weeks ago for my mother, but she said she’d rather have some of the flameless ones like I have at home.”

(She sets the candles on the counter, and immediately I know something’s up: the candles are clearly melted like they’ve been sitting in her car for most of the summer and the scents she claims to have bought a few weeks ago we stopped selling a few months ago.)

Me: “All right, do you have your receipt?”

Customer: “Oh, no, my son threw it away just now.”

Me: “I can try to look it up for you, no problem.”

Customer: *uncomfortable* “Oh, sure, but can’t you just put it on a merchandise card? What if I exchanged them for candles of equal value?””

Me: “Well, I’d still need your original receipt to issue the exchange. Only managers can issue something on merchandise credit without the receipt, and she’s helping another customer at the moment.”

(Earlier I’d shown her children a cat-shaped pen that meows which we have as an impulse buy item at the register. I notice her son take it apart and put it in his mouth. This is the last cat pen we have.)

Me: “Uh, ma’am?”

(She takes the pen and hands it to me. Since it’s been in his mouth we’re going to have to damage it out if she doesn’t buy it. She then starts “looking” for her receipt while I attempt to keep her son from playing with the card reader and some expensive hand-blown glass decorations. Eventually my manager finishes with her customer and comes in to help, explaining that without a receipt, we don’t accept returns. The woman leaves with the candles and her children.)

Manager: “Looks like you’ve met [Customer].”

(Turned out, the customer had a bad habit of buying things at seasonal sales and trying to come back months later to return them. We had to damage out the pen since she didn’t want to buy it.)