I work in the retail industry at a grocery store chain. I've been with the company for almost six years and worked at three different stores so far due to going to school and moving to a new area. I started out as a cashier and I'm currently the assistant customer service manager.
Yesterday evening, a lady came to our service desk and wanted to return a pound cake she got from our bakery. Please note that we didn't bake this cake – this particular type of cake comes in on our frozen truck and is then thawed and put out for customers. Anyway, she wanted her money back because she claimed it was stale. Nothing abnormal about that. So she handed me her receipt and I tried to give her her money (around $6). She looked at me, confused, and said, “I'm supposed to get double my money back, aren't I?” And I told her politely, “I'm sorry ma'am, our Double Money Back Guarantee is only for our store brand items and fresh products prepared in the store, such as our cookies, or our brand of cakes. This pound cake was brought in on our frozen truck.” Then she got frustrated and told me things like “I've been shopping here for years” and “nobody has ever told me that” – things like that. I even confirmed with the customer service manager that the cake in question isn't a part of the double money back guarantee. I should also mention now that she never took the money from me, so I set it down in front of her (as one would). She then proceeded to tell me she was going to call corporate, to which I replied, “I'm sorry you feel like you have to do that, but I'll be right here with your money when you get through.” I'll also reiterate that she didn't take the money yet, even though it was already offered.
While she was on the phone with corporate, I took care of other customers. I overheard her saying things like “yes, he threw the money at me and was having an attitude.” shit like that.. and when she was finished, she told me “they said it's a bakery item, so I should get double my money back.” At this point she lost all credibility, so I didn't take her word for it and stuck to what the customer service manager said. She gave in and said “fine, I'll just take the cake back.” As I kept the money and gave her cake back I said, “I'm sorry about the issue ma'am, but I hope you didn't lie to them about my attitude and me 'throwing' money at you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.” She scoffed and took her cake with her. I thought the issue was 'resolved' but this is where the real issue started.
The next morning (which happens to be the morning of when I'm typing this) the store manager calls me to his office while I'm finishing up some accounting stuff in the front office. To preface shortly, the store manager is relatively new, but he is very ignorant and has little social skills with his employees. Most of the day, he stocks shelves and doesn't manage the store like he's supposed to. I try not to be rude, but he's an idiot and about as useful as a paperclip. Everyone in the store knows this – including my immediate boss, the customer service manager.
So I walk to his office and he tells me that he got a complaint email from corporate about the customer with the cake. The email mentioned me throwing the money and having an attitude. He didn't even ask me what happened, he just told me that I should've just done the double money back for her. I replied that I was under the impression that the cake in question wasn't a part of that policy and he said that it was. I also tried to tell him that I didn't throw anything at her and I handled it very politely, but he kept talking over me and interrupting me. He went further by telling me that I don't have the authority to deal with people like that, and he's the only manager in this store (which is blatantly untrue, there's at least 7 including myself), and that I should call him next time there's an issue. All he had to do was ask me what happened (instead of taking the customer's word for it) and tell me something like “I know you were trying to do the right thing, but our policy actually says…” but no, he was rude and treated me like a child. I've been doing this for six years – I know exactly how to do my job, and I've handled many others like this customer. She's the type that knows our system: buy something, complain that it's bad, demand a double money back refund, call corporate, get what you want, and repeat because now she knows she could get away with it. We have several of those types and I knew from the beginning that she's no different. But the store manager doesn't understand that concept – he told me we should do anything to make our customers happy even if that means giving them a gift card. And that's exactly what he told me to do, because she would be on her way back very soon to pick it up.
So that was the end of that discussion. From that point on, I told myself that I would bother the hell out of him when a customer needed help because apparently I'm not allowed to de-escalate situations – even stupid shit that I could handle easily. Also, he's apparently the only manager in the store, so only he can handle it anyway right? I was talking about this to the customer service manager and she's in complete agreement with me LMAO
And now for the karma – as soon as I was about to clock out for the day, the customer from earlier walked up to the desk. I was very kind and I even told her, “I'm really sorry about our issue yesterday. I was under the wrong impression of the double money back policy regarding the cake. Here is your $20 gift card the store manager wanted to give you.” She didn't even say thank you, she just looked at it and walked outside. She then walked back in and came up to me and said, “my husband said $20 doesn't begin to cover the humiliation you caused me, so I'd like to speak with your store manager to get more money put on this card!” I was disgusted, but it was the perfect situation! I called the store manager to the front, and when he got there I told him, “the customer about the cake is back, gave her the gift card, she wants more. I'm about to leave, so you can deal with that.” It was so satisfying to see his face as they argued about the gift card as I made my way to the door. I'm not sure what the result was, but I'm pretty sure she didn't get anything else. I totally knew exactly what she'd do because, again, I'd dealt with people like her before. You give them an inch, they ask for a mile. There was a part of me that wanted to give her what she wanted and more just to prove my point to the store manager that not all customers have good intentions. Most of the time, I can tell if they do or not.
So that's pretty much it – a perfect example of how crappy it is to work retail, between shitty management and shitty customers. To everyone who works retail, I salute you! To those who don't, please be kind to us – we have to deal with this type of thing regularly.