Some customers are their own worst enemy.

This is especially true when they refuse to listen and demand things go their way, regardless of the facts.

So, what would you do if a rude customer complained about shipping costs, only to later realize they sent the wrong product back to your company?

In today’s story, a mid-level manager finds themselves in this very predicament and decides to take a satisfying approach.

Here’s what happened.

Going to be nasty and complain about shipping costs to me? Turnabout is fair play, friends.

I’m a mid-level manager for my company. My duties mainly revolve around marketing and managing our e-commerce websites.

Because of my position, I sometimes get customer service calls escalated to me, which means if I’m talking to a customer on the phone, they’re usually not happy.

I received a call from a customer who was very upset, demanding a return authorization and shipping label to send back a product she recently purchased.

According to her, we had sent the wrong product.

Now, I’m more than happy to accommodate customers, and certainly understand mistakes can occur in fulfillment.

However, this lady was extremely combative and uncooperative from the jump.

There doesn’t seem to be a real problem here.

I asked her to read me the model number of the product she received (common troubleshooting in this case to identify where the mix-up occurred), and she immediately spat back the same model number on her receipt.

When I told her the model she read was the same as what she ordered, she rudely said, “You ****** up,” citing the product was not as advertised.

At this point, I was calmly trying to explain to her how the product should function.

I could tell she was older and possibly just didn’t understand how to get it to work the way she expected.

The wife just couldn’t understand what was going on.

I didn’t want her returning the product she ordered only to purchase the same model again and have the same problem.

She wasn’t having any of my attempts to help.

Within a couple of seconds, she passed the phone off to her husband, who wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise.

The husband was no better.

He demanded a return authorization and shipping label, and in the two minutes it took to put that together for him, I got to sit through his tirade of insults before I could end the phone call.

Multiple times through this jaunt, he complains about the cost of shipping, how “He better get his shipping refunded,” and that he’ll “Be ****** if he has to pay return shipping, too.”

Whatever, it was done. Sometimes, you get rude customers. I move on with my life.

It’s all good until they receive the product, which isn’t even from their company.

Fast forward a week or so later, the return package arrives. Inside of it is… not the product the customer ordered.

In fact, it’s not a product our company handles at all.

My guess is the customers purchased a lot of similar products around the same time, and they confused the product they received from another company with the one they ordered from ours.

We sent them the correct product the entire time, and the one they returned was probably incorrect; they just had the wrong company to return it to.

Here goes trying to explain this to the couple.

I figured when I originally asked the lady what product she received, she was just reading back from the receipt, not actually bothering to check the box to see if she had the wrong company altogether.

Normally, in a situation like this, we would send the product back to the customer and close the return.

But I remember the crap I had to take from this couple and am feeling petty.

So I called the customer and pointed out that the product they returned wasn’t what they ordered and asked how they’d like to proceed.

As expected, the conversation doesn’t start well.

I’ve got the initial lady I spoke to on the line at this point – she’s clearly not showing any more humility or respect toward me even after being told the fault was their own.

She tersely tells me to send it back.

“Sure,” I say, knowing exactly where this is going, “All I’ll need is to know how you’d like to handle shipping.

Would you like to send a shipping label, or should I charge your credit card?”

Oh, it was glorious. Within a minute of arguing with her, her ******* of a husband was on the line, telling me I couldn’t charge him to ship back his product.

The husband finally comes around.

He then goes on to admit what I expected all along – he needs the product he sent to my company to return to the company he actually bought them from, and I’m effectively holding the package hostage.

I let him know we’re perfectly willing to send it back, but since we covered the shipping to get an unwanted package into our building, we’re not covering shipping sending it back due to their mistake.

He huffs and puffs but knows he’s beat since he made a very rude version of the same argument a week ago to me, and says he’ll “Get his wife to handle it.”

They still haven’t paid the bill, though.

That was over a month ago.

The package is still sitting on our shelves with his return information, likely well out of any return period from the original seller.

Haven’t heard from the dynamic duo since. I smile every time I pass it in the warehouse.

They should have slowed down and just listened the first time.

Let’s see what Reddit readers have to say about this issue.

That’s a nice gift.

Trying to reason with these people sounds impossible.

Agree! Make sure they pay for it eventually.

Some people have no respect for others!

Glad they were in the wrong and had to eat their words – they totally deserve this.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.