When people say they know what they’re doing, it’s best to listen to them!

This guy’s boss dismissed his expertise and sided with customers who had insane return requests.

Eventually, the boss understood the consequences of his actions.

Check out the full story!

You don’t have the authority to say no to customers

This is a story from almost a decade ago now when I was promoted to Assistant Service Manger for a large chain health food grocery store.

For reference as to what that actually means for our store there were only two people who outranked myself and the two other managers at my same level.

There was an Assistant Store Director and the Store Director, hereafter known as SD.

He wanted everything to go smoothly.

Our day to day responsibilities included making sure each department was getting all their work completed, making sure shelves were staying stocked, cashiering when necessary, counting money and making change for the registers, and most importantly to this story approving returns.

I worked super hard to get that position by learning the ins and outs of the store and picking up shifts in every single department.

He knew there were pros and cons to being the youngest.

When I was promoted to the position, I was the youngest person in company history to reach that level.

I don’t mean that as a humble brag, but just to illustrate that I did know what I was talking about on a lot of things, but I was young so many people did not take me seriously.

So like I mentioned before it was my job to approve returns.

If a customer brought in something for a return the cashier would do all the work for the return including checking for a receipt, figuring out what the problem was, and determining how they could make it better for the customer (exchange, store credit, refund, etc.).

This is where it gets bad…

They would call me over at the end of the exchange, I would check to make sure it was all in order, insert a key, type in a code, and the return would go through.

Now I would like to think I was a reasonable person when it came to what I would approve and not approve.

If someone came back with spoiled food, I almost always gave them the benefit of the doubt that they stored it right and it was a faulty product (spoiler: its almost always their fault).

He knew how to handle every situation that came his way!

If someone didn’t like the taste of something, I would always do the return.

Even when something was slightly past the expiration date, I would try to work with them and maybe give them an exchange.

Where I drew the line was absolutely ridiculous things.

People would come do things like come in without a receipt or the product and try to get a return saying something like I got some (insert food) here and it was bad so I threw it away. Id like a return.

Okay so sorry I am not going to do that. Also, if you bring in something we don’t even sell at our store, I’m obviously not going to return it for you.

He was frustrated by people not considering him fit for the job…

Now like I said before I was young at the time so a lot of older adults wouldn’t take me seriously. They couldn’t understand someone so young could be the manager they wanted to speak to.

So one day an irate customer wanted to speak to a manager about a return.

My cashier called me, and I do my best to figure out how I can help them. They want a return on chicken that was THREE MONTHS expired.

It smelt exactly like you would expect.

My cashier was almost dry heaving from the stench.

He wasn’t sure about helping this customer…

So I say in my best customer service voice, “I’m sorry ma’am, but we wont be able to do a return on this today. It’s obviously way past its expiration date. If you would like we can dispose of it for you.”

She wouldn’t have any of it.

She is now yelling about how she deserves a refund.

Now we had cameras in the store, and so SD sees the commotion and comes out from his office to “save the day” (please read this as sarcastically as you can).

Things escalated pretty fast…

He tells the lady, “Oh I’m sorry that he was saying we can’t do a refund on this. Of course well do that.”

It didn’t have a bar code so he had no idea what it originally cost, but he gave the lady a $20 gift card to the store right there.

I’m fuming at this point because he just made me look like a powerless idiot in front of a bunch of customers, but we were busy so I keep doing my job.

About an hour later he calls me into his office.

I would type out the whole conversation, but its pointless because it all boils down to him telling me multiple times explicitly that I was not allowed to say no to a return.

His boss was rigid about the policy…

I was to approve all returns because customer satisfaction is more important than a little lost revenue, blah blah blah.

So I think this is the stupidest thing ever, but I am a good employee and I liked getting paid so I kept my mouth shut.

I do think from the title and where we stand in the story up to now you can all figure out where this goes.

Finally, he saw an opportunity!

Fast forward a few weeks and a customer comes in.

During Christmas time, we had sold little 1-2 foot tall Christmas trees in small pots. It was now June.

This lady wanted to return her Christmas tree that now made the Charlie Brown tree look full and healthy. It didn’t have a single needle on it, and the trunk was rotting.

Normally I would tell her in the most polite way that I could that there was no way in hell I would do that.

I had specific instructions, though, and I was sure as heck going to follow them.

He knew it was a stupid request but he was going to comply.

As part of the return, and while trying not to laugh, I asked her why she wanted to return it.

She told me flat out, “Well it didn’t do what I was expecting it to.”

Now I don’t know what she expected, but I personally don’t buy a Christmas tree thinking its going to live forever. I completed the return though, and sent her on her way.

Where did I take that Christmas tree you might ask?

If you guessed straight to the SD’s desk for him to find the next morning you would be a winner.

Cherry on top!

I had the next day off but the nice note I left him explained the whole situation.

The next day when I came back, he immediately called me in.

I was expecting the worst because leaving it on his desk with a note was a little aggressive, but all he said was, “maybe from now on you can say no sometimes. Just use your best judgement.”

It was one of the greatest victories ever and it took all my self restraint not to say something sarcastic about how that should have been the case all along.

That was funny! This guy proved to his boss how important rational decisions can be!

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit have to say about this one.

This user thinks a Christmas tree might also survive for longer.

This user got a nostalgic hit from this story.

This user knows that customers are always unreasonable with their requests.

That’s right! This user knows people would go mad if a store started allowing everyone to return everything!

This user would have preferred it if someone had returned a chicken again!

At least the boss learned his lesson.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.