In the world of retail, loyalty programs and coupons are supposed to keep customers happy, but they can end up doing quite the opposite.

When one customer found himself pressed over a 50-cent discrepancy, it had one fed-up manager questioning which battles were worth fighting.

Read on for the full story!

I thought you wanted your money back?

I worked at a popular video game retail chain for about eight years, and this occurred around the last year I was with that company when I was a store manager.

Now, in my area, we have about five of these stores.

The stores usually worked in close coordination with each other.

Because of this, it’s not unusual for another store to send someone to you if you had a particular product in stock that a guest wanted.

No worries, we’ll take care of them.

So one day, the manager got what seemed like a usual request.

I got this kind of call that day and was sent a guest who wanted to pick up a pre-owned version of a newer video game that had just come out.

As he came up, I already had the game pulled and was starting to take care of him.

He had the paid membership that we offer and a $5 off coupon.

But here’s where things get tricky.

Now this is where I have to throw some math out at you.

At the time, the membership gave people a 10% discount on any used games they purchased.

This game was $54.99 and proudly advertised the discounted price of $49.49 for members on the label.

However, coupons worked in the system in a quirky way.

Essentially, any coupons took off the “standard price” of the game in the system.

In this case, it was $54.99, making it $49.99 with the coupon before the 10% discount took effect.

Management tried their best to give this spiel ahead of time.

I usually explained this to guests before they used the coupon because most of the time they expect it to take off the discount price, i.e., $49.49 – $5 = $44.49.

This also leads most people to believe that they’re losing money by using a coupon.

After explaining how it works, however, most people understood and were okay with it or decided to just wait and save their coupon for later.

Once again, no worries. Glad I could help.

So the manager goes through the script again and the customer seems fine with it at first — until they’re handed the receipt.

After going through my usual spiel with this guest and explaining the coupon oddity, he said that’s fine and we finished up the transaction.

As I hand him his receipt, he takes a look at it and promptly says, “Wait, this price is wrong.”

What do you mean?

“It should’ve been cheaper. The coupon should’ve taken off the lower price.”

Clearly the customer wasn’t listening.

No, no, no…I already explained this, as I attempt to tell him the spiel again.

“No. The coupon should take off the lower price that’s advertised!”

At this point, he was starting to become irate.

This being my last year at this job, I was pretty done with most things.

Cue my malicious compliance.

What this person didn’t realize is just how much he “supposedly lost” by it not taking off the lower price.

It was a 50 cent difference…

So at this point, the manager did whatever they had to do to get this customer out the door.

I looked at him and said, “You know what, okay then. I’ll refund the difference for you, sir.”

I popped my register, grabbed two quarters, and forcefully placed them on the counter.

He sees the two quarters, and I can physically see the gears turn in his head.

“Here you go.”

The customer begins to backtrack.

“Aw man, I mean…that wasn’t my point.”

Okay, then what was your point? I thought you wanted your money back?

“Nah, man. It should just work the other way.”

I already explained why it does that. It’s not going to change, but I am happy to take care of you still.

So they escalated the complaint even further.

This led to him wanting to speak with a district manager (DM).

We didn’t give out our DM’s number to just anyone — they usually call you.

I contacted my current DM at the time, explained the situation, and left it in his hands.

I told the guest my DM will call you, and he accepted this and left.

It turns out, this wasn’t the customer’s only run-in with the store.

I later came to find out that this wasn’t the guest’s first time complaining about this.

He had already been told before how it works, and I guess still decided to cause more issues with me at a different store.

The DM ended up telling him the exact same thing.

My DM informed me that he didn’t do anything more than explain what I had already explained to him, and I never heard about it again.

Moral of the story: always pick your battles, especially when only 50 cents is on the line.

That’s a lot of trouble to go through for only 50 cents.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter is actually on the customer’s side here.

The “It’s only ____” argument works both ways.

It may have only been 50 cents, but sometimes it really is the principle of the thing.

Some battles just aren’t worth fighting.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.