Return policies can be frustrating, but most shoppers accept them as written.

They are what they are, right?

Well, not for everyone.

In this story, a tough customer challenges a rigid refund rule and seems to come out on top.

Let’s see the receipts…

No refunds once you’ve stepped out of the store? Fine, I won’t step out of the store.

This happened in a large store in a European country.

When you purchase something from them, and for any reason want to return the item, their policy is that they never give money back.

They only give you a voucher redeemable same day only.

That’s a pretty strict return policy for a big store.

I went to the store today and purchased quite a long list of items.

I got home, my wife looks at them and says that we don’t need some of them.

I go back to the store, barely 20 minutes pass.

The returns manager smiles at me as I tell her I’d just purchased these and would like to return them.

She tells me that I stepped out of the store so she can’t refund.

Only give me a voucher and I must buy something else.

No wiggle room in this refund situation.

I’d already bought everything I needed.

Then she tells me to take the products home and keep them for the next time I would need to buy something.

Then I can come and get the voucher and redeem it.

Imagine keeping a pair of shoes and a bowl, and remembering to bring them with you the next time you happen to need something.

More like a barter system.

I tried to reason with her, but she was adamant: “Those are the rules. You stepped out of the store, you don’t get a refund.”

And then it clicked. I asked, “So if someone wants to return an item without leaving the store, they get the money back?”

“Yes.”

You see where this is heading.

Malicious compliance kicking in.

There’s almost always a loophole…

I ask to return the items and get the voucher.

I take the voucher, get inside the store, find a product the exact same amount.

Buy it with the voucher.

Right after the cashier, there’s the returns manager.

Straight from the cashier I go to her.

Hand her that random product I’d just bought and say, “I would like to return this, I don’t want it. And I never left the store.”

She is looking at me with barely contained rage in her eyes, I kid you not.

Clever workaround.

The awkward pause was getting longer.

And then her manager comes along.

Looks at us and I smile at him and say, “I never left the store and I would like to get a refund for this please.”

He nods.

Silent and not looking at me, she proceeds to refund me the money in cash.

Company policy, right?

Was this customer always right?

What do the comments think?

One person says, bold move.

Someone else says, get your head out of the clouds.

A former retail employee calls BS.

This person supports it.

This poster offers an alternate response:

This customer wouldn’t take no refund for an answer.

And honestly, good for her.

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.