People love to toss around legal threats until someone actually listens.

What would you do if a customer claimed their appliance was broken, demanded a replacement, and then insisted on keeping both?

Would you try to reason with them?

Or would you make it the legal team’s problem?

In the following story, one appliance salesman finds himself in this exact predicament and decides to pass the problem along.

Here’s what happened.

“I can’t keep both? You’ll hear from my lawyer”

I sell household appliances for a living.

It sucks but it’s decent money.

A few weeks ago, a coworker sold a washer to a lady for her new house.

She keeps it for a few days, then calls us saying it’s making weird noises.

We send our tech out, and he takes a look.

Nothing wrong with it. No “weird” noises.

But we’re a large corporation and try to make customers happy, so we agree to swap it.

The delivery crew gets there and starts taking the old one out. This is when all heck breaks loose.

The lady thought she could push the delivery driver around.

Lady: “Why are you taking my washer?? That’s mine. I paid for it!”

Delivery: “Yeah, but we’re exchanging it for a new one. So we take the old one that you claim is broken, and swap it for a new one.”

Lady: “That wasn’t the deal. I’m keeping both for the trouble you all caused me!”

Delivery: “If you don’t let me take this one, we’re not bothering taking the other one off the truck. Pick one. You don’t get both.”

After enough of her attitude, the delivery drivers leave.

Lady: “I’ll sue!”

Delivery: “Okay, we’re leaving.”

The lady calls the store, and she’s furious. First thing she says is “I’m suing you. This is so unfair.”

Manager: “We’ve already talked to legal. We have been told not to make contact with you. You must do everything through legal or corporate channels now. Sorry. Have a good day.”

She quickly changed her tune.

Lady: “….WHAT? WHY? I wasn’t actually going to sue?!”

Manager: “You said you were. That’s all we needed to hear. Contact our legal department with the name and phone number of your lawyer. They’ll get you taken care of. Thanks, bye.”

The lady never called a lawyer or the legal department. But yesterday she sent an email saying she would really appreciate the swap now. Delivery laughs. The store manager laughs.

She’s not getting that washer.

Wow! It’s crazy to even think the store would let you keep both!

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about this.

According to this comment, she had a plan.

Here’s someone who enforces the same policy.

This valet company also had a similar policy.

For this reader, the best part is that she didn’t get her way.

That lady had some nerve!

It’s a good thing the store saw through her game and blocked her from winning.

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.