People love to assume retail workers can do just about anything if it serves their every whim.

But sometimes, those assumptions spiral into requests that make absolutely no sense.

One customer, for example, was determined to get his toy wrapped by an art store employee who very much wasn’t offering wrapping services.

Read on for the full story!

Special service

So I am working in an arts and crafts store situated at a mall. We offer a bit of everything, as I like to say, including wrapping paper and the sorts.

But there are a few things the store doesn’t do.

While we are very customer-friendly and help people flesh out their DIY projects, we don’t do any demonstrations of products and no gift wrapping service, as it would be too time-consuming.

Every so often, there will come a customer from another store (the toy store is next to us) with a toy present.

So one day, in came a customer who was hankering for a wrapping service.

A customer walks in with a big Bobby Car box under his arm asking whether we do gift wrapping.

I decline, saying, “Sorry, we don’t have the time, staff, or means of charging you for this service, so we don’t offer it.”

But this customer was persistent.

Thinking, if I give him the explanation before he asks the unavoidable “what if I pay for it?” I might just dodge it, but no such luck.

He goes, “What if I pay for it?”

The employee tries to refuse again, politely.

Me: “Again, we don’t offer this service. We are a retailer, not a service point, and thus there’s no means for me to calculate a price for a service we are not meant to perform :)”

C: “I can buy something from the store and then give you extra for the gift wrap.”

The employee continues to refuse, but the customer continues to persist.

Me: “We do not offer this service. However, if you want, you can buy a roll of wrapping paper and we will lend you some scissors, tape, and a table to wrap it yourself.”

C: “Oh, but I am bad at wrapping presents, you are better skilled than me.”

Finally, the interaction comes to an end, but the employee can’t help but stew in their annoyance.

At this point I just repeated my previous statement, turned, and left.

Why is it so hard to accept a no?

The thing that tops it off for me though is: just because I work in arts and crafts, why does everyone assume I’d do a good job wrapping presents?

They’d be up for a surprise.

They ought to teach a class on “taking no for an answer.”

What did Reddit have to say about this frustrating interaction?

Even if the service was offered, paying for it should be the bare minimum.

This user has a devious idea.

This customer didn’t deserve a thorough response to his questioning.

Apparently this entitlement is common in other types of stores too.

Where some people see a refusal, others see a negotiation.

What part of “we don’t do that here, sir” is so hard to understand?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.