Some customers think “the customer is always right” means they can demand anything and berate anyone who doesn’t bend the rules.

So, what would you do if you were just trying to explain a delayed refund and a promotion that didn’t apply, only to be mocked by the customer and made to feel like you didn’t know your job? Would you give them what they want to make them go away? Or would you stand your ground and risk getting in trouble?

In the following story, one retail worker deals with this exact scenario and is left crying after being confronted by the manager. Here’s what happened.

Customer knows best

So, it’s midday and I’m walking up to the return/help desk where I work.

I notice my coworker is having an issue helping this customer, so naturally, I step in to help. I ask what the issue is, and she then explains how her order that she picked up was missing an item.

I say okay, let me check- I search up her order information… I see that the item she was talking about was out of stock. I then explain to her that the item was not available, so it got canceled, but she would be getting a refund for it, which usually takes 3-5 business days, and I tell her that.

Unfortunately, she had more than one problem.

She angrily says I want my money now! She couldn’t believe that her refund would take a couple of days and not be instantly back into her bank account.

All I could do was explain that she wasn’t going to be “paying” for the item that she didn’t get because it would be refunded in due time. She now has the impression that I’m stupid because I can’t give her the money back right away. But she realizes there isn’t anything more to do, so she moves on to her next issue.

She tells me that there was a promotion on two dresses she purchased at another store location, which was buy one, get one free. She has her receipt in hand, pointing at two OTHER dresses she purchased, which had gotten that BOGO deal.

Not knowing what else to do, she asked a simple question.

So I tell her that I’ll look into it. I then scan the dresses with my device… okay, so I’m not seeing that buy one get one deal.

“What do you mean?” she says. “It’s RIGHT here”, while she points at her receipt (which did show the BOGO, but that was for the other two dresses that were a part of that deal, not the two she had in front of me).

Her approach was very rude and not friendly, so I’m sort of panicking, but also I know that her dresses don’t qualify for that deal, so I’m not going to give it to her. I then asked something along the lines of, “It was buy one, get one, right?”

Of course, she complained to the manager.

She thought it was the dumbest question ever. She said to me, “Don’t ask me; I’m just a customer.” I really don’t know why I asked that, but she ended up walking away and saying, “You shouldn’t ask questions like that; it makes it seem like you don’t know what you’re doing.”

It looked as if she walked out of the store. Nope. She’s talking to my manager, minutes pass, and my manager comes towards me and asks what happened- I tried my best to explain without crying, but seconds after I explained to him. I leaned over onto a cart and started crying.

I went outside to take a breather and walked back in once I was calm. My manager then let me know that what I did was correct, but he did give her the bogo because of the way she was acting.

Yikes! Customers like this are so hard to deal with.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit would’ve handled it.

According to this reader, here’s what she should’ve said.

Sometimes, it’s easier than getting yelled at.

According to this manager, they try to back the employees up.

Some of them do.

She did what she could. Next time, it’s probably best to let the coworker continue dealing with it.

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.