Some customers will say just about anything if it means snagging a discount.

What would you do if someone at your register claimed they personally knew the CEO and deserved a deal?

Would you go along with it and apply a discount?

Or would you play along to see how far they’ll go with their lies?

In the following story, one shoe store cashier finds herself in this exact situation and decides to play along.

Here’s what happened.

“But I know the CEO.”

I’m working as the main cashier for my shoe store, and a familiar phrase comes up when a customer approaches, “Is there any way I can get a discount?”

The customer’s shoes are not on clearance, and there is no physical problem with them, so this is a no.

“Hmm, I don’t see any clearance tag on these, and they’re ringing up full price, but let me check your rewards and see if there are any coupons available for you.”

This woman just couldn’t let it go.

I take the customer’s number and pull up her account. No coupons.

“Sorry, it looks like nothing’s available right now, but you will earn some points today that will get you closer to your next discount.”

Normally, this is the end of situations like this.

People accept that there are no rewards available on their account, I assure them they are earning points towards them, they pay, and I’m off to the next customer.

“But I know the CEO.” She says.

To see if the lady was lying, she made up a fake name.

Here we go. Now, I’ve never encountered this particular excuse before, but I’ve seen enough retail stories to know how to debunk them.

“Oh, you must know Ms. Faust, then,” I say, just using the first name that comes to mind. Our CEO is male, and his name is nothing close to Faust.

She nods, “Yep, Ms. Faust! We had dinner like two weeks ago.”

“Oh, how are her kids doing? She posts on the company’s forum about them all the time.” The actual CEO has no kids, and there is no such thing as a forum for our company.

“Her kids are doing great! Hers and mine play all the time.”

Her manager was impressed, but told her not to do it again.

“Sounds fun! All right then, I’m actually going to call my manager up to see what we might be able to do about a discount for you.” I call up my manager and tell him the customer knows the CEO, Ms. Faust.

Because we’re required to know the CEO’s name and face just in case of a surprise visit (which happened once because he was buying a vacation house in our city), my manager knows that I know she’s lying.

The face she made when my manager laid down the facts was priceless.

She made the excuse that she “was thinking of a different company” and rather silently completed her purchase. After she left, my manager gave me a fist bump and said, “Don’t do that again.”

I still might.

Wow! They both took that a little too far!

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to these types of customers.

This reader wants her to elaborate on what the manager meant.

Here’s someone who doesn’t like those types of customers.

Here’s how this reader handled it.

It’s odd that they let him get away with this.

That was well-played!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.