Angry, frustrated, and entitled customers just come with the retail territory.

After a while, you realize that staying calm and disinterested is the best way to really get under their skin.

This guy did exactly that, and everything worked out.

For him, anyway.

Every angry customer’s worst nightmare: total indifference

I watch over the self-checkouts at my store.

For a bit of background, my store has two sets of circulars with coupons people can get.

One you have to sign up for and it gets mailed to your house.

The other we have stacks of in our store that anyone can take.

The one you get in the mail often has a coupon to get you two times as many rewards points which can be used to save on gas.

Someone always wants you to make an exception.

So on this day a woman came through self-checkout and at the end of her order she brought her mail flier up to me and asked me to scan her double points coupon.

So I scan it and start tearing it out when she asks me to give it back to her so she could use it another time.

I told her I can’t do that and have to take it from her after it’s been used, even pointing out the text saying “LIMIT 1 PER HOUSEHOLD” on the coupon.

But she starts arguing with me saying I can do it and that she does it all the time.

The manager is actually a good egg.

I happen to see our store manager walking by so I flag him down to come help me out.

As I expected he tells her pretty much the exact same thing. I don’t remember everything that was said but this is pretty much how it went:

Store manager (to me): What seems to be the issue?

Lady: I just asked him to-

SM: Hold on let me hear his side first. What’s going on?

Me: She wants me to give back her double points coupon after I already scanned it for her. It says limit one per household on it though.

SM: It does say limit one per household. He has to keep it and be accountable for all his coupons.

L: But I do it all the time at [other location]! They even hand them out at the registers!

SM: Well they’re not supposed to be doing that.

Me: Yeah it’s just company policy, we have to go by what the coupon says.

He’s just being nice.

She argues some more, and the store manager says he’ll go check the fliers we have stacked by the door to see if there’s one in there she can have.

We all know there won’t be but he’ll check anyway.

So at this point she’s still with me while I’m trying to help people at self-checkout.

The employee is holding the line.

L: You know, the whole reason I shop at [store] is for the savings I get on gas.

Me: ok

L: I mean, really, I just spent $150 here.

Me: ok

L: But honestly after this I don’t think I’m going to shop here anymore.

Me: ok

L: *looks at nametag* No, [MY NAME], don’t just stand there and say okay!

Me: …ok

L: Can’t you just give my coupon back?! They really let me do this all the time

Me: no, sorry

I crumple up the coupon to hopefully make it more clear to her that it isn’t going to happen.

She finally took the hint.

Store manager comes back and of course there wasn’t another coupon in the circulars by the door.

He asks her to come to the service desk with him and they’ll see if there’s anything we can do.

I thought that would be the last of it but I work in retail so of course it’s not.

About 10 minutes later she comes back to me with one of the circulars from the door and shoves it in front of the screen I’m trying to do my job with.

L: I just want you to know that all of these coupons in here say one per household too.

Me: ok

L: Yeah but I bet you just zap them with your gun all the time and let people keep them!

Me: ok

L: You know what? Where’s the boss? Call him over again!

So I pick up the phone to call him and as I’m talking to him she just walks away.

Store manager comes down a few seconds later asking where she is and I shrug telling him she walked away.

I tell him the general direction she went and he goes to look for her.

He didn’t find her.

I heard from one of my coworkers that the next day a woman matching her description came in asking cashiers at the registers if they had any double points coupons in their drawer.

This lady was more dogged than most.

Reddit’s surely got some thoughts on this one.

Seriously, bravo.

I guess she should go to the other location, then.

Time for an experiment.

They always do, though.

Another fan of the manager’s.

Staying calm is always the way to go.

After all, none of this is your problem.

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.