Imagine working at a store but customers often don’t pay very close attention and think you’re actually a completely different store.

What would you do if you corrected a customer about their mistake but they seemed to refuse to believe you?

That’s what happens in this story, and the employee was rendered speechless at one point because of an unexpected question the confused customer asked.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

“You’re telling me this is NOT the UPS Store?”

I work at a retail store that does shipping, copying, mailbox services, and the like. We’re a drop-off point for packages with pre-paid labels (FedEx, UPS, etc.) and we can ship using those carriers, but we’re not FedEx or UPS.

Some customers don’t understand this.

A customer walks in with a router to return to Comcast. He says he was told to bring it to our store by the customer rep he spoke to on the phone, and that we would provide him with a label free of charge.

I look at the paperwork he has with him and it clearly states to take it to a UPS Store location, which will be able to print out a return label because of their partnership with Comcast.

The employee explains the situation.

Oh, so sorry! It looks like the UPS Store has the system to give you a free label, but we can’t do that here unfortunately. If you’d like, you can take the router over to the UPS Store for the label. Here’s the address.

He pauses. Looks at me like I’m an idiot.

But I was told to bring it here.

I repeat what I’ve already told him. Sorry, we’re not the UPS Store. I give him the location of the nearest UPS Store. It’s down the street.

He’s finally starting to get it.

Are you telling me you can’t help me out with this?

Unfortunately not, unless you want to pay for a label. Which I would recommend against, since you can get a free one by going to the UPS Store. By the way, it’s down the street. Here’s the address again.

You’re telling me this is NOT the UPS Store?

That’s correct 🙂

He asked an unexpected question.

So what if I go over there and they tell me to come back here?

I’m at a loss for words.

I don’t know what reality I’ve found myself in. I’m only aware of my breath, the blank look on my face, and this moment suspended in time with a stranger who has asked me a question I couldn’t answer if my life depended on it.

That was a rough way to start the day.

Why would they ask him to come back to our store? Why does he think I’m leading him astray? Can he not read the paperwork he brought into our store with him?

Yeah well, thanks a lot.

And just like that, the moment is over. I’m grounded. I can breathe again. I can feel common sense and reason return to the world like sunshine on a cloudy day. I feel good.

I’m only 15 minutes into my shift.

I can see how the customer was confused at first, but you’d think you’d only have to explain the situation one time to understand.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This would’ve been a good response.

Another retail worker weighs in.

This person feels compelled to return a router.

Is it really that hard to admit when you’re wrong?

Exactly!

Admitting when you’re wrong is the first step to not looking like a crazy person.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.