No one likes to be without their favorite items for too long.

That said, sometimes repairs or cleanings are necessary, and we all deal as well as we can.

In this case, that was…not very well at all, and this retail employee paid the price.

Check out all of the details below.

Story where taking in a repair is the same as stealing.

I work two retail jobs, in a mall, where the stores are literally 10 feet from each other. This is actually great for saving on gas and guaranteeing someone to talk to on slow days since I like everyone I work with, with the one exception being my district manager at one of the jobs.

I really don’t like dealing with her. She’s not the devil or anything, but she sometimes (often) gets on our nerves by the nature of being paranoid and completely sales numbers driven. She also doesn’t really care about the customer.

Like, at all.

We try to deal with her as little and as quickly as possible.

Sounds like interesting work.

Now, one job I work at (with the paranoid DM) entails selling and repairing watches.

We’re a corporate chain, with corporate offices and a repair center for the super expensive watches or for the occasional odd repair job that we can’t do in store.

If we have to send a watch to the repair center, it typically takes a month to get fixed and come back, and it isn’t cheap.

We also tend to man the store with one person on a shift at a time.

This customer got some bad news about his watch.

So one Sunday, a somewhat slow day in a dead mall, a customer comes in asking about his watch he had us send out for repairs. Since I wasn’t the one who took the order, and had never met this customer myself, I ask for his name or phone number in order to find info about his order.

He gives it and says he already knows the work order number. Great! That makes it easy to locate on our shipping site and easy to confirm.

I locate the order, and see that it needed a special part from over seas and was noted that it would take at least another 2 months.

Now, it’s important to note, that this would not have been marked on the order unless the customer had already been called with the information, and agreed to the special part being ordered, with all the knowledge of the extra cost and time.

So he knew about this already.

I politely (not angered in the slightest, yet) inform him of the details for his order, and the time frame given.

So, he wanted to buy a new one.

Guy – “Ok, well, I cant go that long without a watch, so I guess I’ll go ahead and take one now.”

Sweet! We carry the same brand, maybe I’ll get a sale out of this and my DM won’t complain about this being a slow day.

Me – “Ok sir, we do have a pretty good selection of that same brand, which one would you like to get?”

He takes a minute to peer into our locked glass cases.

Guy – “Well, this one here looks pretty close to the one I had, so I’ll take it.”

Unlock the case, pull the watch, get the packaging ready, set the watch to the correct time, inform him of any warranty info, ring up the watch at the current discount and…

Me – “Ok sir, with all the tax and everything, that’ll come out to $$$.”(exact price eludes me, roughly $200-300)

Er…at least, that’s what the employee thought.

Guy – “…Excuse me?”

Uh oh. There was a bit of twang in that response. Maybe he really didn’t hear me?

Me – “Um, the cost of the watch sir, it comes out to $$$ after the sale discount.”

Mentioning the word “discount” tends to slightly calm some customers who are surprised at a price.

Guy – “No, you don’t understand, you have to give me that watch for free.”

Wait WUT

Me – “Uhhh…sir I don’t-”

Guy – “You took my watch, can’t fix it, so now you need to reimburse me, that’s how business works.”

It’s important to know at this point, we did not break his watch, he brought it to us to fix, so we don’t need to fix it for free or anything. He has paid for the shipping charge, and the cost of the part/repair, which he agreed to.

It is well on it’s way to being fixed, just longer than expected, but he’d already been told that by someone at the repair center.

Everyone seems a little confused.

Me – “Sir, your watch will be fixed, we never said we couldn’t fix it, just that it would take some extra time.”

Guy – “Well that’s too much time for me to go without my watch. So I need another one.”

Me – “Ok…and I offered you this one at $$$. I can take an additional $ off, but that’s the lowest I’m allowed to go, I don’t have the authority to give you a free watch.”

Guy – “But you stole my watch!”

I see we’ve upgraded to STEALING now…

Me – “Sir we didn’t steal your watch…”

Guy – “But you won’t fix it.”

Me – “It WILL be fixed-”

Guy – “Not in a reasonable time, so that’s stealing. If you won’t give me this watch I’m calling the police.”

Me – “I can’t give you a free watch.”

Guy – “Then I’ll go ahead and call the police.”

We can all tell this is going nowhere good.

At this point he starts messing with his phone. Meanwhile, I’m standing there COMPLETELY speechless. I don’t know what’s going on, what logic this guy is using, or how to handle this. After a few moments, he angrily asks me if I know the non-emergency police number. Ha! Why would I tell you just so you can call them to escalate this situation even more? Regardless, I didn’t know it. I just silently shook my head as indignantly as I could. I was getting angry. This was not my fault. I didn’t have the power to just give him free merchandise. I was trying to be polite while he was getting more and more heated and threatening throughout.

Guy – “Well, I can’t find the number. I want to speak to your manager.”

Me – “Sir, she’ll say the same thing. Your watch will be fixed, and I can’t give you a free watch.”

Guy – “I don’t care, call her. I’m not leaving without a watch.”

He had to get his manager involved, which was the last thing he wanted.

Remember what I said at the top about not really liking to deal with our DM? Today was also her day off. She travels to all of her districts stores pretty much non-stop across 3 states, and today was one of her few vacation days where she was at home. Well, I called her.

DM – “Hey Z, why are you calling me?”

Me – “I’m sorry to bother you DM, but I have a customer here who is a bit irate about a watch repair we had sent out.”

DM – “Ok, what’s the problem?”

Me – “He’s upset about his watch taking so long and wants to me to give him another watch like his for free beca-”

DM – “WELL DON’T GIVE HIM ONE!!!”

My DM thinks anyone who isn’t her and isn’t her boss is an idiot and is looking for a way to cheat her or the company.

Me – “…I know that DM, I didn’t give him a watch. I would never give out free merchandise like that.”

DM – “Ok, so what’s the problem?”

Me – “Uh…he’s refusing to leave unless I give him the watch? He threatened to call the cops?”

DM – “Alright well you need to tell him to leave because he’s disrupting business. You can’t sell to any other customers if he’s there being a hassle so you need to get him to leave. He can call the service center about this tomorrow (closed on Sundays) if he wants. Call security and have him removed if you can’t get him to leave.”

CLICK

And then he had to call security, who also weren’t helpful.

Me – “…sigh…Sir, my district manager has told me that I am not allowed to give you a free watch. Just like I said. She also said that if you want to discuss this further that you can call the service center support number here (I hand him a card) if you want. They are closed on Sundays, just tell them your work order number like you told me, and tell them that your watch is taking too long. If there’s an issue, then have them call me, here, at this store, at this number on the other side of the card.”

Guy – “I already called that number last week! All they did was jerk me around! I’m not leaving until I get my watch, or get reimbursed with that one in your hand!”

I am QUITE ANGRY at this point. I have tried to be calm and polite. I have offered him everything in my power to offer in order to diffuse this situation.

I’ve filtered my DM’s response to a nicer tone, in order to try and keep everyone stable. I even told him exactly who to call about this issue.

He’s just gotten louder, redder, and more stubborn. His wife shows up. Apparently she’d been shopping around the mall.

As he informs him about how I’m an incompetent thief who refuses his basic rights as a customer and how business works, I call security.

Why? Because my DM said to. I know mall security can’t and won’t do anything about this, but at least I can say I tried the options she gave me. I do like the security guys, but they aren’t very effectual.

Let’s call this guy Sec.

Sec – “What seems to be the problem here? Everything ok Z?”

You’re not a police officer dude, thanks for being a friendly body though I guess.

Guy – “This guy stole my watch!”

Me – “I didn’t steal your watch , sir, it’s being repaired.”

Guy – “But you’re taking too long!”

Sec – “Did you take his watch?”

Me – “He had it sent to the repair center. It’s being worked on now, just waiting on a part he agreed to, and it’s taking a while longer than expected to have the part shipped from over seas. It was a very particular swiss part, so it had to be ordered from the manufacturer.”

Sec – “OK. Sir, the watch is gonna be fixed, it’ll just take some time is all, alright?”

Guy – “No! They took my watch, now they’re taking too long to fix it! So he needs to give me another one to wear in the meantime, that’s how business works!”

Eventually, his manager and the guy worked out a deal.

I’m just the middle man. The tool in this guy’s plan to get his way no matter what. He knows I can’t yell at him without losing my job. He knows that somehow, some way, the company will cave in a way that makes him the ultimate victor in this scenario. I. Am. Furious…I…am…powerless.

Finally, I call my DM up again, tell her to talk to him, they talk, he shouts, for about 10 minutes, phone gets handed back to me.

DM – “Ok, I told him that I will contact the repair center tomorrow and have his watch sent back, as-is, without the repair, and he will be contacted and refunded the money charged back to his account.”

Me – “…ok…”(barely able to speak without bursting into tears)

DM – “What are your sales at by the way?”

Me – “I haven’t sold anything, he was the first one to show up.”

DM – “Wow…well, hurry up and start selling once he leaves, all my other stores are already at their sales goals. Bye.”

CLICK

eye-twitch

He did get the final no.

Me – “Ok sir, like she said, she’ll handle it.”

He’s all chipper now. Of course he is. He won. He got his way. Right?

Guy – “Ok, well, I’ll take my money back now.”

No. No no no. No No NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!!!

Me – “..sir the money will be charged back to your account once the process has been handled when they open tomorrow morning…”

Guy – “SO I’M NOT EVEN GETTING MY MONEY BACK TODAY?!??!”

Me – “…No.”

He glared at me. When I talk about and remember this story, that one “…No.” is the best part for me. I wasn’t going to deal with this anymore.

That was the point where I was done. He could stay there and scream and yell all he wanted at that point. I was done. I would sit there and ignore him. I would sit there and ignore my DM. I was done dealing with him.

After a second or two, he realized it. He walked off in a huff.

I don’t blame him at all.

After he was clearly out sight of my store front, I clocked out on break, I closed my store gate and walked over to my other job next door where two of my co-worker friends were working.

Friends – “Whatsa matter?”

Me – “Can you hand me a wet towel or something please?”

Friends – “Why?”

Me – “Because I’m about to cry.”

And I did. I didn’t weep, I didn’t sob, I wasn’t sad. I was stressed out and furious with no way of relieving it any other way. Tears just flowed.

I’m a guy, say I’m not manly, or whatever, I don’t care. It’s all I could do.

After about 5 minutes, I was fine, wiped off my face with their sink, explained quickly to them what had happened, and went back to work for the rest of the day.

My DM called later to see how sales were, and if he had left. I told her that he had left in a huff, and he would probably call the service center tomorrow.

She berated me about low sales, called him a jerk, then hung up.

Never heard about him again. So yeah.

Let’s find out what Reddit thinks about this one.

Even retail workers are human.

Stress has to go somewhere.

I would have dialed the number for him.

Seriously, move along.

Bye bye, sir.

Nothing’s free, folks.

Not even if you waste a bunch of time arguing with an employee.

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.