Some customers don’t take no for an answer.

This store employee found a clever hack to keep an annoying customer away from her. She knew that this customer had an aversion to a particular crystal, so she utilized that knowledge effectively.

Check out the full story below.

Anti-customer crystal

Here’s a bit of backstory: I used to work in a store that sold new-age-y stuff. I didn’t, and still don’t, believe in that stuff, but the pay was really good. While I didn’t believe in all the new-age-y stuff, a lot of our customers (obviously) did believe in that stuff.

We got a lot of new-age-y people, but some of my favourite customers were members from a group of Wiccans that regularly visited our store.

Those girls were always fun to hang around with, and at one point, I accepted their offer to teach me more about Wicca just so we could hang more often – we’re all still good friends, actually.

This, however, is a story about a not-so-chill customer. We’ll call this particular customer Miss Cleo, or MC for short. MC came into our store a lot and, while she rarely bought anything, she constantly asked if she could leave behind pamphlets to promote her fortune-telling business.

She also tried to convince my boss to let her do readings in the store. Since my boss was more on my side of the fence when it came to new-age stuff, and MC was a bit of a rude customer, we constantly denied these requests.

This employee found out the rude customer has an aversion to a particular crystal.

MC was also VERY much a believer in everything new-age related. MC at some point requested we remove a particular type of crystal, Red Rutilated Quartz, from the counter because, in her words, “it negatively affects my seer gift.”

Fine, removed the quartz from the counter so she could pay for her €2.49 purchase. To be fair, it wasn’t where this particular crystal belonged anyway; they were just there because someone had been looking at them, and I hadn’t gotten around to putting them back.

As an inside joke, I later got a pendant of Red Rutilated Quartz and wore it on a necklace. I genuinely thought they looked pretty, but knowing that MC hated them made them more appealing to me.

I hope you can already see where this is going, but let me tell you the story anyway.

The customer came back and started her annoying habits again.

One day, MC comes in and is going through our scented candles. She does her usual thing and strikes up a conversation with me while I’m playing a Pokémon Gold ROM, busy writing our enlightening newsletter.

MC asks various questions about the candles, all of which got her answers I literally made up on the spot. She then tries to get me to let her put up her pamphlet again. I decline, as per usual.

This time, however, MC has thought of a clever new strategy. She’s trying to convince me to let her put up a pamphlet, and in return, she’ll buy a lot of candles at once.

To be fair, her offer seemed genuine, but A) I didn’t earn commission on sales, so I literally didn’t care, and B) I really did not want to give her what she wanted.

Remembering my pendant, which I’d now had for about 4 months since I learned MC dislikes them, I decided it was time for a little bit of fun.

I paused my game, saved the draft of the newsletter, and walked up to MC to grab one of her pamphlets and help her pick out some candles.

She walked up to the counter with her stack of pamphlets, and I was carrying about a dozen candles for her. While I’m talking to her about her “seer gift,” I casually play with my necklace, which had been hidden under my scarf.

The customer wanted her to take her necklace off.

The look in MC’s eyes quickly changes and is now fixated on the crystal hanging from my necklace. Note, I’d been standing next to her for a couple of minutes now.

I see the look in her eyes and casually comment, “Nice necklace, right? I got it as a present. It’s a Red Rutil…”

She finishes the words for me, in a gasping way, “Red Rutilated Quartz!”

I smile and say, “Yeah, I think they’re pretty, and they help deal with negative energy!”

MC takes a step back from the counter, “Don’t keep that thing near me!”

While she took a step back, I took a big step in her direction, arm extended, “Did you want me to put those pamphlets on the counter?”

MC takes another step back and asks me to “take that thing off.”

The customer ran out and never came back on her shifts.

At this point, the little cartoon devil that popped up on my shoulder told me to take another step forward… the little angel on my shoulder, however, told me to listen to the little cartoon devil.

I took another step forward and asked MC what was wrong with my necklace. This caused MC, now backed into a corner near the register, to bolt off, out of the store, pamphlets still in hand.

I’ve seen MC walk by the shop a couple of times after, though she never came in. I learned from my co-workers that she specifically came in when she knew I was not there. I

saw this as a personal victory, and my co-workers were seriously considering putting up a couple of crystals on the door — like a clove of garlic intended to scare away vampires.

Despite having a new job and having moved to another town, I still wear the necklace in case I run into MC again… and I really do just like the way it looks.

That one worked like a charm. Literally.

Here’s what people are saying about this story.

Here’s a hilarious comment.

Put the stones everywhere, says this one.

The possibilities.

This user’s curiosity is piqued.

And this person wants the same necklace.

A crystal necklace a day keeps the rude customers away.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.