If you’ve ever worked in retail or hospitality, you’ll likely have a less-than-pleasant picture of the general public.

That’s because while most people are nice, there’s always the unpleasant one who goes out of their way to ruin your day – and unfortunately, these are the kind of people that really stick in the memory.

There’s a toxic notion that the customer is always right, when in many cases, the opposite is true – and it’s customers who try to assert this entitled view that can ruin a day, and in some cases even a career.

Luckily for the employee in this story, her manager had her back.

Because if she’d sided with the customer, things could have been dire.

Read on to find out what happened.

A customer yelled at me because we were out of sale items.

I work at a home goods store, and today a customer came in with a coupon so old it was literally yellowed and falling apart at the creases.

It was for 50% off any single item, but it was from a store that went out of business over twenty years ago.

I politely informed her that we couldn’t accept a coupon from a different, long-defunct company.

Let’s see what happened when she denied the customer.

She immediately escalated, her voice getting louder with each word. “It says ‘any single item’! It doesn’t specify where! This is false advertising! I want to speak to your manager right now!”

I called for my manager, Linda, who is an absolute saint and has been in retail since before this coupon was printed.

Linda came over, looked at the coupon, and gave the customer the exact same explanation I did, but with a calm smile.

The customer then pointed a finger at me and said, “Well, she was incredibly rude to me about it. I want her written up. I’m going to be calling corporate to have her fired for this.”

Read on to find out how her manager responded.

My manager just nodded and said, “Ma’am, I was standing right over there and heard the entire interaction. My employee was perfectly professional and correct in our policy. I will not be writing her up, and you are welcome to call corporate.”

The customer was so stunned she was speechless. She just snatched her ancient coupon off the counter, crumpled it in her fist, and stormed out without another word.

The whole thing was so absurd it was almost poetic. It’s amazing how some people think threatening your job is a valid negotiation tactic for a twenty-five-year-old piece of paper.

Yikes! This woman was totally out of order.

It’s not just the fact that she tried to get the employee fired simply because she rejected the coupon, it’s the sheer fact that she tried to use a coupon that wasn’t even for that store, then got hostile when it was denied.

People like this don’t deserve discounts!

Let’s see how the Reddit community responded to this.

This person explained how unfortunately, situations like this are quite common in retail.

While others discussed ways to gently deescalate these situations, by calling the aggressor out without them realising.

Meanwhile, this Redditor had nothing but praise for the manager who stuck by her employee.

Some people are so entitled, and either don’t understand or don’t care that treating retail workers poorly is not cool, and literally no one is on their side.

This woman acted all high and mighty and self-righteous, then couldn’t handle it when she was called out on her behavior. It’s disgusting – and if the employee hadn’t had such a good manager, her job might have been on the line.

And none of it would have been her fault.

The customer is always right – until they’re not.

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.