Customer confidence doesn’t always equal customer truth.

One boutique employee was forced to confront a determined customer with a beat-up box and no receipt demanding a return.

But when the employee realized this item didn’t even come from their store, they were forced into a frustrating standoff over something that should have been common sense.

Keep reading for the full story.

Customer tried to return something they clearly bought somewhere else and got mad when I asked for a receipt

I work at a small boutique that sells home décor and gifts.

Yesterday, a woman came in with a decorative vase still in its box, wanting to return it.

Immediately, this retail worker noticed some red flags.

The box looked beat up and had that weird smell like it had been sitting in a garage for months.

I asked for her receipt, and she said she didn’t have one but insisted she bought it here “a few weeks ago.”

Here’s the thing—I’ve worked here for over a year, and I have never seen that vase in our inventory. Ever.

It was pretty obvious this box had come from somewhere else entirely.

The box had a completely different price sticker format than what we use, and the barcode didn’t match our system at all.

I politely explained that I couldn’t process the return without a receipt and that I wasn’t sure we even carried that item.

But the customer wasn’t going to give up so easily.

She got so defensive and started going off about how she definitely bought it here and that I must be new or not paying attention.

She pulled out her phone and started showing me photos of our store from Google reviews, like that proved anything.

She tries just about anything to prove her case.

Then she mentioned she’d seen similar items on wholesale sites when she was planning her move from Los Angeles, California, and “knew for a fact” we sourced from Alibaba suppliers just like everyone else.

She said it shouldn’t matter where the exact box came from.

Like, ma’am, that’s not how returns work at all.

Eventually, the retail worker’s manager had to step in, but this customer wasn’t leaving without a fight.

My manager eventually came over and explained the same policy.

The woman left in a huff, threatening to leave bad reviews.

Some people really think retail workers are just idiots who’ll believe anything.

No receipt, no record, no return.

What did Reddit have to say?

Many customers seem to think retail employees were born yesterday.

Even the customers you never expect to pull a fast one on you still try their hardest to.

Customers will fight ’til the ends of the earth to prove they’re right about something.

Managers often end up selling out their employees to save face.

Store policies can’t just bend every time a customer insists on something hard enough.

At the end of the day, this customer brought a story, not proof.

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