Rarely a day goes by in a store without at least one unreasonable customer crossing the threshold.

So as a retail employee, it’s important to quickly develop a resilience that, along with a professional manner, will help protect you from these entitled shoppers.

And when a grouchy stranger came in to collect a parcel, the retail employee in this story deployed both of these attributes to maximum effect.

Read on to find out what happened to cause the customer to kick off.

Are you saying you don’t trust your customers?!

This happened yesterday and I’m still giggling. My store happens to be a package drop off location for when drivers can’t/won’t leave a package at the customer’s door.

There is a very strict rule of the customer presenting their physical government issued ID to us before we’ll give them their package. Most customers understand why this rule is in place and are fine with it. This customer was not.

Customer: walks in and sees the big sign say that they need their ID, then said, “I forgot my ID at home. If I give you my name and address, can I get my package?”

Me: “sorry, no. You need your ID.”

Let’s see how the customer responded to this rejection.

Customer: “alright, I’ll be back.”

The customer didn’t seem upset when they left, and I went back to cataloguing the merchandise that had been water damaged by a freak accident. About an hour later the customer returned.

Me: “Welcome back.”

Customer: “Give me my package. I don’t see why you wouldn’t give me it earlier. Who else is going to have my name and address?”

Of course, the employee had a professional and clear response.

Me: “It’s the rule. It’s to make sure that we’re giving the right package to the right person.” I took their ID from them and went to look for the package.

Customer: “Are you saying that you don’t trust your customers?!”

Me: walking back with the package and confirming as I walk that the information matches. “I’ve never met you and don’t know you. We just want to make sure that you’re receiving the right package.”

I hand the ID back and moved to scan the package out.

But that wasn’t enough for this grouchy customer.

Customer: snatches ID from my hand, “well that’s just stupid and poor customer service. Now give me my package.”

Me: “in a moment. I need to scan it out of our system first.”

Customer: Huffs impatiently

Me: has finished scanning out the package and gesture to the signature pad. “Alright, last step. Please sign and hit okay with the pen.”

Customer: “unbelievable. What are you going to do if I refuse to sign?”

The customer really didn’t like the employee’s response.

Me: “if you don’t sign, I won’t release the package.”

Customer: angrily signed and threw the pen down.

Me: making direct eye contact with them and hitting the okay button with the pen. “Alright. All done. The package is all yours.”

Customer: snatched the package out of my hand and stomped out the door.

And then, the employee’s boss got involved.

Boss: comes up from the back where they were dealing with the landlord over who is paying for the water damage. “Did she actually ask if we didn’t trust our customers?”

Me: chuckling. “Yup.”

Boss: shaking their head. “How do you get to be an adult and still think like that?”

It’s absurd that customers can be so entitled as to think that what they said should go.

Of course the store wasn’t going to trust the customers, especially those they’d never met before.

What’s next, they trust them to pay for goods another day, and let them leave the store with a full cart for free?

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person pointed out that this is actually a policy from the delivery company that the store have to honor.

While others had similar experiences, with similar outcomes.

Meanwhile, this Redditor explained exactly why this policy is in place.

It’s clear exactly why this policy is in place, and the logic clearly wasn’t enough for the customer.

Instead they thought that they should be given special treatment, and were furious that this wasn’t the case.

Good on the employee for upholding the policy and not bending to the customer’s pressure.

She was being completely unreasonable.

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.