Imagine working in a retail job in a department where you’re really not an expert. What would you do if a customer tried to return something even though he didn’t have a receipt? If you couldn’t find any record of him or his purchase in the system, would you take his word for it and process the return anyway, or would you find a supervisor to handle the situation?

In this story, one employee at a department store is in this situation. The cashier tries to explain the problem to the customer, but the customer just gets angry. The employee ends up feeling so stressed out that they know they need to escalate the situation to a supervisor.

Thankfully, the coworkers and supervisors at this retail store are awesome and they definitely have this frazzled employee’s back. In fact, it’s truly impressive how helpful they are in a tough situation.

Let’s read all about it.

The first time I was sworn at, and the supervisor with nothing to lose

I’m back with another story from my time at that American-based department store chain. This story will be about the first time a customer cursed me out, and how one of my supervisors was really cool to me.

To restate the context of my work experience at this store: I worked in the tools department, despite not being a handy person and knowing next to nothing about tools.

But I was a hard worker, knew how to answer basic questions regarding tools or location of stock, I knew when to get other associates when their questions required too in-depth of knowledge, and I had a good sense for customer service and always had a smile. So I did well enough.

My job was mainly to stock and maintain shelves of merchandise, assist customers, and do anything else my boss needed me to do.

It can be stressful to be in charge when you’re not an expert.

Now on this particular day, because I was one of the few employees in the department, I was mostly on cashiering duty. The only other employee with me was a new hire who still didn’t know too much at the time. So I was also having to help him a lot, which was fine.

I didn’t mind. But I was also somewhat nervous because I was thus the person on-hand with the most experience, and I still didn’t have as much knowledge as any of the sales associates.

Thankfully, that day, we mostly had in-and-out customers. Customers who knew what they wanted, grabbed it, and checked out.

Maybe this shift wouldn’t be so bad, I thought. And then… in walks the problem customer.

The man wanted to return something.

He’s a man, probably middle aged, as far as I could tell. At first he seemed rather pleasant, actually.

He approaches the register and places down a box. I don’t honestly remember what was in it, at this point, but he wanted to return it.

Simple enough, I thought. I ask to see his receipt, and he says he doesn’t have it.

OKAY… sort of a red flag, since we almost always require a receipt, but I also know we can look it up in the system if they’re a rewards member. I tell the new hire I’ll handle this, since it’s more complicated than a regular return. So I set about trying to look him up.

Uh-oh!

Only problem is, nothing comes up.

Okay, this is the fun part. Now I have to tell him we can’t do the return. I explain to him that I can’t find him int he system and without a receipt I cannot process the return.

He tries several other phone numbers in case they’re under that, all of which are unsuccessful.

He starts to get annoyed at this point, and I reiterate that if he had his receipt, this would work out better.

Time to escalate to a manager.

Then he drops the swear bomb:

Man: “You tell me to have the receipt? **** you! I can’t be expected to keep every receipt!”

Me: “… I-I’m sorry. I’ll… go get a manager to help…”

I tell the new hire to just stay here and help any other customers that may come by and I walk off, trying hard to maintain my composure.

OP was pretty stressed out.

Now I know this isn’t as extreme as many other stories of people being cursed out at their jobs. And I know I should have refused to help any further at that, but this was my first job and I was afraid if I made any misstep in helping this angry customer I might be blamed for it.

And having anxiety did not help.

Also, being the first time a customer cursed me out, it was jarring and somewhat upsetting.

So I walk over to another department where a couple supervisors are talking. I tell them the situation, and they immediately empathize with my plight.

She had nothing to lose.

One of the supervisors, who I will call ‘cool supervisor’, pipes up and says she’ll handle the situation. And she says, and I kid you not:

Cool Supervisor: “Oh, I’ll go tell him off. This is my last day so I don’t care about being mean.”

My hero.

She had nothing to lose and she knew how to use that power. And this wasn’t even a supervisor I knew particularly well, since she was from a department nowhere near mine. But for helping me in this plight, I was eternally grateful.

The employees here sound really nice and helpful.

One of the employees who worked in the department we were standing in, because it was quiet, told me I could stay here for a couple minutes while she handled things and so I could calm down and regain my composure. He also filled me in on the fact that, the moment a customer resorts to such unnecessary language, we had the right to refuse to help them any further.

Another cool employee.

So I come back to my department, relieved that he’s gone.

The new hire tells me he’s sorry he couldn’t be of more help and felt bad that the customer got so belligerent.

It definitely wasn’t the new hire’s fault.

I don’t blame him, though. As much as I was unsure of how to handle the situation, being hired only a week or two prior to that day, he must have felt even more unsure.

We get on with our shift and I was glad the rest of the shift was uneventful.

So… that’s my story of the first time a customer swore at me, and of the cool co-workers that came to my rescue.

As much as I hated aspects of working at this store, one thing that made it bearable was my co-workers. They were also super helpful and understanding, and I don’t think I would have made it through my first job without them.

Great coworkers can make a big difference.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Cheers to that!

Here’s some advice.

I completely agree.

This person didn’t get to work their last shift.

I can imagine how there must be a sense of freedom working the final shift at a retail location. While the supervisor came to the rescue of this frazzled employee, really, the situation was probably a welcome opportunity for the supervisor to get to do something she’s probably wanted to do for a very long time, and that’s telling a customer off without any consequences.

The customer really should’ve had his receipt. He had to know it would be difficult to return something without a receipt. It’s definitely not the employee’s fault that he was unprepared.

Also, think about this story from the perspective of the new hire. This was quite a welcome to the company. I’m not sure how long I’d want to stay at this company if I saw so much drama go down from the very beginning.

But this story leaves us with one big unknown. I wonder what the supervisor said to the customer.