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It’s a sad reality of working in a customer service job…

Some dishonest folks are pure scammers and they’ll do anything and everything to try to get stuff at a discounted price.

And if you happen to be employed in this line of work, you know I’m speaking THE TRUTH.

In today’s story, a retail worker explained how a customer tried to pull a fast one on them…but they weren’t buying it!

Read on and see what you think.

That guy DOESN’T work for us, and the discounts he gives are a LIE!

“I’ve worked in and out of retail for a number of years now and I’ve collected a number of stories.

I currently work for a retailer specializing in toys, and most of the time it’s the best job I’ve ever had!

But…

Sometimes though, there are people who are out to make our lives miserable.

On one particular occasion my coworker and I were excited to see a sudden rush of customers carrying large boxes from a certain popular brand of construction blocks.

It had been a relatively slow day money-wise and the toys were expensive, so that many large sales in a row would really boost our day’s sales figures. I happily start scanning in the first customer’s items while my coworker gets out some of the big bags to fit the items in, then I tell the customer the total…

Oh boy, here we go…

Then all hell breaks loose.

(Customer 1) WHAT?!?! That’s not right! It’s supposed to be on sale!

(Me Confused) I don’t think so… We don’t have a catalog on at the moment and there’s no sale ticket on the item.

(Customer 1) Don’t you know anything! It’s supposed to be 30% of “brand toy” today!

At this point the customers that had been lining up behind Customer 1 have slowly moved forward and are encircling the counter. You can practically see the hysteria start to spread as they clutch their large sets. They want that discount and are in full support of Customer 1.

My coworker and I share a glance because this situation is not looking good and we know that there’s no sale on “brand toy”.

They had a policy about this…

Our store is an individual owned retailer and rarely ever does general discounts on product ranges, and that particular brand only ever gets given a general discount in the Boxing Day sales.

(Me) Are you sure it’s our store doing the sale? “Big department store” next door has a toy section and they often do big general sales.

(Customer 1) YES it’s your store! The guy said it was THIS store!!

The surrounding customers chime in with their agreement and my ears went up.

(Me) The guy? What guy?

(Customer 1 exasperated) The guy! The one standing down in the “brand toy” section. He said it’s “brand toy’s” 30th birthday and so “toy retailer” is doing 30% off all “brand toy” for one day only!

My coworker and I look at each other again. I can tell the same thing is going through both of out minds. What?!?!

At this point I turn to try and address all the customers present. There was about eight of them all surrounding the counter.

Not gonna happen!

(Me) I’m sorry but there seems to be a misunderstanding here. Neither our store, nor “brand toy” have a representative standing in the “brand toy” section. That guy has no authority to give out the discounts he’s claiming are available. I’m afraid you’ve fallen for a hoax.

There’s a pause as this news starts to sink in and I start to relax. Surely logic will prevail and the customers will realize that they have been tricked, through no fault of ours…

Yeah, and maybe we’ll all laugh and hug and start singing some weird little song showing how today we’ve learned not to believe the promises of random strangers.

This guy just didn’t get it.

(Customer 1) You still have to give me the discount though!

(Me caught off guard) … What?

(Customer 1 standing straight and smiling smugly) You still have to give me the discount. It’s false advertising otherwise.

Some of the other customers at this point have left their “brand toy” on the counter and left, but there’s about three more desperate ones clinging on to Customer 1’s new argument in the hopes that they can still get 30% off their sets.

Take a hint!

(Me) But… WE’RE not the ones that are advertising. Some random guy is.

(Customer 1) But we couldn’t have known that! It’s advertising in YOUR store, so YOU HAVE to honor it!

(Me shake head in disbelief) No, it doesn’t work like that. Some random guy telling you that you get 30% off “brand toy” does NOT mean you get 30% off “brand toy”. Otherwise we’d have someone in here every day giving out random discounts.

(Customer 1 losing confidence) But…but the guy SAID!

(Me) The guy lied!

(Customer 1) This is outrageous! You can’t treat your customers like this!

(Me) I’m sorry, there’s really nothing I can do.

Customer 1 slams his “brand toys” on the counter and starts to storm out.

(Customer 1) I’ll be calling consumer affairs about you! You’ve just lost yourselves a good sale!

He stormed out kind of slowly, as if he expected us to relent at those last words and give him the discount. I just shrugged and turned back to my remaining customers.

Well, this was certainly interesting!

With their fearless leader gone, they were starting to see their cause was futile. They piled up their “brand toy” on the counter and started to leave as well. A couple gave some half-hearted threats about not returning but they left peacefully enough.

My coworker stepped forward to put down the phone she’d picked up. She’d been standing behind me ready to call security the whole time in case the customers turned ugly.

Annoyed with the whole situation I left my coworker with the stacked “brand toy” and stormed down the aisle to the “brand toy” section.

There was no one there. I had a look around the shop but it seems that the argument at the counter had scared off all our other customers, stupid troll customer included.

Sure I can laugh about it now, but at that moment I was NOT a happy person.”

Let’s see what readers had to say about this.

This person weighed in.

Another Reddit user shared their thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who gets revenge on his company after they fire him and try to steal his custom program.

Another individual spoke up.

And this person shared their thoughts.

A lesser retail worker might’ve have gone along with this charade…

But not this person!

Nice work!

This rude customer was trying to pull a fast one!