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Modern phones are amazing, but some people just can’t seem to get off of them for even a minute to deal with people in person.

What would you do if you were working at a store and a customer came on demanding a refund, but was barely paying attention to you because she was focused on her phone?

That is what happened to the worker in this story, so when she told the customer that since she didn’t have the original card it was purchased on, the money would be in the form of in-store credit. The customer absently agreed, but when she got the store credit, she was angry, even though she agreed to it multiple times.

They were eventually able to get things figured out, but it took way longer (and was way more annoying) than it would have been if the customer just got off her phone for one minute.

This type of thing would drive me nuts if I were the worker. It isn’t just rude to be on your phone, but it makes everyone’s lives more difficult. Read through the full story and see if you agree.

But I want my money back

My work only provides a refund if the customer brings back the same card used to make the purchase, for security reasons.

Get off your phone while dealing with people.

This happened a couple of years ago. A lady came in and wanted to return something, and decided to stand there on her phone messaging someone throughout this whole transaction.

When I asked if she had the same card, she said “no, my daughter paid for it”. I informed her (1) that we need the same card, otherwise I can give her a store credit.

She has options, but she doesn’t want any of them.

“No, I want my money back”

I informed her again (2) what our return policies are, and what we can offer as an alternative. I also informed her that she had another week available to return the item.

Good, now she can process the return.

“I can’t come back another day, I need to do this today. I want my money back”

So, I repeat to her (3) that if she wants it done today, I can give her a store credit. At this point she is still on her phone, and she looks up: “yes okay fine, do that”.

It is always smart to double-check.

As she’s on her phone, I repeat myself again (4) to make sure she knows what I’m doing.

Me: “okay so I’m going to return these items and put the money on store credit, is that okay? “

Maybe if she had been paying attention, there wouldn’t have been a problem.

The lady, still on her phone, doesn’t bother to look up at me and says “yes that’s fine”.

So, I return the items and complete the transaction. The whole time she was, of course, on her phone.

Why am I not surprised at this?

Me: “okay so here are your receipts and your store credit”

Customer (finally breaking eye contact from her phone): “I said I didn’t want a store credit”

Sorry, lady, that is not an option.

I once again repeated (5) what the return policy is, and told her that I asked her if this was okay and she agreed.

“But I said I want my money back”

Her daughter was in the store the whole time?

I called for my manager and walked her through the whole ordeal. While I was explaining everything to the manager, the customer was once again standing there on her phone.

The customer ended up leaving and coming back about 10 minutes later with her daughter (who was in the Shopping Centre the whole time?!). We ended up putting the refund onto the daughters card.

Some people just like to make things difficult, it seems.

This whole situation could have been avoided if she had just asked her daughter to come to the store to begin with.

Customers like this would drive me crazy if I worked in retail. If she had gotten off her phone and paid attention to what she was doing, this could have all been easily avoided. How frustrating.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

This is actually a good idea, though I don’t know that it would have worked here.

Managers should support this type of thing.

Now this would have been so satisfying.

Customer service is awful.

No refund for you.

People who are working with someone in person but won’t get off their phone are the worst. She should have told the customer to come back when she wasn’t distracted. Of course, that would have gotten her fired, unfortunately.

What is so hard about paying attention to what you are doing instead of your phone? It is one of the most annoying things about modern life.