Some customers seem to think that arguing long enough will make the rules change.

One retail employee dealt with that after a woman asked him to return a coupon he had already scanned.

When he explained that the coupon could only be used once, she insisted another location always let her keep it.

Then, even after the store manager backed him up, she kept threatening to stop shopping there if she didn’t get her way.

But rather than arguing back, the employee simply kept saying, “Okay.”

Read on to see how they finally got rid of her.

Every angry customer’s worst nightmare: total indifference

I watch over the self-checkouts at my store.

For a bit of background, my store has two sets of circulars with coupons people can get. One you have to sign up for, and it gets mailed to your house. The other we have stacks of in our store that anyone can take.

The one you get in the mail often has a coupon to get you two times as many rewards points, which can be used to save on gas.

It all started when the customer wanted her coupon back.

So, on this day, a woman came through self-checkout, and at the end of her order, she brought her mail flier up to me and asked me to scan her double-points coupon. So I scanned it and started tearing it out when she asked me to give it back to her so she could use it another time.

I told her I couldn’t do that and had to take it from her after it had been used, even pointing out the text saying, “LIMIT 1 PER HOUSEHOLD” on the coupon. But she started arguing with me, saying I could do it and that she does it all the time.

I happened to see our store manager walking by, so I flagged him down to come help me out.

The manager wanted to hear his side of the story.

As I expected, he told her pretty much the exact same thing. I don’t remember everything that was said, but this is pretty much how it went:

Store manager (to me): “What seems to be the issue?”

Lady: “I just asked him to—”

SM: “Hold on, let me hear his side first. What’s going on?”

Then, she started explaining how they let her do it at another store.

Me: “She wants me to give back her double-points coupon after I already scanned it for her. It says limit one per household on it, though.”

SM: “It does say limit one per household. He has to keep it and be accountable for all his coupons.”

L: “But I do it all the time at [other location]! They even hand them out at the registers!”

SM: “Well, they’re not supposed to be doing that.”

Frustrated, she kept arguing with the manager.

Me: “Yeah, it’s just company policy. We have to go by what the coupon says.”

She argued some more, and the store manager said he’d go check the fliers we have stacked by the door to see if there’s one in there she can have. We all knew there wouldn’t be, but he’d check anyway.

So at this point, she’s still with me while I’m trying to help people at self-checkout.

L: “You know, the whole reason I shop at [store] is for the savings I get on gas.”

By this point, she was desperate for any help.

Me: “OK.”

L: “I mean, really, I just spent $150 here.”

Me: “OK.”

L: “But honestly, after this, I don’t think I’m going to shop here anymore.”

Then, the customer started getting more upset.

Me: “OK.”

L: looks at nametag “No, [MY NAME], don’t just stand there and say okay!”

Me: “…OK.”

L: “Can’t you just give my coupon back?! They really let me do this all the time.”

Me: “No, sorry.”

Trying to prove a point, he crumpled the coupon.

I crumpled up the coupon to hopefully make it more clear to her that it wasn’t going to happen. The store manager came back, and of course there wasn’t another coupon in the circulars by the door. He asked her to come to the service desk with him, and they’d see if there was anything they could do.

I thought that would be the last of it, but I work in retail, so of course it’s not.

About 10 minutes later, she came back to me with one of the circulars from the door and shoved it in front of the screen I’m trying to do my job with.

Suddenly, she came back with some new information.

L: “I just want you to know that all of these coupons in here say one per household too.”

Me: “OK.”

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L: “Yeah, but I bet you just zap them with your gun all the time and let people keep them!”

Me: “OK.”

Oddly enough, she left before the manager could come back out.

L: “You know what? Where’s the boss? Call him over again!”

So I picked up the phone to call him, and as I’m talking to him, she just walked away. The store manager came down a few seconds later, asking where she was, and I shrugged, telling him she walked away. I told him the general direction she went, and he went to look for her. He didn’t find her.

I heard from one of my coworkers that the next day, a woman matching her description came in asking cashiers at the registers if they had any double-points coupons in their drawer.

Wow! Some people are very desperate for any type of discount.

Let’s check out what the fine folks over at Reddit think about it.

This person thinks the manager was part of the problem.

Many people remember these days.

This is good for the employee, but kinda unprofessional.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a longtime bank customer who walked away after the teller gave them a hard time.

Exactly! That’s a good point.

Well, that didn’t go as planned for her.

After she was told the coupon was one-time use, she should’ve just dropped it and left.

Instead, she made herself look ridiculous by asking for the same thing over and over.

And if the other location is really letting customers reuse those coupons, that’s probably something the manager should report. Doing so would prevent this situation from ever happening again.