Retail customers occasionally hear “we don’t offer that service” as the opening round of a negotiation.

At one arts-and-crafts store, a shopper arrived carrying a boxed toy and one deceptively simple request.

Instead of accepting the employee’s explanation, he kept inventing new payment arrangements for a job the store did not perform.

Let’s unwrap how this conversation unfolded.

Special service

So I am working in an arts and crafts store situated at a mall. We offer a bit of everything, as I like to say, including wrapping paper and the sorts.

But there are a few things the store doesn’t do.

While we are very customer-friendly and help people flesh out their DIY projects, we don’t do any demonstrations of products and no gift wrapping service, as it would be too time-consuming.

Every so often, there will come a customer from another store (the toy store is next to us) with a toy present.

So one day, in came a customer who was hankering for a wrapping service.

A customer walks in with a big Bobby Car box under his arm asking whether we do gift wrapping.

I decline, saying, “Sorry, we don’t have the time, staff, or means of charging you for this service, so we don’t offer it.”

But this customer was persistent.

Thinking, if I give him the explanation before he asks the unavoidable “what if I pay for it?” I might just dodge it, but no such luck.

He goes, “What if I pay for it?”

The employee tries to refuse again, politely.

Me: “Again, we don’t offer this service. We are a retailer, not a service point, and thus there’s no means for me to calculate a price for a service we are not meant to perform :)”

C: “I can buy something from the store and then give you extra for the gift wrap.”

The employee continues to refuse, but the customer continues to persist.

Me: “We do not offer this service. However, if you want, you can buy a roll of wrapping paper and we will lend you some scissors, tape, and a table to wrap it yourself.”

C: “Oh, but I am bad at wrapping presents, you are better skilled than me.”

Finally, the interaction comes to an end, but the employee can’t help but stew in their annoyance.

At this point I just repeated my previous statement, turned, and left.

Why is it so hard to accept a no?

The thing that tops it off for me though is: just because I work in arts and crafts, why does everyone assume I’d do a good job wrapping presents?

They’d be up for a surprise.

They ought to teach a class on “taking no for an answer.”

What did Reddit have to say about this frustrating interaction?

Even if the service was offered, paying for it should be the bare minimum.

This user has a devious idea.

This customer didn’t deserve a thorough response to his questioning.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was denied a raise for “not being dedicated enough,” but then went on to discover what was really going on behind the scenes.

Apparently this entitlement is common in other types of stores too.

After repeatedly hearing that the store offered no gift wrapping, the customer proposed buying merchandise, paying extra, and complimenting the employee’s supposed skills.

OP offered paper, scissors, tape, and a table for him to wrap it himself, then walked away when he continued pushing.

He assumed working near glitter and glue included elite wrapping certification, and didn’t understand the situation was non-negotiable.