Unexpected overtime at work can be frustrating.

In this story, a retail employee was ready to go home when the manager asked all the employees to stay to sort out an extra large return.

Keep reading fort the full story.

I Hate Customers At Closing Time

I worked for a well-known, major American discount department store chain.

Just before closing, each of the department workers was required to go to the service desk and pick up the returns people brought back for one reason or another. We would then take them back to our departments and put them back on the shelves.

About five minutes before closing, we were looking at the clock, and employees were making small talk as we were waiting to end our shift and clock out, when all of a sudden the manager announced, “All department workers return to the service desk.”

It turned out that five minutes before closing, my manager accepted nine full grocery carts filled to the brim with returns.

A customer returned a truckload of items just before closing time.

It turned out that even though our store had a 90-day return policy, this customer had unopened products from the store with the store price tags still attached, along with receipts going back seven (7) years.

The reason for the return was that this customer’s family had moved to the USA from another country when the husband took a job in the United States.

Well, when they bought the items, they stuck them in the attic and forgot about them.

The husband’s job was complete, so they were now moving back to their country.

It was a late night.

I looked on in disgust when I saw all nine carts that my co-workers and I dreaded having to sort through, separating each and every item and returning each product to our departments.

The customer ended up receiving $700.00 in cash and $400.00 in store credit.

We didn’t get to go home until 10:35 PM.

The customer should at least have the decency to return everything earlier in the day.

Other people in the comments on Reddit had a lot to say.

A reader calls out the manager.

An accurate observation.

This person has some doubts.

Here’s a positive perspective from this user.

And here’s a valid question.

Nothing ruins your night like unexpected overtime in retail.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.