If you buy something you don't like, but can't return it for a very valid reason, isn't it easier to just get on with your life than go back to the store and complain about it?
You'd think, but some people are natural-born complainers. Store employees have to put up with these people all the time--the ones who are determined to start a fight, no matter what--and when these people want to return something, they won't leave until they get their way.
These clerks shared their best stories of people who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer!
(Content has been edited for clarity)
Did You Think The Warranty Expiry Date Was Just A Friendly Suggestion?
“I used to work at a homeware and hardware store. This guy came in with this dirty electric kettle that was old and covered in limescale. We had a one-year guarantee on our electrical items and the receipt which, yes, he still had told us he bought the kettle three years prior.
When my manager explained to him that he couldn’t get a new kettle since it was past its warranty and clearly in a well-used state, this guy flipped, saying ‘Well, what does the warranty have to do with anything?’ He swore at my manager and demanded that he give him his name so he could write to the CEO of the company to complain, which my manager refused to do.
I think my manager had to ask him to leave, at which point another customer comes up and says to the guy, ‘You’re a pathetic worm of a man,’ or something along those lines. That made my day.”
The Fingerprints Were All The Proof He Needed
“I once had a lady with her brood of unruly children come in with a laptop whose screen had ‘spontaneously’ cracked. Upon casual inspection, the cause was obvious, as the screen was covered in grubby little fingerprints where the kids had been lifting it up by the screen and had cracked it as a result.
We declined the return, citing accidental damage not being covered under the manufacturer’s guarantee, which caused this lady to go nuts. She called one of our wet paper bag managers over who asked us to call up the suppliers to have it repaired. Obviously, they refused to repair it.
This ordeal went on for weeks with the woman returning every couple of days to try again until eventually the store manager got involved. I began to explain the situation to him and within five seconds he cut me off and told me ‘I don’t want to hear anymore, give her a new laptop.’
We had to give her a new laptop, which tanked our returns budget for the month and ended up with us all getting crap for having such a high returns percentage. Gotta love retail!”
Nobody Wants To Deal With That
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“One time we had a guy try to return a camp toilet/potty thing claiming it had collapsed after it had been used. They’re not stable things; essentially a heavy duty garbage bag splayed over an aluminum frame. He brought it back in a bigger garbage bag for us to check out, still fully judging from the smell.
We didn’t know what to do. No one was going to be checking inside that bag. So the manager at the time refunded him just to get him out of there, on the condition he disposed of the bag himself.”
There’s A Simple Fix For That
“‘This item was not as described.’
It was a necklace featuring a word in a script font hanging on a chain. The customer complained that the words were written backwards. In the photos, she pointed out, you could see the word clearly when the model was wearing it, but when she tried hers on, she could only see the word when looking in the mirror.
Yeah, she was just wearing it backwards.”
I Ruined Your Entire Wedding? That Was Easy
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“I work at a retail store where we engrave items, mostly for weddings. A woman ordered two flute glasses for a wedding she was traveling to, we finished the flutes for her a few days before she was leaving, and she came to get them the night before she left.
We always suggest people pick up their items a day or so before they need them, so if there is an issue we can fix it (re-engraving an item, especially glass, takes at least an hour or more). This customer came in at 5:55 p.m. on a Sunday when we close at 6. I showed her the glasses, and she was livid. The lettering looked ‘terrible, cheap, and awful.’ And she wanted a refund.
I told her I could refund her, but that she couldn’t take the glasses with her. ‘But I have to have them, and you’ve ruined the entire wedding with this engraving, that e is SLANTED!’ (The font she chose has slanted e’s). I told her I could have new glasses engraved by noon tomorrow (at this point the mall had closed), but her plane was leaving at 8 a.m., so that would be impossible. I found store locations near where the wedding was (she was traveling there a week before the wedding date), and I told her I could contact the closest location (10 miles from her wedding site) and have them engrave new glasses for her. ‘Why should I be inconvenienced because of your incompetence?!’
I asked her for the address of her hotel, where we could ship her new glasses in two business days. ‘I don’t know WHERE I’M STAYING!!’
She wanted a complete refund for her product and wanted to take it with her. It didn’t happen.”
Yeah, Flowers Are Known To Do That When You Cut Their Stems
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“A guy tried to return flowers a week later because ‘they had died.’
Our flowers do not have any kind of ‘will last five days’ guarantee or anything.
I called my manager, and the customer argued with him for over half an hour about his £2 bouquet of flowers. My manager just sat there deadpan, and every time the guy stopped talking said simply, ‘I’m not refunding you for dead flowers.’
When the guy eventually left (throwing his flowers on the floor) my boss cracked up and couldn’t stop laughing for several minutes.”
Put Your Console Where Your Mouth Is
“I’m not sure if this counts, but I’ve had a couple of people try to scam me by returning eBay items I sold them. Before I sell something, I always take photos of the model number(s) and small unique marks that tell me that item is my item.
I sold somebody my old Nintendo Wii which worked perfectly fine and they claimed it was broken and wouldn’t run any discs. I told them they could send it back to me and I’d test it and give a refund if this were the case. I also mentioned I had photos of the exact Wii I sold them so I’d know if they were swapping it with a broken one to get their money back. They never replied or sent the Wii.
Perhaps not a crazy story, but still pretty weird that people go through all that effort to send you back a swapped item.”
Was This Really Easier Than Just Figuring Out How To Cook Them Properly?
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“When I worked at Target in high school, I was doing the customer service desk, and this woman came in and returned five of the DiGiorno frozen pizza/giant cookie cakes. They were all thawed and in soggy boxes, and she told me the reason is that they didn’t cook all the way through.
Now I’ve eaten a lot of frozen pizza in my day, and I’ve never seen one that didn’t cook all the way through. You may need to adjust cooking times a bit, but I think as an adult she should have been able to figure that out. Also, who buys that many of the same frozen pizza without knowing if they like it/having it before?
But again, it’s Target, so we return her pizzas, I mark them for disposal, comment on the other person working the desk about what just happened, we laugh for a second, and then we move on to the next person. Apparently, that next person went and tracked down frozen pizza lady, told her what I said, and then she took offense to it and called to yell at my boss about what I said. I got in trouble, and it sucked.
So remember kids, people who can’t figure out how to cook a frozen pizza are the same people who get offended if you call them not smart enough to cook a frozen pizza.”
She Wanted Her Manga For Free
“Oh, here’s another fun one from when I worked at Books A Million. A lady came in to return some manga. The manager went to process the return and noticed that she was returning this with an existing return receipt. She asked her what the problem was with these new issues and she said, ‘Oh, they’re not the ones he wanted.’ She checked the volumes. They were all sequential. So my manager asked, ‘Oh, he had already read these issues as well?’
And the mom slipped. She said, ‘Yeah he goes through them so fast doesn’t he?’
So my manager caught her admitting she was returning them after her son read them so she could get the next three in the set for free. After confronting her about it, my manager said, ‘I’ll process this return, but you still have these others on the receipt. I’m making a mark that these are not able to be returned (she already had the next three in hand).’
The lady was aghast. ‘But he read them so fast, what am I supposed to do?’
Not our problem lady.
‘So how about I just bring him to the store and let him sit and read them without buying?’
I chime in, ‘As long as he puts them away when he’s done and doesn’t damage them, I don’t think we’d care. It means we don’t have to waste time processing returns and arguing.’ My manager glared at me, but then agreed and said, ‘Yeah, but if we catch him damaging the books you’re buying them, no refunds.'”
So You’ve Been Dissatisfied With This Purchase For The Past Three Years?
“A woman tried to return a 3-year-old working grass cutter because her fingers had become too weak to pry open the case where the nylon cutter goes. We had tried for 20 minutes to make the case easier to open, but she wasn’t satisfied.
She also had no receipt and expected us to locate it on our network through her membership. When we told her she couldn’t possibly get a refund, she got mad and called us useless.”
Snow Reason To Shout At Me!
“I owned a small snowcone stand and had a lady and her daughter order a large snowcone to share. Once they received it, they ate it in their car and left. Flash forward to four hours later, and I get a call from an angry man.
He demanded a refund for his wife because the snow cone was dry, i.e., there was not enough syrup on it. I explained that his wife and child ate their snowcone right in front of me in their car and if they had an issue, they could have walked up and asked for more syrup without charge or question. NO, that was not the answer he was looking for and proceeded to personally insult me and continue to demand a refund for a snowcone that was consumed four hours prior. Eventually, he hung up after a few more insults and me calmly explaining that I could not refund their $3 for something that was eaten four hours ago.
Well, he called back three more times, first to speak to the manager, then the owner. He wasn’t happy when I said I’m both of those things, and the insults and abuse continued to be hurled my way each time, still met with an apology and calm and professional response. So guess who got a very slanderous review on one of those Pinterest mom websites!
To clarify, the husband was never once here, never ate the snow cone, nor did I speak to the wife outside of the transaction, and she appeared to be pleased when she left my window. Despite their slanderous efforts, my company has grown larger than I’ve ever expected. So the joke’s on them.”
How Did You Even THINK Of That?
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“I had a customer come in with a bag of relatively expensive items from our chain grocery store, such as vitamins, dog tablets, DVDs, and so on, and they were covered in pesticide. And she had claimed we packed it all into the same bags (which is against our policy) and needed a refund on everything.
I felt something fishy was up, and told my manager. She quickly checked the surveillance cameras and saw her walk in with a bag, stuff as many different items as she could into it, and pour pesticide all through it. Most of the time if something is crazy, it’s probably a scam.”
You Know We Own The Building, And The Building Doesn’t Own Us, Right?
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“I used to work for a Chevrolet dealership. It had been a Cadillac dealership with a different owner before that. It had shut down, and he opened a new dealership elsewhere. We had been open for less than a year when I started working there.
A lady came in and said she bought a used Cadillac there two years ago, and something was wrong with it. She wanted this thing fixed for free. I let her know that the previous owner shut down almost a year prior but had a new dealership.
She said, ‘But this is the building I bought it at.’ I said, ‘Yes, but this is no longer a Cadillac dealership. They moved to X road. We are a Chevy dealership with different owners.’
She could not grasp that a business can move and a new one move into the same building.”
That Must Have Been A Tough Couple Of Weeks For Her
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“I work at a car rental company. A middle-aged professional-looking lady needed an insurance replacement rental car after her vehicle ‘inexplicably’ caught fire. She signs the contract; I inspect with her. I give her the usual spiel about putting blankets down for pets and no smoking in the car. ‘Yeah, yeah.’ She signs off. I go inside, and she gets in the car. Five minutes pass and then she comes back in.
‘So I can’t smoke in the car?’ We tell her no.
‘But my car is the only place I can smoke at work.’ Okay, odd, but we reiterate the policy.
She then asks if any other rental agencies allow smoking. We tell her she could try asking them, but we’re pretty sure it’s an industry-wide policy. She then says she wants to return the vehicle and could we give her a ride home. Since we’re nice people, we say sure. A couple of hours pass, and she comes back looking defeated. Nobody else in town allows smoking. She decides to take the car and promises not to smoke in it.
A couple of weeks pass and her rental is up. When she returns it, she’s with her husband. He’s doing the paperwork while she’s just standing there in dark sunglasses, not saying much. She takes the glasses off to rub her eyes, and I notice they’re completely bloodshot. After they leave, our resident stoner starts laughing their butt off.
Now we know why she could only smoke in her car.”
He Held A Printer For Ransom
“Although I was not the seller, I witnessed this.
Back in the day, when I didn’t have a home printer (which I now don’t, again), I was at the local Staples using the copy center to print reports for school.
There was a dad there with his son, asking the copy center guy about how to use this strange custom paper he’d brought. The Staples guy politely informed him that they didn’t allow customer-provided paper in their copy machines.
After a little back and forth the father yells, ‘If you don’t let me put this paper in the copier, I’m going to buy a printer, bring it home, use it once, and return it tomorrow. Is that what you want??’
Such. A. Jerk.”
Well At Least He Gave It A Try
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“I wasn’t the one it got returned to, but I was at an REI outdoor equipment garage sale. These sales are where the company takes all the returned items and sells them to members for a huge discount, depending on damage/use. The average deal is a pair of boots that retail at $150 being sold for $30-40, stuff like that.
I saw a bicycle that looked nice. The retail price was $650, and the bike was marked to $280. The price tags have the reason why the customer returned the item. You usually see stuff like ‘customer didn’t like how shoes held up,’ ‘customer didn’t like the fit,’ ‘customer wanted a smaller size.’ But the line on this bike was the best I’ve ever seen:
‘Customer did not like the sport of cycling.'”
You’re Grinding Our Patience Into Little Bits, Lady
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“When I was a manager at coffee shop, we had a crazy lady customer. She would buy 2 pounds of beans, get us to grind them, and then she’d come back 2-3 weeks later with the mostly empty bags. She would hold up the drive-thru line insisting that we replace the coffee because it had gone bad. The first time we honored the ‘just say yes’ policy per the store manager, but after that, we had to try to explain to her that coffee doesn’t stay fresh after you open it, and we can’t replace a bag weeks later after you used most of it.
She tried to keep the crazy train rolling by bringing in the nearly empty bags of FREE coffee we’d given her the first time, wanting us to replace them a couple of weeks later. Even worse, she purposefully came through the drive-through and used the excuse that WE were holding up service because we wouldn’t honor her request as leverage to get us to give in. She always came in during the morning rush, and it always took at least 10 minutes for a manager to deal with her. I think the store manager eventually asked her to take her business elsewhere.
I forgot to mention that she would also purchase a pastry with a 1-3 day shelf life, not eat it, and bring it back with the coffee weeks later, wanting a refund, saying it was inedible. She wasn’t someone who appeared to be struggling financially either. She wore expensive-looking clothes and jewelry, and drove a brand-new Jaguar.”
If You Wanted Steamed Milk, You Came To The Wrong Place
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“I used to work at a McDonald’s.
One time, someone ordered a tea with a stupid amount of milk. I don’t remember exactly how much, but the cup was half-filled with milk before I poured in hot water. She sat down, sipped it once, and then demanded a refund because her tea was lukewarm.
Another time, a woman ordered a meal with fries. When we gave her the meal, she said, ‘I’ll be right back’ and then went off to the washroom. About ten minutes later she comes back, picks up her meal, and then complains that her fries are cold.
Thermal equilibrium, people. It’s not rocket science.”
He Blu His Chance To Apologize
“My first day on the sales floor at my old job at a Sony outlet, a customer came up and purchased a Blu-ray copy of a movie. This was in the infancy days of the Blu-ray format, so it was our policy to explain to everyone what a Blu-ray was, how it differed from a DVD, and that they needed a special player for it.
The customer rolled his eyes at me like I was an idiot for even asking.
He came back an hour later saying the disc was defective. I asked what happened and he said it wouldn’t play in his car DVD player. I explained that it was a Blu-ray disc, not a DVD, and wouldn’t work in a standard DVD player. He said since it didn’t work he wanted a refund.
Our store had a policy that opened media (CDs, DVDs, games, etc.) were not returnable. We even had a whole spiel we gave at check-out where we highlighted the relevant portion of our return policy and had our customers sign it to verify we explained it to them. So I told him about this but then said ‘Let me check with my manager, maybe we can do something’ when he started hemming and hawing about it.
My manager didn’t budge. The guy said, ‘So what, it doesn’t work, and now I can’t get my money back?’ I chimed in and said, ‘The only returns are for broken items, and that’s a straight swap-out.’
He said, ‘Only broken, huh?’ He picked up the disc. I had a brief moment of ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if he broke the disc?’
And then he broke the disc. He snapped it into several pieces and then threw them in my face.
That was a good first day.”