I worked at an outdoor supply store, and this lady came up and bought $400 worth of stuff. She pays part of it with a gift card, which I scan and drop in the box of empty gift cards.
This whole transaction takes about fifteen minutes.
Of course, on her way out:
Customer: “Oh, I just remembered! I have a $3 coupon to use!”
Me: “If I wanted to apply that coupon, ma’am, I would need to return everything, re-ring it, then search for the gift card you used, reload, and reuse that.”
Customer: “Well, better hop to it then!”
Me: “This is going to take a while.”
Customer: “I want my $3 discount!”
It’s the end of the day, and I have a billion gift cards unsorted in my drawer. I have to sort through them to find the one that matches her original receipt.
This was annoying enough, but basically as soon as l start processing this return, the lady starts tapping her foot and huffing.
Customer: “This is taking too long! Why do you have to make it so difficult!”
Me: “Ma’am, I did warn you that this would take a while.”
Customer: “It’s just a $3 coupon! Oh my God! No wonder you’re working retail. Where is your manager? I bet they’ll be able to handle this faster!”
My manager has, by coincidence, wandered over, since the store is preparing to close, and he’s noticed that I’ve been with the same customer for a while now. He asks if he can help, and my customer explodes into a barrage of complaints and insults.
Customer: “This checkout girl is too stupid to ring in a stupid coupon!”
She keeps going like this, and my manager is able to parse together what happened from her increasingly insulting comments and my attempts at interjecting. He just sighs.
Manager: *Pulls a $5 bill from his wallet.* “Here. Take the $3 discount. The $2 you can keep as a memento of this place, as you’re never coming back here again.”
Customer: “What?!”
Manager: “You’re banned.”
Customer: “Over three f****** dollars?!”
Manager: “Hope it was worth it.”
