Article created by: Mantas Kačerauskas
Retail is unique in that we all more or less interact with it out of necessity but the jobs themselves, and especially front-line staff, seem to be treated as completely disposable.
But in case our article 30 Retail Employees Share The Things That Customers Do That They Can Never Forgive wasn't enough to drive this point home, we at Bored Panda have compiled a bunch of stories that should do the trick.
From fake returns to straight-up stealing, here are all the ways people working in the industry spotted customers trying to scam the system.
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I am one of the managers at a retailer and we were currently hiring a bunch of new associates for the holiday season and a customer had come in and asked for a shopping bag (gearing towards a new associate who barely knew anything yet). She gave him the shopping bag but immediately called me over because she didn’t feel right about it. The customer ended up filling up the bag with merchandise and tried walking out. Little did he know that there security tags on them so the alarm went off. I was by the front door and politely walked up to him and said something along the lines of “hey let me just check for security tags so you don’t find them when you get home”... he oddly complied. As I was checking the bag I asked him for his receipt and he said “I don’t have it but I just checked out over there”...pointing at the general cash register area. I then said “okay let’s see if we can print you a new receipt” and as I was walking over to do so, I heard commotion and it was him tripping over the carts and running out of our store. Haven’t seen him since and we have made it a point to let EVERY associate (old or brand new) know NOT to give our our store bags unless purchasing right then and there.
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I had someone purchase a 55” TV from a different store, go home and put their old (smaller) tv in the box, and try to return it.
The look on his face when he realized I was gonna open it was priceless.
We don’t deliver the pizzas we make, it’s carryout only. Had a customer call and have a long/angry conversation with me because I wouldn’t deliver to her. She proceeds to say (a couple times) “you must be new here. I know the owner personally”, to which I responded “well I’m the owners daughter and we don’t deliver”.
We once had a couple men come into our small store, the one poured a cup of soapy water on the floor, and about 3 mins later his buddy "slipped" on it. The one man asked for compensation from the owner, but me as a manager, I pointed out that there were several cameras in and out of the building, and we had footage of them both talking outside, and pouring soap into the glass. I told them to have their lawyer contact the owner, and they took off before I could give them a business card.
This happened at Popeyes. There 3 people bought EVERY SINGLE CHICKEN SANDWICH IN STOCK. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Then, they tried to sell it to people that were there for a dollar extra. No one bought it.
I work at a bicycle shop that also does repairs, and every once in awhile someone will come in with a stolen bicycle they want to get tuned up. When we know with absolute certainty that it's a stolen bicycle, we will accept the bike for repair, but as soon as they hand it over we will tell them we're keeping it and to not come back. The interesting part is how confidently they come in with an obviously stolen bike and how long they'll carry on the lie that its theirs. We also always contact the real owner and let them know we found their bicycle, just for the record.
I was on the opposite end, a salesperson tried to tell me she'd spoken to my boss the day before and wanted to know when she should deliver a new copier. I said you didn't talk to my boss yesterday. She said she did.
I told her I know you didn't, because his wife died suddenly the day before and he wasn't talking to anyone.
When I worked in a convenience store store many years ago, the candy was all in a set of shelves right at the checkout counter. The wife of a well known businessman in town would buy a regular sized 3 musketeers bar, drop it "by mistake" and quickly switch it with the giant sized one as she scurried out the door. She did it several times a week.
It was such a sad behavior that I didn't bother to call her on it, but I was continually amazed that someone of such stature in town, would take such a chance for such a silly little thing.
Bookstore. A guy comes in with a stack of brand new books he wanted to return for cash, and I couldn't do it without a receipt. He whined. A manager came up and immediately told him to take his books and get out. He did, without even trying to argue. She explained to me he was a book reviewer for one of the papers in town. She said he was banned from returns at all the bookstores in town because he tried to dump all the review copies he received.
Not necessarily a scam as such but one customer in the pub I worked in was a known criminal.
One day he came in with a load of stained bank notes and claimed a biro exploded in his pocket. We already knew one of the money vans had been robbed the night before and the driver was in hospital with serious injuries. Every time we served him, we made sure to use the till nearest to CCTV so the transaction was seen and kept the money in a separate part of the till. About two hours later when we felt we had enough evidence, we called the police and he was arrested immediately.
I think it's more what haven't they tried. I've managed a shoe store for eight years and the lengths people go for a deal is insane. The most common problem I see is people (very obviously) swapping price tags and then being really insulted when you don't let they away with.
Nothing has ever topped the melted shoes though. A few years ago I got a call from a woman. She was hard to understand and the most I could glean from the conversation was her shoes had melted. I told her to come into the store and I would see what I could do. I should mention we have the most relaxed return policy out there.
So later that day, the woman comes in with very very melted shoes. Puzzled at how this happened, I asked her. She said she had sprayed them with an aerosol protecting spray while they were on her feet, and then noticed a little plastic tie that held a tag on the shoe. Her immediate thought was to melt it off with her lighter. Having apparently missed science class, she was shocked that the shoes caught fire and melted the laces, mesh shoes and her socks, as well as causing minor burns to her feet. At this point I am biting my tongue to avoid laughing, and ask her what she would like me to do for her. She tells me she would like either a refund or a replacement pair because she knows what our return policy states we have to do. So we replaced them, cautioned her about the spray and asked her very nicely to shop where from now on.
A lady called and tried to get the earlybird price for a pool pass, but she was a day late. I said sorry I can give you the regular price but you didn’t sign up in time for the early one. She says “But I called yesterday to sign up and the lady told me she couldn’t sign me up for one and to call back today and they’d give me the discount!” I was the lady working yesterday..
When I worked at a makeup counter at Nordstrom, a customer brought in a bag of products she wanted to return. I start unpacking them and all of them have “tester” engraved on the bottom. I told her that I was sorry but I couldn’t return them because they were testers. She then gave me a sob story about how her boyfriend gave them to her as a gift, she doesn’t like them, blah blah blah. Eventually she gives up and leaves. It was about $2,000 worth of skincare. I also watched someone steal skincare off the shelf and try to return it. Fun times
My friend works at a pet store. They banned quite a few people because they didn't set up their aquariums correctly (no, you can't just throw fish in there), killed at least $200+ worth of fish over the course of 3 weeks, and tried to return them all the time. One of those people worked for a vet and the aquarium was set up at the clinic.
I worked for Montgomery Ward for almost 30 years and I had a customer return a tractor after 20 years because he was no longer satisfied with the power Monkey Ward took it back no wonder they went out of business!
When I worked at Gamestop I saw a ton of them, but I think my favorite two are: some kids stole a controller from the Walmart across the parking lot and ripped it out of the box as they walked over to "return" it. I watched them take it out of the box and litter with the trash because they also walked in front of my car to do it as I was driving into the parking lot to start my shift. Then they came in and started yelling about how they wanted their money back for it and they didn't care if they needed a receipt to get it. I told them next time they thought they were gonna be sneaky maybe they shouldn't throw the box down in the parking lot and kicked them out of my store. Same goes for the guy who was a living nightmare, literally calling corporate customer service in front of us because my employee denied him a return out of policy until the corporate people told her to do the return anyway. This SOB grinned like a cat in the cream, took his money, then as soon as my employee went on her break he stormed back in and demanded more money, saying she'd shorted him like $20 and calling him the n-word before kicking him out. Even though I'd been standing behind the counter beside her the whole time... and heard every word they'd said because there were no other customers in the store... I kicked him out for real.
Used to work at Costco, and at the end of December without fail there would be a handful of people who brought in real Christmas trees for a refund. Always wanted to tell them to f-off, but costcos policy allows for this sort of stuff so had to do it with a smile.
My first day at Walmart a lady took the price off a cheap canopy and stuck it on an expensive one and then demanded to buy the expensive one at that price. Funny thing is that I saw her do it, and I let the manager know, she never got that canopy at her price.
Idiot comes in with a coupon for a free iPod. Fine print says "Guaranteed and payable by Bill Gates". I asked why would Bill Gates guarantee and Apple product. Idiot left.
Mine is we once had an electronic razor returned twice.
The first time the woman who'd bought it earlier that day said her husband had bought one elsewhere so this was no longer needed. Reasonable enough so my boss refunded her and put it back on the shelf.
Hour later another woman buys it. She returns an hour later saying it has been used and shows us the hair inside it.
Best we can tell one of the husbands had used the razor and returned it.
I couple months ago I was at work. I had a lady and she was joking around and a lot of fun to work with. When she was finished in the change room she came out and said she found a defect in the top she wanted. It wasn’t a defect it was a stitch reinforcement. I told that to her but she wasn’t having it. I told her I could do 10% off just to make the customer happy. She was excited about that and kept shopping. I got moved to cash as she was and she came up to the desk to buy her stuff. When I got to the top she told me “one girl said I could have a discount for a defect I think she said 25%”. I couldn’t believe that she didn’t recognize me. I’m The only girl in the store with short hair and not girlie at all, I very much stand out there. I told her very sweetly “that was me and I said 10%”. She agreed and as I was putting in the discount started asking if I could do 25% just for her. Ummm ma’am
1) I don’t know you
2) I shouldn’t be doing a discount at all and
3) you already lied to my face about what I had said.
I just looked at her and told her “I really wish I could but I shouldn’t being doing a discount at all and I like this job and need to pay my bills” after trying a couple more times she finely agreed to the 10%
