Refund Roulette
A woman came into my store and asked if her computer had finished being worked on. We’d barely had the computer for 24 hours and told her it was still being worked on. She immediately flipped out when we told her it would be done that day. Looking at her work order it said that we would call the next day once the computer had been diagnosed. We were on track to have the computer fixed by the next morning, but she demanded we give her the computer back and refund her for the repair. I oblige and ask if she has her receipt. She gives me a stern, “No.” So I ask if she has her claim check. To which I get another stern “No!” So I ask if she has a driver’s license.
She replies, “I don’t drive!” At the end of my rope, I say, “Do you have any form of identification on you?” Her reply was, “Why are you making this so difficult?” Knowing all heck is about to break loose I as calmly as possible state, “I can’t give you a computer without some kind of ID.” She totally flies off the handle and starts screaming for a manager and tells me to go away. I get our manager and an employee who was working at her time of check-in.
He vouches for her, so my manager starts the refund process. Of course, she wrote a check for $250, way over the $150 cash return limit. The manager explains that we have to mail her a check. Now the woman is threatening to call the police saying that we’re trying to steal from her. As a total exception, General Manager comes out and breaks the sale into 3 returns that can each be returned as cash. Obviously, this takes a little while to break apart the transactions and get enough cash into the register. So of course she starts yelling at the GM for taking his “sweet time.” And it gets better.
We had several visiting GMs walking through at the time. She grabs another GM from a different store and starts screaming at him. He’s a total deer in headlights and has no idea what’s going on. Finally, my GM snaps and in a half-yelling voice tells her to get out of the store. Obviously, she’s gravely offended by this, scoffs at my GM, and walks out after silently collecting her computer and cash. Totally unnecessary! The customer is not always right! People need to be reasonable in all aspects of life.