Sighting at a clothes store (with added karma!!)

[customersruinmylife]

I was buying myself a new backpack as my old one had split on my way to work. I walked into the store, found one I liked and went to buy it. I only had one item, and on my way to the register, this old bitch with armfulls of clothes cut me off and went ahead of me in the line. The store was only ten minutes away from closing at this point, so there was only one cashier on duty.

The SC dropped all of her items on the counter.

SC: Before you start ringing these through, I need to point out some faults!

She proceeded to go through every. single. item.

SC: This one here, has a mark on it, so I'll be needing a discount...

Cashier is straining her eyes trying to see this mark...

SC: ...and this one...look at the stitching, it looks as though it is going to come apart...

Cashier's face is beginning to drop. You can tell she was so very much looking forward to going home.

SC: ...this one...it has a slight tear...

Cashier looks like she wants to die.

SC: ...another mark on this one...there's another tear here...this one is missing a button...

I need to point out that this was not some discount clothing store! The first thing that entered my head was that the SC was damaging the clothes herself to get a discount.

SC: So I will be requiring a discount.
Cashier: OK...we are only permitted to give a maximum 10% discount on any items deemed faulty...
SC: What?!?! I was thinking more along the lines of 50% discount! Or even 75%!
Cashier: I'm sorry, but our policy is that if a product is judged to be so faulty that it warrents that kind of discount, then we do not sell it. We send it back to our supplier and get an explaination and a refund.

That policy sounds awesome.

SC: I think you can do better than that. Can I speak to the manager?
Cashier: I am the manager.
SC: ......
Cashier: Would you like the 10% discount?
SC: Fine.
Cashier: I need to remove the tags from all these items. As you have pointed out their faults, that makes them non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Is that OK?
SC: What?!? What if I take them home and I don't want them anymore? What am I supposed to do with them??
Cashier: *looking fed up* Do you want the items or not?
SC: Fine, but I am not happy.

Cashier has to go through all the items, snipping off all the tags, while the SC stands, glaring at her. I have been in the line for 15 minutes. If it hadn't been an emergency I would have left, but it was raining outside and I had several documents I am gonna use for my interview and needed somewhere dry to put them. The SC finally pays for her things and storms out. I pay for my bag and my transaction is over with in less than 30 seconds.

Here's the karma.

It is absolutely pouring down with rain outside, so I put up my umbrella, and start walking down the street. I look, and see the SC walking a few feet ahead of me. She doesn't have an umbrella, or a coat and she is soaked through. I walked behind her for about ten minutes, sniggering to myself. The store gives out paper bags rather than plastic, so the obvious happened. Her bag split, sending all her clothes all over the street. I walked past her and let out a rather loud "Ha Ha!" as she struggled to pick up all of her "faulty" items.

[TimmyHate]

It is absolutely pouring down with rain outside, so I put up my umbrella, and start walking down the street. I look, and see the SC walking a few feet ahead of me. She doesn't have an umbrella, or a coat and she is soaked through. I walked behind her for about ten minutes, sniggering to myself. The store gives out paper bags rather than plastic, so the obvious happened. Her bag split, sending all her clothes all over the street. I walked past her and let out a rather loud "Ha Ha!" as she struggled to pick up all of her "faulty" items.

That wasn't very nice...I like it! Sounds exactly like what I'd do

[EvilEmpryss]

HA!

When I was managing a fabric store, if I suspected a customer was intentionally damaging merchandise to get a discount, I immediately apologized for allowing defective merchandise to be on the sales floor and put it under the counter. I would *not* allow someone to purchase it if I thought they caused it. It was usually pretty obvious, as the "damage" would usually be somewhere inobvious (a decorative piece broken in the back or on fabric really near the edges).

Then I gave the employees first crack at it, at discount price with their employee discount, before filing it as a loss or putting it back on the floor at a minor discount.

[PepperElf]

SC: What?!? What if I take them home and I don't want them anymore? What am I supposed to do with them??

sounds like she was thinking of brining them back to demand full price on the return

[MrSunshineState]

sounds like she was thinking of brining them back to demand full price on the return

Yep, my first thought as well.

[bainsidhe]

our policy is that if a product is judged to be so faulty that it warrents that kind of discount, then we do not sell it. We send it back to our supplier and get an explaination and a refund.

That policy sounds awesome.

Darn right. This includes items that are not "manufacturer's defect" as well. Someone shatters a coffee pot? We can send it back for credit. Sometimes management makes exceptions, but why bother when we can get full credit?

I'll occasionally get a customer that says, "There is a small stain here, can I get an extra discount?". Note that the small stain appears to be caused from falling to the floor. Happens quite often, actually.
Me: "Nope, sorry. This item is already on clearance, so it's sold as-is. We can't take anything extra off"

[LillFilly]

Yup, sounds like a scam; hee, backfired though.

Talked with a guy in the garden center at a Mal Wart. He said he had this SC always buying bags of soil that were damaged, a dozen bags at a time. Then one day the guy saw the SC out by the soil, running his hand along the bags and the guy saw dirt falling from holes where the SC had gone by; the bags had been fine before. He demanded to see what was in the SCs hand and the SC had a razor duct taped to the palm of his hand! In the end, the SC had scammed about $200 in soil. And these were bags only costing a $1.50 a piece! Wonder if SC thought it was worth it after the police took him away!

[Nyx]

Aren't you glad you didn't go first? You would have missed the whole scene. It's like karma was saying “Hold on, this is gonna be good. ”

[EvilEmpryss]

It's like karma was saying “Hold on, this is gonna be good. ”

I like that. I'll remember that the next time I'm stuck behind an SC.

[Erin]

When I worked in Walmart's fabric department, we had people who would come in with their own scissors and they'd cut the fabric off the bolts while the bolts were still on the fabric wall or the 4ways. Then they'd go up to customer service and complain that the fabric cutters (me and the others in the dept) cut their fabric wrong and they wanted a refund.

One of the other girls caught some lady damaging a bolt of fabric. The woman had already gotten a discount a day or two before on another entire bolt of fabric by pointing out some damage and saying that she wanted the entire bolt. We were pretty sure she was the one doing the damage. But we had spineless managers who would still sell the bolt at a discount.

That day the lady also whined when we wanted to measure the bolt so we would know exactly how much to charge her (at the discount) for the fabric. She'd whined and said to count the folds. (when the fabric is on the bolt, you can estimate how much is there by counting the folds...two folds equals about a yard, but it's not accurate and you can misjudge the length by a lot depending on how the fabric was folded onto the bolt by the manufacturer)

One of the other girls started to measure the fabric on the table...woman says she'll be right back and wanders off. Turns out the woman had stuffed cards of the more expensive buttons into the inner folds of the bolt (a LOT of cards of buttons). Didnt see her after that.

Dont know what she was thinking, she must have realized that we'd have to unfold the entire bolt to count it. (if I were stealing the buttons, I'd wait till after it was measured and refolded onto the bolt, and the fabric ticket was printed and THEN start hiding things inside the fabric to steal)