See You Later

As much as retail sucks, there are those moments of glimmering enjoyment that cannot be recreated in an office setting. Most of those moments include customers and their sometimes-unabashed honesty when angry about something. Some customers will begin yelling and screaming at you as if you are the problem and not them, others will passive aggressively under their breath tell you they are never going to shop there again. We had one such customer today.

Unfortunately, she wasn't my customer but I was able to listen in on the entire conversation as I staffed the register next to her. The customer wanted to return a puffy-vest; she did not have her receipt but used a credit card to purchase the item. She also had in her possession a gift receipt. The cashier looked up her transaction using the customer's credit card and proceeded to complete the return. The customer found out through the course of the transaction that she would be receiving approximately $18 for the vest. She was sure she paid more for it and continued to argue with the cashier, who silently continued with the transaction. The customer began and continued to say repeatedly that she wasn't going to shop at Old Navy anymore and that she didn't shop at other stores for the same reason. This was in hope to get a reaction from us which none of us gave her.

Now, while I could go on about how the customer treated the employee and the supervisor that came around, I want to talk about another aspect of the argument. She clearly stated that she wasn't going to shop at Old Navy anymore. Can I hold her to that? I imagine me asking her to step to the side so I could take her picture to ensure that she doesn't accidentally come in and buy something. I know that would never happen, but I'm almost positive I could get away with saying something like, "I'm sorry your last transaction here is a negative one, but think of all the money you would save by not shopping here!" I would accompany this with my disarming charm and friendly smile.

In case you were wondering, the customer I spoke of before went home to get her original receipt and came back. She was wrong and the store was right so she was very apologetic about her attitude and thanked us for being so nice about the situation. I suppose we'll let her come back if she still wants to.