This story was originally posted on May 23, 2013

Hello there! First time poster Dreeby here. This incident happened a few years ago, back when I worked in camera and phone repairs in an electronics shop.

The store is a small establishment, and only had six or so employees at the time. I rarely had to deal with custys (unless I’d failed to do my job and had to explain my failure), but I was in the room right next to the shop itself where all the custys came in, and heard pretty much everything while remaining unseen.

My boss, who was also the owner of the establishment, was absolutely amazing. A really nice guy who had no tolerance whatsoever for crustys who threatened, yelled, made impossible demands or tried to pull scams. His motto was “the customer is barely ever right” – and he has successfully run a business for at least 15 years. He refunds and gives new products when it’s legit, and never for any other reason. Add to this that he’s a huge, muscular guy. I will call him Gringo, for reasons that would take too long to explain here.

We openly and honestly dealt in b-stock, which is used merchandise that has been repaired, looked over, and comes with a new warranty, in this case issued by us. If the item purchased at our store had a fault, we fixed it, refunded or replaced it. We got our fair share of people who haggled and argued about the prices, as well as some pure crazies. This story is about a favorite crazy.

I’m going to call him Basket Man, for reasons that will soon be obvious.

Basket Man comes in, wishes to purchase a 32’’ TV. Gringo is currently at the counter acting cashier. He gives Basket Man the price, which is, by the way, already clearly advertised on the item.

Basket Man: No no, that’s too expensive. I will only pay [XXX] amount!

Gringo: No, the price is [XXX], As is says right there.

Basket Man: No! I know the owner! He promised me a discount!

[Gringo, boss and owner of the store, raises an eyebrow.]

Gringo: Did he, now? And you say you know him? So you know the owner [makes up a name at random]?

Basket Man: Yes, yes I do! [Random name] promised me a discount!

After Gringo tells him he will have to have the boss present (!) to give a discount, Basket Man gives up and pays full price. But it doesn’t stop here. He returns about a week later to complain about his TV.

Basket Man: My TV is broken! I want a new one!

Gringo: Well, bring it in, and let us have a look at it. It may be a quick and easy fix.

Basket Man: Bring it in?

Gringo: Yes, so we can have a look.

Basket Man: But it’s broken! You don’t need to see it! It’s broken! I just want a new one! I left it at home because it’s broken! Why would you need to see it? Do you think I’m lying?

Needless to say, there’s no way he’s getting a new TV without letting us have the old one. We’d already caught him lying once, and this is probably one of the saddest attempts for a scam I’ve ever seen. However, the man does not give up and begins ranting, which is hilarious at first, but slowly becomes tedious.

It carries on for a good 20 minutes. He rambles something about how “you put too many buns and cans in a basket while walking and then the basket breaks which means you have no more buns” or something like that. Yup. Basket Man.

In the end, my boss loses his temper entirely and tells the crusty that he wouldn’t even sell him poop. Or, more precisely:

Gringo: I wouldn’t sell you as much as a pile of steaming poop, even if you asked me to! If you don’t leave now, I’m throwing you out!

The crusty got instantly banned from the store, and spent some time standing outside the entrance yelling and asking other customers to purchase another TV for him, as he was not allowed in the store. He never understood he’d been talking to the owner the whole time.

I do have many more stories from this place, but I thought this would be a good start.

Happy retailing!

--Dreeby

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