From  kirqpf7, Tales From Retail:

I work in a shoe store where our return policy is 60 days and the shoes can't have been worn. However, if the shoe has a manufacturers defect we allow exchanges and returns. After 60 days the return has to be put on a merchandise card (basically a gift card). Our managers are kinda forced to be pushovers because if we get a complaint against our store my GM has the call the Vice President of the company to explain why, so we will pretty much return any damaged shoe.

So a few days ago this lady came in with some shoes that she had purchased on December 10th. They had obviously been worn, but there was a seam on the shoe that was tearing. I offered her an exchange and she refused, so I told her that the return was going to be put on a merchandise card as it was past the 60 days.

Lady: Why do you have to put it on a merchandise card? The shoes are obviously damaged and were only worn a couple times. It's not like I'm returning them because I just didn't like them.

At this point I preemptively called my manager up because I could tell that that's where it was going. I explained the situation to her and she explained the return policy again.

Manager: I'm sorry, the registers won't even let us process it another way. You can do an exchange, but otherwise it has to go on the merchandise credit.

Lady: So what you're saying is after I spend this merchandise card I'm never coming back here again.

Manager: I'm sorry, ma'am.

Lady: No, it's okay. I'll just tell all of my friends about this and make sure they never come here either.

We were all silent until she left with her merchandise card and then my manager and I rolled our eyes. What that lady doesn't realize is we don't want her nasty attitude in our store anyway.

tl;dr: Lady wants a refund and then threatens to never return.

-- kirqpf7

From skyyvodkahugs, Tales From Retail:

So I work in a shoe store and where it’s inside a mall, it’s not exactly big, but we do carry a lot of different brands!

We were having a slow evening after Christmas. I was thankful for how slow it was because I actually came right there from getting off from my other job that I do during the day.

I’m helping an elderly (but friendly) lady try on a winter boot, when this woman across the store (I can’t even ponder a guess at her age but if I had to I would say 20-30) came over ultimately interrupting me, and this happens:

Woman: listen.. sorry to bother you..

Me: it’s no bother my dear what can I help you with?

Woman: well I really wanted this winter boot in size 9.5

Me: oh unfortunately we don’t carry the half sizes in that brand, but I can bring you both 9 and 10 so you can see which one feels better!

-tries to take boot from her so I can bring it to the back and find it-

Woman: -holds boot tightly and won’t let me take it- uhhh no.. it’s okay don’t bother

Me: I.. really don’t mind grabbing you those 2 sizes.. one of them might end up being fine!

Woman: no you see, I just tried this boot on at [different shoe store] and their 9.5 fit me perfectly.. I was just hoping you had that size in the pink and gray boot. I’m pretty bummed out about this actually (She scoffs) I REALLY didn’t think that was too much to ask....

Me: well.. I’m sorry about that.. but if you like I can still bring the other 2 out, or I can see if we can order those ones in a 9.5 for you. We just don’t carry the half sizes for that brand in the store.

Woman starts walking out all huffy and puffy

Woman: no. Forget it. Obviously it’s way too much trouble for you to go find me a damn boot. I really hope the rest of your night goes better than mine!

I shrug this off as I had been verbally assaulted by customers regularly over Christmas. and the lady I was previously helping consoled me a little bit as she had watched this whole thing happen.

I thought it was behind me until a few days after this when I arrive at the shoe store again. My manager greeted me with the story about how this woman had called that morning and made a formal complaint about me!

I slightly panicked and told manager everything that happened and manager nodded and said “yes that’s pretty much exactly what the woman told me. See, she thought you were lying about not carrying the half sizes in that brand because you didn’t wanna go look for it, but why would you lie about that if you were offering to get the other sizes? Everyone here works on commission and why would they lie about what we have and turn down sales? Anyways, she was made aware that you definitely didn’t do anything wrong.”

The holiday season brings out all the crazies obviously.

--skyyvodkahugs

From  DJisSquare, Tales From Retail:

So today I was working our shoe department at our store. I was there for the majority of the day by myself AND on the day that soccer/baseball/football starts for a majority of the kids in my town.

So naturally we are slammed with parents coming in at the last minute to get their kids cleats and shoes. I handled most the day very smoothly, although a lot of people were in a rush, majority of them were pleasant and understanding. Except when it came time for me to leave.

I stayed over a little bit to help 2 other customers get shoes. Just walked into the stockroom (climbed the very top of a ladder too) and then all the sudden I hear a lady yell into the stockroom: “HELLLLLOOOO!! IS ANYBODY EVEN IN HERE?!!” So I get down and walk to the door and see this middle-aged suburban mom outside.

ME: Yes ma’am. Were you calling for someone? LADY: passive aggressivelyUmm, yes I need these shoes in a 8. AND BY THE WAY, there’s nobody out here. You have a LOT of customers out here that need help too! [She points to exact customers I was already helping]

ME: in the same tone of voice she used Yes ma’am, I’ll be more than happy to get these for you as soon as I am done getting THOSE CUSTOMERS’ shoes first. I was already helping them. [she stares in disbelief at me that I responded back, as I walk back in the stockroom, she opens the door and shouts towards me]

LADY: And what’s YOUR name again?!!!

To be fair, I felt kinda bad after I said that to her and was going to apologize when I came back out. But she was long gone by the time I brought out her shoes. Lol oh well...

-- DJisSquare

From girlster93, TalesFromRetail

Had this happen a few weeks ago.. our shoe store had a voucher program with a school for a period of a couple weeks where their employees could come and get a pair of black, leather, slip resistant shoes.

The school gave them a 50$ voucher and the employees could buy shoes for any price as long as they were black, leather and slip resistant.

On top of that, they get a 20% discount as school employees in our district.

If the shoes cost more than the 50.

This woman came in with her daughter and they shopped around for a long time before they finally came to the register.

Lady: I'd like to buy these 140$ designer sandals (the opposite of black, leather and slip resistant) and use my 50$ voucher as well as my 20% discount

Me: Ma'am, the voucher can only be used on black, leather, slip resistant shoes. I can give you the 20% discount on the sandals though as you are a school district employee.

Lady: Well, I already have a pair of the proper shoes from last year and I don't need a pair, but I wanted to get these sandals for my daughter and I'd like to use the voucher.

Me: Ma'am, I can't do that. It's against store policy and the school will be checking the receipts to make sure that the proper shoes were bought.

Lady: (wheedling and in bargain mode trying to convince me) what if you just put in that I bought the proper shoe but sell me the sandal.. I'll pay the difference!

coworker joins me by this point

Coworker: We can't do that as it would mess with our inventory but we can sell the sandals to you at a 20% discount.

Lady is smiling at us and tries being "friendly" in hopes we will bend the rules

Lady's daughter: embarrassed of her mom and red faced says with a forced smile "it's fine, I don't need them mom!"

Lady: I just don't need another pair of work shoes, and those sandals just cost so much!!

Me: Yes ma'am, they do. The best I can offer you is a 20% discount.

Lady: Oh, I just remembered, I have a 20% coupon, can you just combine them and give me the sandals for 40% off?

Me: No ma'am, we don't combine our coupons/district discounts as it says on your coupon. It'll have to be one or the other.

Lady: Just ring them up and do the 40% off and see if it'll go through!

Me: Ma'am, I can't do that.

Lady's daughter: drops head and is laughing nervously, out of embarrassment "mom it's fine"

Lady: Just let her do it and see what happens!

Me: Let me correct myself ma'am, I can actually physically do it, but I won't because what'll happen is that I'll lose my job.

Lady's daughter is thoroughly embarrassed at her moms lack of shame. We finish the transaction as the lady continues in about how expensive the sandals are.

My coworker tells me when they leave that basically the whole exchange was a repeat of what happened to her out on the floor when she was helping the woman out.

--girlster93

From  Dianchie, Tales From Retail:

I used to work in a shoe store and after a particularly bad Black Friday weekend at my current workplace, it reminded me of one when I worked in my old store.

To give some background, we were running two separate promos that could not be combined. One half of the store was BOGO where items were get one at its discounted price and you could get another from that side at an additional 50% off. All the shoes on that side were crap but it was nice sometimes getting a $30 or $40 pair of shoes.

The other side was full price items and we had a coupon on that if you bought 2 pairs of full price shoes you'd get $20 off, 3 pairs was $30, 4 pairs was $40, and you get the picture. The store was packed with people going crazy for ugly BOGO shoes when Crazy Shoe Lady (CSL) comes to the till. I will be Me.

Me: Hello, did you find everything alright?

CSL: Yup! These are some great deals!

Me: I'm glad you found what you were looking for!

CSL: Your co-worker gave me this slip of paper and said I was supposed to hand it to you.

Normally we worked on commission but because BF Weekend is so crazy, staff on the floor got special slips of paper where they filled out the names of the shoes and their staff number so they'd get commission. The two staff on the till were paid an extra $2 or $3 more per hour for the weekend so it evened it out.

I start entering the information into the till and write down my co-workers number so that she could get credit for the sale. There is a screen that faces the customers so they can see the prices and any discounts for their purchases. CSL sees that one shoes is the regular discount price and the other is an extra 50% off. She leans over and breathes her awful onion breath in my face.

CSL: They're both supposed to be 50% off.

Me: Only the shoe that is of equal or lesser value gets a discount.

CSL: You can do it for me right?

Me: Do what?

CSL: Make them both 50% off

Me: Unfortunately, I cannot change the terms of the sale.

CSL: Can you combine sales?

Me: If you wanted to get the shoes from the BOGO side, they are their own sale. The full price side is its own sale but I can do it all in one transaction.

CSL: Hold on a minute then!

CSL goes over to the full price side and is getting fitted. Her other shoes are on the counter with the slip for my coworker and I spend the next 20mins helping other customers. CSL comes back with two shoe boxes of full price shoes and puts them on the counter and hands me another commission slip.

CSL: Okay so we can do it this way!

Me: What do you mean?

CSL: Charge me the full price for these two shoes and then I get 50% on each of my originals.

I notice that the two full price shoes are cheaper than than the BOGO shoes and my brain begins to liquefy from this logic.

Me: The two shoes from the full price side get a $20 discount coupon. The BOGO shoes are going to be BOGO.

CSL: Why don't you understand that the customer is always right!

Me: Ma'am, I cannot change the terms of the sale.

CSL: You can do it for me right?

Me: I can only follow instructions from head office.

CSL proceeds to grab her boxes from the counter and throw them onto the ground and start stomping on them, saying that she deserves to get her way. We had to call security on her and she was banned from the store. It also cost us 4 shoes that we could no longer sell because of damage.

-- Dianchie

From Knxwledg3, TalesFromRetail

I work at a popular shoe store in the mall. All the shoes we sell are sized to be unisex. In other words, if you were to ask for a shoe in a men's 10, that same exact shoe would also be a women's 11.5. Kids sizes end at a size 3 for us, so anything past that is considered a men's shoe. So a kids size 4 is a men's four, which in turn is a women's 5.5. It can be a little confusing at first but most people get it after a quick explanation... Not this lady.

She came in and asked me for a shoe in a boys 4. Normally I don't go through the whole talk about the sizes if it doesn't come up. Most people just buy the shoe and leave. So I grab the shoe in the men's 4 (Which is the same as a boys 4) and come back to her.

Woman: so this is the boys size four right?

Me: yes ma'am

Woman: can you see if you actually have a woman's 5.5? I bought my daughter that size last time and it fit perfect.

Me: actually this is technically a woman's 5.5. The size 4 in boys is also a size 5.5 in woman's.

Woman: oh, well then can you grab a woman's 5.5 for me I think that's the one I need.

Me: this is it ma'am. (points to the box that shows the sizes)

Woman: oh, well can you check to see if maybe you have a men's 4, actually that's the one I bought.

Me: The boys 4 is the men's 4. Anything past a 3 is considered men's. And the men's 4 is also a women's 5.5. So in other words this is the perfect shoe.

Woman: oh, but can you still check to see if you have a men's 4 in stock?

(at this point I'm getting a little tired)

Me: This is the men's 4. The mens 4 is the boys 4 which is the women's 5.5...

This continued back and fourth for about 10 to 15 mins on and off while I helped other people. I was ready to clock off and I just started.....

--Knxwledg3