Ok, so as some of you may know from the other Harry Potter thread, I work in a bookstore (independent, none of those chains).
I was working at the front desk Tuesday after the release. Group of people comes in the door. Guy is holding two Harry Potters. He puts them on the counter and says he’d like to return them. I asked for and got the receipt and I asked why he was returning them. At this point the lady next to him breaks in and says loudly and vehemently “because it’s evil and it’s not going to be in MY house.” Apparently her husband bought it and didn’t realize this.
Well hm. That’s fine with me. If you’re belief system is threatened by it, if you think it’s a bad influence and all, then that’s your perogative, I don’t have a problem with you returning the books. So I ring in the return and tell her that our policy is to give store credit back for returns. She flips. “I’m a christian and this evil is not going to be in my house! I don’t want credit I want the cash back.”
So I handed it off to the manager, more than happy to. Manager points to the sign displayed fairly prominently on the counter saying that our policy is with a receipt you get store credit (in some circumstances you get your money back, but it either has to be a credit card or a really special circumstance, like a defective book or somesuch).
Manager looks at the receipt. Lady’s husband paid with a check. Yesterday. Hmm. Manager tells her that the check hasn’t cleared yet and we can’t refund her since we haven’t really even cashed the check since it hasn’t cleared. Lady demands to talk to someone higher up.
I go get the owner, who is more than happy to deal with it. Owner tells her that we can’t give cash back since check hasn’t cleared same stuff. Lady starts saying it isn’t even her check or her books, her husband did and and blah blah blah. So owner tells her maybe it’s not her problem then. Either she takes the credit, she waits, or she gives the book away. Lady is adamant that she’s “never bought anything here and doesn’t plan to” and “not going to give this evil to anyone!”
She threatens to call her lawyer and owner says she’d be more than happy to talk to her lawyer (another issue was the return policy was not written on the receipt, though it was at the counter).
Eventually owner just had to ask her to leave, and when she wouldn’t, threatened to call the police.
A couple minutes later her friends came back in, said she was cooling off outside (on the phone to who knows who) and took the credit from the books.
I’m a fairly tolerant person here. I mean, she has every right to believe whatever she wants, but what the hell?! What is it that makes people act like this? Was she just mad at her husband for buying them and taking it out on us? Did she need the cash and figure this was a way to get it? I mean why do people think they can treat people this way?
