Worst thing returned at your store?

[I_Hate_SCs]

I never worked at Guest Services with returns, but one time when I was there getting my reshop items, I encountered a cat litter box that was returned with pieces of litter stuck everywhere inside. It was returned AFTER the cat **** in it! I wonder why the person returned the litter box, as it was obvious the cat didn't mind it. Even more importantly, I wonder why the guest services employee accepted the return without seeing the clumps and mountains of litter inside of it. Thankfully it didn't smell. :puke:

This brings me to this question: those who work at a returns department or have been around one, what was the worst thing (or things) you have seen returned while being there?

[Aethian]

shrimp left in a car all day in the middle of summer. why the manager allowed it I still don't know.

[Hobbs]

A shirt cut from bottom to neck. the employee who returned it (a friend of mine) said he didn't notice it. S, one of our ASs, said she saw it from outside the customer service island.

sigh...

[MiddleofNowhere]

Many, many moons ago, in one of my first retail jobs, I worked for a small juniors/women's dress shop.

One day, a woman attempts to return a dress that had been worn, perhaps numerous times, but the tags were still attached?

How did I know?

Clue Number One: the inside of the dress around the collar and arms, was, for lack of a better term, BLACK. But it was a bright green dress. I mean, someone either had so much FUNK on them that it rubbed off nearly black or someone wore it multiple times until it wore off black.

Clue Number Two: the tags inside the dress (still attached) were basically 'melted'. All the ink for the data of the dress (SKU, style, price) had worn off but the tag still hung there like a wilted flower.

When I asked the customer about it, she claimed the dress was purchased like that.

Yeah, right.

[Dave1982]

Postage scales that smell like marijuana (not witnessed by me; I'd have refused the return).

[Mara-chan]

A laptop that was over a year old (we have a 14 day return policy), missing keys, cracked screen and was apparently left in a garage since it was full of dirt and bugs.

That's what happens when you have a butt-munch electronics lead who lies to customers and tells them we'll fix their computer 'no matter what happens to it.'

[I_Hate_SCs]

Clue Number One: the inside of the dress around the collar and arms, was, for lack of a better term, BLACK. But it was a bright green dress. I mean, someone either had so much FUNK on them that it rubbed off nearly black or someone wore it multiple times until it wore off black.

That is disgusting! I could understand a white 'buildup' under the armpits for deodorant being on it, but black? What could it be? Maybe I don't want to know! :eek:

[blas]

I didn't see many returns at the grocery store because I never worked the service desk, but at the Deb shop right after homecoming, a girl tried to return a dress that wreeked like pot and cigarettes. Too bad that the girl forgot to read the tag and heed the associate's warning when she bought the dress that special occasion dresses were NON returnable!

[Firecracker]

Oh Lord. Where do I begin? When we reopened right after Katrina one of my team members returned a mini fridge that wasn't ours but in the box of one of ours..it had clearly gone through katrina. It stunk to high heavens..it was rusted..you could see the water line...it was just so, so, so, so, disgusting. I discovered it. I went to tape the box up and it just fell on out. I was like :eek: and asked "who in the world returned this b/c it sure wasn't me!!!".

This was me doing this return. A guest was returning a box of chocolates b/c they were melted. I looked at her receipt and saw they were bought in another state which made me suspicious. So I questioned her on it...she said that she bought them there..packed them in her suitcase and drove through all the states between us w/ the candy in her suitcase..in that heat (it was summertime..and summertime in my state is like entering hell..it gets that hot..not to mention the humidity)..and the suitcase never left the car..so that box of candy sat in there in the heat. Hence it being melted. So I rejected her return. She asked for a manager b/c she said she bought it that way. Right. So a manager came and she told him that she bought it that way and I added the rest of the story. The manager told her there was no way we could return that and she'd have to return it to the store she got it from b/c it would be up to them. only they would know if they got a shipment of melted candy. but i'm betting it's her fault.

since that day our policy has changed that now we have to return food no matter what. So I have had guests return milk that they drank most of but now it's expired..even though they bought it long before it expired and drank most of it..but now it's bad. it's bullshit.

Then there are the guests who've tried to return used blenders that weren't even ours. But in the boxes of ones we sell. Claiming it was like that when they bought it. my ass.

I still think the Katrina mini fridge was the worst. considering what was in that flood water. probably every disease known to man. i felt i needed a mask to deal w/ that thing. and in fact i got one to deal w/ that thing. i would have felt better in a body suit.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Probably the Xbox 360 with the roaches inside...

Manager told dude to get the crap out our store with his infestation.

[BethB]

A "laptop" that contained inside the box a gallon jug of hersheys and 2 large cans of Spaghetti-O's. I didn't do the return but I totally laughed my butt off. Sadly I was the only one who thought it was funny. C'est la vie.

Several dropped, broken, and soda coated cameras from one guy. I wrote about said stupid guy a while back. Yeah he tried to return yet another camera he claimed stopped working(all soda coated...wonder why it didn't work) and claimed he could return the camera "no questions asked" within 30 days. Uh....no. We have basically told him it is at our discretion if we take his returns and that this will be the LAST camera we will take back from him. Thank goodness. It was getting annoying tellling this guy one thing but he hears something different. It was like he was making up his own return policies regardless of how many times we said "no, it's like this..." Selective hearing at its best.

[SG15Z]

packeged noodles with bugs crawling around inside. it hadn't even been open yet!

[fireheart]

Worst thing returned....a tub of cream that had clearly gone off big-time. How do I know?
Because I had to do stock duty later and it got in EVERYTHING! We had to dump a few things due to it being covered in the off-cream and the entire trolley stank.

[KabeRinnaul]

packeged noodles with bugs crawling around inside. it hadn't even been open yet!

Similar story, but I was the one returning it. Got a loaf of bread a few years ago at a pharmacy chain, took it back to the dorms, and noticed there were these black specks inside. I figured they were just burnt crumbs off of a machine or something and let it go. Had a couple sandwiches.

Then saw a couple ants on the floor. Mashed them with a bottle of soda but didn't give it too much thought, aside from thinking it was odd since I was on the 10th floor of the dorms and we rarely had bug problems. Then I noticed the little black specks in the bag moving around.

Turns out ants got inside at some point in the process, then went unconscious from oxygen deprivation after the bags were sealed. After I took it back, the manager went to the back with me and looked through the loaves of bread, and about half of that particular variety had the ants inside.

But all the ones with ants were white bread, so I just traded the one I had for a loaf of wheat and went back to campus.

[PossJB]

Vacuum cleaner purchased six months prior and well used. Returned because it stopped working.

Pair of children's shoes that had been well-worn and were falling apart. "Should have lasted longer."

Clothing with stains and pet fur.

Clothing with various scents such as smoke, dog, cat, cologne, and perfume. Most unusual scent was a bag of clothes that smelled of pickles.

Worn undergarments (mostly women's). To ease your minds, we damage undergarments out if we even think of suspecting they were worn.

.5 carat diamond solitaire exchanged for a ring of equal original value one week short of one year after the original purchase. Diamond contained an inclusion she had not noticed for the previous eleven months, and the setting was becoming loose. Ring was tarnished and did not look well cared for. One of the few transactions I refused to perform (and had my decision backed up by LP and one of our managers). Store manager had exchange done the next day.

In case you're curious, my store's motto is, "Yes, we can!" I tend to translate this to, "Sure, why the hell not?" in my mind.

[Ree]

I've made a couple of posts about disgusting returns. One of them had pictures.

First was the coffeemaker (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?p=164236#post164236) covered in mold and dirt. That one had the pictures.
(I will never understand people who return kitchen appliances and don't even bother to try and clean them up. Some of them are really funky, and I would be embarrassed to return anything in that kind of condition. I don't think I want to see any of their kitchens, let alone eat in them.)

Second disgusting thing I posted about was the pump (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?p=415758#post415758) with the dead snake inside it.

[roguesqd]

Had a young 20ish guy(who I am fairly sure was a wee bit high), come up to the service desk when I used to work at Walmart wanting to return....a used condom, said that it didn't work and his girlfriend got pregnant.

Needless to say I refused it and shooed him out of the store, although the two older ladies in my line got a big chuckle out of it

[Bramblerose]

.5 carat diamond solitaire exchanged for a ring of equal original value one week short of one year after the original purchase. Diamond contained an inclusion she had not noticed for the previous eleven months,

I call bullshit on this one- I knew every glimmer of my engagement opal within a month of receiving it.

[South Texan]

packeged noodles with bugs crawling around inside. it hadn't even been open yet!I had to return three bars of chocolate a few months ago. When I got home and opened the first wrapper, white worms were crawling in and through the chocolate. I took all three back and sure enough, the other two had worms when the employee opened them. Turned out every bar of that chocolate on the shelf had worms.

Glad I looked before taking a bite.

[Plaidman]

Tried to find NightAngel story. I'm pretty sure that tops all.

Couldn't find it. But basically, someone returned a movie case. Filled with cockroaches.

[Auto]

I didn't see many returns at the grocery store because I never worked the service desk, but at the Deb shop right after homecoming, a girl tried to return a dress that wreeked like pot and cigarettes. Too bad that the girl forgot to read the tag and heed the associate's warning when she bought the dress that special occasion dresses were NON returnable!

But if she happened to be underage, the store would have to accept the return.

A sale is a contract and minors are not legally able to enter into contracts. So if minor (or minor's parents) want to undo the contract, the store can't legally resist.

That's why smart store managers will not to sell a prom dress to the girl, only to her parents.

Ditto a rich teenager trying to buy a car. Last thing the dealer needs is a wrecked car coming back to his lot via tow truck with the teenager's dad asking for the money back.

If you ever take a class in business law, you are guaranteed to encounter these examples.

[rerant]

Alright, people, I used to work returns at Wal Mart. Stand back.

I'm not going to bother with a story for these so I'm just going to list them.

-Dead fish.
-Worn underwear.
-Used breast-pump with visible... uh... residue inside
-Jammed paintball gun which, in itself isn't so bad, but the customer demonstrated this fact by aiming it at my face and pulling the trigger
-Books from months ago with dog-eared pages and writing in the margins
-Magazines
-CDs that we're not only open but scratched to all hell
-Used makeup
-Earrings and body jewelry that had clearly been worn
-Deep fryer coated in grease - inside AND out!
-Dead plants (IMO plants should always be final sale)
-Cut fabric. And I don't mean a yard someone decided they didn't want/need, I mean someone cut pieces out of it then though they could get money back for the scraps they didn't use.
-Things we never sold in the first place
-A woman tried to return stale cookies that were half eaten and a brand we didn't carry
-More half-eaten food
-Food from the McDonalds that was in the Wal Mart (a WTF moment if I've ever had one)

Yikes. I know there's more but that's all I can think of right now.

[technical.angel]

I never worked at Guest Services with returns, but one time when I was there getting my reshop items, I encountered a cat litter box that was returned with pieces of litter stuck everywhere inside.

I am actually guilty of this, but for a good reason. I had gotten one of those motorized automatic scooper boxes... and the motor kept going out or going crazy. I made sure to clean the box the best I could and double bagged it in outside grade trashbags. The person who did the return did thank me for that. ;)

[sanchopanza65]

My friend who works in a drug store had someone try to return a used douche:eek:

[Saydrah]

Ok, this one is DISGUSTING, so I'm white-texting it. Still makes me nauseated over 2 years later. Highlight to read and vomit.

When I worked for Petco, the absolute worst part was handling dead things. There were a lot. Don't buy your pets from Petco, mmmkay? Anyway, we had a 14-day guarantee on live animals, and if they died the person could get a refund or replacement. I have a phobia of touching anything dead, by the way. I won't even slap mosquitoes. I just shoo them away.

So, I hadn't been there very long, and I got to work one day and the whole store smelled like an Oust truck exploded in the fish department. I asked what happened, and the manager explained... I think I would have vomited repeatedly if I had actually been in the store when this happened. As it was, I got pale and had to sit down for several minutes just hearing the story and knowing that it was still in the freezer in the back room.

A woman brought in a dead Guinea Pig to return. This alone is kind of odd-- GPs are hardy critters unless abused/neglected in some way, and we very rarely had those die. Petco hamsters, on the other hand, keel over if you look at them sideways.

But the nauseating part: The box it was in stank horribly. She had the right forms and everything, so my manager did the return before opening the box so as not to further traumatize the bereaved owner. Then she and another coworker went to transfer the body into a bag to put in the freezer.

When my coworker (with gloves of course) opened the box... it hadn't been frozen or refrigerated or anything. In the middle of summer. It was rotting. She picked it up and its SKIN FELL OFF.

Both of them threw up, and then they got all the Oust in the store and sprayed it on everything that had come anywhere near the box.





:cry:

[I_Hate_SCs]

I am actually guilty of this, but for a good reason. I had gotten one of those motorized automatic scooper boxes... and the motor kept going out or going crazy. I made sure to clean the box the best I could and double bagged it in outside grade trashbags. The person who did the return did thank me for that. ;)

At least you cleaned it! The one I encountered looked like she simply dumped the 'presents' from the cat into a trashcan then ignored the mountains of litter still stuck to the box! The litterbox I was referring to was a simple regular everday litterbox---no electronics in it at all. I could actually see returning one like you mention as the electronics could malfunction, but not a regular litterbox that the cat obviously used and enjoyed!

[I_Hate_SCs]

Had a young 20ish guy(who I am fairly sure was a wee bit high), come up to the service desk when I used to work at Walmart wanting to return....a used condom, said that it didn't work and his girlfriend got pregnant.

Needless to say I refused it and shooed him out of the store, although the two older ladies in my line got a big chuckle out of it

I hope he 'cleaned' the used condom out before bringing it in there! :eek:

[Darken Spiritz]

This topic has officially made me lose my appetite.

Fortunately, I don't have any horrid return stories, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to return a half-eaten donut or something.

[SengaKitty]

Ok, this one is DISGUSTING, so I'm white-texting it. Still makes me nauseated over 2 years later. Highlight to read and vomit.

:cry:

Oh. My. God. I've got a strong stomach, and I almost lost it just now.... I know I know, you warned us... I don't see how they could even stay in the store after that... That would have been my last day on the job.

[jedimaster91]

Ugh. Thread over. Saydrah wins. :puke:

[sprocket79]

The worst thing I ever had to process a return on was this gross pair of sandals. This woman came in with a pair of 7 year old sandals that were all worn and DISGUSTING. Not only grossness on the bottom of the sandals, but on top. It was obvious she had a foot fungus problem. It was so disgusting that I have to wonder why she even tortures humanity by wearing sandals.

I believe she wanted to return them because a strap broke. Hello! 7 years of wear and tear will do that! I refused to return and she made me call a manager. The manager comes over and I tell him the story. He looks at the sandals and actually recognizes the style from 7 years ago!!! So, he made me return them for $3. The sandals were originally $30.

They were so disgusting. I refused to touch them. I would only handle them while wearing our plastic bags around my hands as gloves. That was the day I stopped caring about my job.

Oddly enough the best return I ever had involved pants that were even older. They were 21 years old (older than I was at the time). This woman had bought Dockers for her husband in 1977 and he had never worn them. So they stayed in the original bag with the receipt in them at the bottom of the closet for 21 years. She cleaned out the closet and found them and decided to see if she could try to return them. Amazingly, Dockers have not changed much in 21 years. They were exactly the same as the ones on the shelf, except they had a different tag style. I had to call a manager to see if I could return them and to get help to process the return since receipts have changed since 1977. The whole time the woman was great! She thought it was hysterically funny that we were actually going to do the return for her. In the end she got exactly what she paid for the pants. We made a new tag for the pants and put them back out of the floor since they were perfectly good. Best return ever.

[Hyndis]

I am actually guilty of this, but for a good reason. I had gotten one of those motorized automatic scooper boxes... and the motor kept going out or going crazy. I made sure to clean the box the best I could and double bagged it in outside grade trashbags. The person who did the return did thank me for that. ;)

Have you found one of those that actually works?

I've tried two such machines, seeing as I have three indoors cats. I felt bad about returning them, so I didn't, but neither of them work properly.

They're just average house cats. They're not elephants. Yet it seems that the machine jams every time they use the litter box. :(


For kittehs! http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc254/hyndis/pics/ :D

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Note to self: Do not show mom Saydrah's thread, as she has 3 guinea pigs as pets and had 8 at one time.

-Dead plants (IMO plants should always be final sale)

QFT. Plants sometimes die. Deal with it. But my store will never declare plants to be all sales final because the "guarantee" them. If they die, the customer just has to dig them up and bring them back with the receipt.

Result: carts of dead plants lined up in front of the service desk dripping dirt all over the floor, and the backroom stinking to high heaven from all the rotting plants in the trash.

And then you find out half of the returned plants were "good" plants marked down from retail because they were starting to die or look crappy. Hello, what were you expecting? They were marked down for a reason!

Knowing how our lawn and garden people generally don't take care of plants (not pruning, deadheading, or even watering them decent), I question why people buy them from us. A full-service garden center probably has better plants that are actually taken care of, and people who actually know stuff about plants, but you pay extra for those things. :shrug:

[Nakajo]

I believe it is Nakajo's turn here. You know how I work for the store that will take ANYTHING back, and most here I've mentioned in prior posts....

Ahem...

-A 5 year old hot tub (just yesterday, sigh)
-a 1 1/2 year old open bottle of olive oil with half of it used
-8 month old salmon
-2 year old baby toys still covered in food and baby tooth marks all over it
-3 to 5 year old used rusty grills (this is a regular occurrence)
-a jug of milk... with the milk taken out and replaced with water

Those were the ones we accepted. Here are some that we said NO WAY to...

-GBA video games that were at least 5-7 years old
-a year old piano worth $11,000
-a singular king crab leg, which the person wanted the full weighed price (around $120) for all of the ones that they bought (and ate, I'm sure)
-cut flowers... bought the week prior (the person doing this would buy flowers, return them the next week, buy more, return those a week later, and repeat. We put a stop to that)

There's a lot more, but I can't think of much more right now. I'll post again if I can think of some.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Have you found one of those that actually works?

I've tried two such machines, seeing as I have three indoors cats. I felt bad about returning them, so I didn't, but neither of them work properly.

We had two of those back when they first came out and they were nothing short of a royal PITA.

Not only would the teeth get gunked up (and the owner's manual said that litter consistency could play a role in that) but there were times one of them would suddenly start working on its own or the sensor would not notice that the cat was out of the box before it would start moving the bar.

I found two brands of litter that worked halfway decent with those things: Arm & Hammer or Fresh Scoop. So that helped with that - somewhat.

A few months later, the motor burned out in one of them. The second one we simply got rid of too - it was just too much trouble to take the thing apart and clean the teeth out.

The older cats we had at the time didn't like the electic boxes . . .so we kept a regular box as well for them.

The kittens, however, had a ball with those things. They'd get into the boxes, do their business, then jump up onto the top of the bar and RIDE THE BAR as it would move back and forth to clean out the litter.:lol:

[LibraryLady]

This is nothing compared to the other stories on this thread but it did make us scratch our heads.

About 3 years ago we sent a book out on Inter-Library Loan to a major university. It was to be there for 6 weeks It was never returned and we were never compensated for the loss.

Last week we got it back. Where did it come from? It was found in the book drop of a branch library of Brooklyn Public. Good Grief, Charley Brown! What were they thinking? :p

[RetailKate]

Oookay. While I can't come close to beating some of these I still have some great ones!
I used to work customer service for a smallish clothing chain in a college town. The thing was, we were required to take back anything no matter how long they had had it, and would have to replace anything you brought in. Needless to say we had a ton of people taking advantage of that.
Here goes.

1. A FULL bag of ladies underwear that stunk to high hell! It seriously smelled like she had some funk down there, and was incontenent. :no:

2. A pair of pants a woman claimed fit when she bought them but then shrunk when they were washed. The pants were size 4. The lady? Size truck.

3.A tuxedo rental that come back smelling of pot with lipstick EVERYWHERE. Litterally, this guy, whoever he was, had the horniest little minx with him on prom night! And I think she honestly took a few breaks to reapply lipstick during her "Kissing" of him.

4. 5 shirts that were returned with lactation stains all over the front. Now, I do sympathise about the whole lactaion thing. I've been there, I know the lovely feeling of, "I'm leaking....arn't I...." But you CAN control it, or all least cover it long enough to try on a shirt! And if it must come back, wash the damn thing. Lactation is a bodily fluid. We all know the rules for body fluids...

Thats all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure there were worst ones at Wal-Mart, but thankfully I was always far away from the returns. Deep in the bowles of the TLE.

[Dark Psion]

We have had many people try to return their old kitchen faucet in the new faucet's box, but my favorite was the box with a clock in it. When caught he said it was a gift and his wife must have been planning to wrap it in that box.

;) Right (and it was an ugly clock)

Other than that we have had;

Old sneakers in work boot boxes.

Wal Mart's "Good Value" labled merchandise and we are a "True Value".

Items 5 to 10 years old (our old lables had a date hidden in the numbers).

Dead plants and trees that the boss allowed back. Most were just not watered but one tree had been assalted by a weed eater, possibly by Jason Vorhees.

We also had a few repeat offenders on returns;

There was the water hose lady who would return her hose every spring to get a new one because it had a lifetime warrenty.

There was the OCD paint lady who would come back a dozen times because the color wasn't just right.

There was the lady who tried to return a bag of dog food her mother bought for her starving dog so she could get some drug money. She was refused and then went to a cashier's home and told her to call the store and tell them to give her the money!


But my all time favorite return was way back when I worked at a nursery. A man tried to return a Christmas Tree, well after Christmas.

Why?

Beacuse he tried to plant it and it didn't grow!! :eek:

[mattm04]

A lady returned a birthday cake that was about 99% eaten. She claimed it was stale, despite being picked up at 6PM the day before and made at 3PM.

They let he return it. She did this a total of THREE times. Each time a similar about of cake was left. They finally stopped that.

[malmalthekiller]

I work at walmart too, so I've had some similar things that have already been mentioned.

The grossest thing that happened to me lately is this:

One of those ped eggs that are advertised on TV. Used. And full of foot shavings.

I refused to touch it.

:no:

[Snowbird]

I mostly had books, CD's, and DVD's returned that looked as if they'd been dragged behind a car on the highway, and was told that they bought them in that condition. :confused: I think not! I checked in each and every single one of those things, tyvm!

It's not gross but probably my most disheartening return had to be a book that looked as if it had been well read, then dog-earred, the spine cracked in at least a dozen places(and it wasn't a thick book), the cover curling back, and last but not least, as if the buyer had mistaken it for a doughnut and dunked it in a cup of coffee. The worst part? The one returning it was my assistant manager. :cry:

[Eric the Grey]

I can't even begin to come close to most of these stories, but I did see my share of nasty returns when I worked at the car rental agency.

When I first started working, I lived in Ridgcrest CA. It's a little town in the high desert. I worked detailing the vehicles that came back.

Quite often, we would get in cars, Jeeps and even Cadillacs that were caked, inside and out with dust from the dirt roads in the area.

I had one that came back that had the entire trunk caked in something, and smelled like a dead body. The renters actually told the rental agent that they had gone hunting with it... That one got sent to the LA office for cleaning. I feel sorry for the person who had to drive it.

The one that made me go Huh the most was a Cadillac that came back fairly clean, except for a partial box of 257 hollow-point bullets left on the floor of the back seat. :confused:


:cool: Eric the Grey

[Shironu-Akaineko]

The great Canadian MoldKing. (http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t97/shironu_akaineko/S4020160.jpg)



Need I say more?

[Ree]

What the hell was that thing originally?

[PossJB]

If I'm not mistaken, that is a waste of a good cheese cake.

[Eric the Grey]

If I'm not mistaken, that is a waste of a good cheese cake.

I thought it was a pizza. Who knows now


:cool: Eric the Grey

[Ree]

If I'm not mistaken, that is a waste of a good cheese cake.
Oh yeah. Now I remember that story (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?p=126782#post126782).

:puke:

[ralerin]

Waste of a good cheesecake. =/

And poor guinea pig.

I have a couple that are mild compared to everything else and it just concerns stuff returned that we didn't even carry.

1. Two people came up to my co worker and I in near perfect syncronosity and plopped down expensive, $60 containers each of vitamins that we didn't sell in the store but are sold in the chain. My manager accepted it anyway.

2. The guy who came in twice in a row to return loads of little things to the tune of over $100 and had no receipt. First time my manager allowed it, second time he got refused. The guy stared at us before grabbing all his junk and pissing off.

3. The guy who tried to return products he bought at GNC at our store. My manager didn't allow that one. "What but you guys are GNC?"
"No we're not, you have to go back there!" repeat both lines x 5
Finally he heaves this sigh, grabs his stuff and walks off.

4. The milk that I had sold because I had forgotten the cooler was broken. *facepalm*

[technical.angel]

We had two of those back when they first came out and they were nothing short of a royal PITA.

Well, now I don't feel soo bad. My cats ARE elephants. (Maine coons). So I just figured they were too much for the boxes to handle.

Right now I'm using the boxes with a built in seive pan, so you lift up the seive pan, shake out the good litter and throw away the... uh... chunks.

[WageSlaveofDoom]

Wasn't my job, but I have to share here.

I was at one of the big stores a few days ago, just barely before the xmas insanity and there was a woman walking around very insolent and loud, waving a broken shoe. The heel looked as if it doubled as a chew toy, and was flapping against the sole. the toe was smushed in and the (fake?) patent leather was shreded... it looked like it may have been a very lovely shoe in a former life, but short of pooping in it I couldn't imagine what could be done to destroy it further...
I asked a cashier what her deal was and why they let her roam the store like that. She told me the woman was mad because customer service wouldn't let her return the shoe.

:blink:

The. Shoe. Not a pair, just the one. No receipt, of course. Why would she need a receipt? It's just one shoe!

I watched the EW babble about with security close behind and laughed with the cashier about how stupid people are.

As I was checking out, she was being led away in shiny silver. Apparently even with three security people trailing her she thought she could snatch a box of shoes from the shelf and get away with it...
:roll:

[TonyDonuts]

Well, I've had people try to return lottery tickets before.

"But I LOST! You HAVE to take them back!"

Good times.

[Rapscallion]

Had a young 20ish guy(who I am fairly sure was a wee bit high), come up to the service desk when I used to work at Walmart wanting to return....a used condom, said that it didn't work and his girlfriend got pregnant.

Needless to say I refused it and shooed him out of the store, although the two older ladies in my line got a big chuckle out of it

http://www.customerssuck.com/strip/index.php?date=2007-09-09

Rapscallion

[Primer]

Raps, I see you have not yet chimed in with your tale about the mooncup...

[LadyAndreca]

Worst things returned...hmm...I'm sure I had a few in 18 months at Target's return counter.

- A broken, used, blood sugar tester.
- An old TV in a small refrigerator box. Management cleared this one because the couple called ahead and sounded scared that no one would believe they'd bought it like that, and it was the same day as the purchase.
- slimy faucet-mounted water filter (in a brand new box)
- Not disgusting, just a hassle that took three attempts (on different days) to fix: a broken DVD player with a glitched receipt.

Not technically a return, but I still had to process it...
- grimy, well-worn, falling apart sneakers that had been switched for a brand new pair in the shoe department
- an entire cart full of expired, warm yogurt and busted packages of fruit cups (rotten smell and fruit flies and all) that someone from produce had shoved in the back rather than taking care of themselves

[edible_hat]

I've had attempts to return eaten food ("I want my money back because that pie was bad" "Where is it?" "Oh I was hungry so I ate it anyway...")

I had a co-worker who refused a return for a dented Coke can, the person doing the return was the original customer's mother. The reason was "he died in a car crash, so he can't drink it now". Bad to know some people care more about getting their money back than their own child's life.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I think there are two morals to this thread:

1. People will return ANYTHING these days
2. Most return policies are far too lenient

[Belari]

Raps, I see you have not yet chimed in with your tale about the mooncup...

:eek: Please say it isn't so! A....used one?

:puke:

[Nashida]

Not a gross one, but I posted in an older thread of mine about the lady who tried to return a pop-up gazebo because the canopy had ripped. Reason being she left it under a tree and there was a thunderstorm the next day with violent winds that sent tree branches through the canopy.

She tried to pass it off as a factory defect...

[Rapscallion]

Raps, I see you have not yet chimed in with your tale about the mooncup...

Ah, yes. http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?p=21650#post21650

I'd managed to forget that.

Rapscallion

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Raps, I see you have not yet chimed in with your tale about the mooncup...

I almost forgot about that one. *snicker*

Thanks for the reminder:lol:

[ShinyKitsune]

A pair of jeans, in which:

1: Was not a brand we sell.
2: Had been worn to the point that holes could be seen everywhere, including the inside of the thighs.

...and...

3: Whoever wore them took a huge dump in them. :eek:

[NightWatch]

Not exactly a "return" per se... But when I worked at this burger joint; We had a woman try to get a new salad from us after eating most of it. She claimed there was a hair on it. She was right, there was, her OWN!!
And when I worked at the sammich shop, some guy got pissed because supposedly a sandwich we made broke his tooth. He spit the chewed up bite of food back out with his chipped tooth onto the paper and handed it back to us. *gag*

[StanFlouride]

Our small hardware store sells several varieties of toilet seats varying in price from $13.99 (the cheapo renters version with plastic hinges) up to $39.99 (the fancy oak kind with brass hinges).
Someone brought back one of the cheapos after using it for ELEVEN MONTHS! In the box, with the original receipt no less.
She offered to take it out of the box to show me the broken hinge. I declined.

[Chromatix]

Hmmm, with the oak ones, best to make sure the bowl is set far enough forward from the tank, so it's stable when you lift it.

*SLAM!*

[Primer]

I bought one of those fancy oak ones, and the wood split after about a year. No, I did not even *think* about trying to return it! I just bought a new one, of a different material!

[I_Hate_SCs]

Our small hardware store sells several varieties of toilet seats varying in price from $13.99 (the cheapo renters version with plastic hinges) up to $39.99 (the fancy oak kind with brass hinges).
Someone brought back one of the cheapos after using it for ELEVEN MONTHS! In the box, with the original receipt no less.
She offered to take it out of the box to show me the broken hinge. I declined.

I'm sure you would've seen a 'yellow surprise' if you turned the returned toilet seat over, and maybe even a brown surprise on the lower part of the seat too, as you know it is impossible for SCs to clean items that *should* be cleaned when they are returned. :no:

[Dips]

Thankfully we have never had anything gross returned to us. Hopefully, we never will.

The worst return was software that had been purchased a year before. Long story short, they got their money back. :mad:

[malmalthekiller]

I just remembered a story my sister told me awhile ago.

She was working at Big Lots for a summer, and this old guy brought in a tree that he had purchased, cut off all the branches, and painted it white.......??????????/

He brought it back because it had died.

Well, obviously.

:confused:

[ih8zombies]

Not really a return, but disgusting anyways.

When I worked in a fast food joint, I was cashiering and one of the customers had ordered milk with his meal. Well, the expiration dates were still good and the fridge was working, but for some reason the milk had gone sour.

The customer sat at a table close by and started to eat his food. He drank some of his milk, then he THREW UP all over the tray. He brought the tray back up to me at the counter and asked for another milk, took a new tray and left his barfy one right in front of me.

That was a special day.

[Becks]

I'd managed to forget that.

You managed to forget that?

It's seared into my brain forever. :runaway: