Worst thing returned at your store?

[Ree]

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

First was the coffeemaker 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 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

[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.

[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!

[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.

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.