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A lady comes in the other day to return a whole bag of dead fish. I wouldn't recommend buying our cheapo fish, since we get people returning them all the time because they die a lot. But at least we have a reasonable (I think) 90 day return policy, so if they die, just freeze them or stick them in a baggy, bring them back with your receipt, and get the money back.
So I get this bag of fish, 9 fish to be exact, and the lady pulls out a handful of receipts. She has a receipt from April for 1 fish, a receipt from mid-February for another fish, and a third receipt from early February (a week past the 90 days) for two more of the fish. So basically, she has valid receipts for 2 fish (the most expensive ones), and no receipts for the other 7.
She wants money back for all of them, which I am not allowed to do, but I offer to get my boss over to ask about it. The lady starts telling me that the reason her other receipt is so old is that she's been exchanging fish all along and that no one gives her a new receipt for them. Uh, no lady, that's not how it works. We cross the fish off your original receipt and give you a new one when you get new fish so that you have a brand new 90 days. My boss comes up and tells her the same thing, but she insists that the pet manager knows her, so we try to contact her.
No luck, pet manager is on lunch, but an assistant manager (above pet manager) is there, and says that the pet manager will be back in 5 minutes, and that since she doesn't know the situation, we have to wait for the pet lady.
I explain the situation to the lady, who was trying to talk to me loudly while I was on the phone with the manager, and I tell her I will refund the fish she has a receipt for, so that when the pet manager shows up, it will go quicker for everyone. She agrees, I refund her two fish, and give her $21 and change. It is 15 minutes after my break time at that point, and so I explain to the other lady at the counter what is going on, reassure the lady that the pet manager will be right along, and then headed to the back for break, hoping that I'd cross paths with the pet manager to tell her what was going on.
I didn't find the pet manager but when I got back from break, she was up there talking to the fish lady. I come back to my register to find a slip saying that the fish refund I had just done was voided. So I ask why, and I was told, "It's because you never gave her the money for her fish. Don't worry, the other service desk lady refunded them and everything is taken care of."
"No, it's not taken care of. I gave this lady her money, I'm pretty sure of it! I remember having to open a new roll of pennies to give her her change!"
The fish lady says, "No, I think you just forgot to give me my money. See, this is where I keep my money *rummages through envelope in purse* and there is only $4 in here. *shows me money* I never got any money from you."
So my boss and the assitant manager run off to go watch the security tape really quickly, and I can't touch my drawer until they come back, so I can't help any customers and I am left there talking to the fish lady, assuring her that the manager would be right back and that I was sorry for taking so long and causing her so much trouble. She was like, "It's ok, you were just busy, I'm not mad."
The assistant manager comes back and goes up to the lady. "We just watched the tape, do you perhaps have the money in your left pocket?"
"No, it's not in there, all I have is $40 the other lady gave me *pulls out money* and some change *pulls out the $21 I gave her.* Oh, here it is after all! This isn't where I keep my money!" They have me redo the refund, assuring me that everything is ok, and then the pets manager goes back with the fish lady to help her select some more fish.
As the lady rounds the corner, I realize- they just refunded her twice for the fish, once by me and once by the other lady, and that she still has the extra $21! The assistant manager disappears and then comes back again with the $21. I was just shaking my head at this point. Not only had the lady been refunded for her whole bag of fish ($70 worth) when she only had the receipt for 2 fish, but she had also almost managed to get a refund for some of them twice. Then, she came back to the counter to ring up her new fish so that we would make sure she got a proper receipt this time, but she seemed confused for a minute when I asked her for money for the new fish.
I can't tell still if she was an annoying scammer, or just particularly scatterbrained.
So I get this bag of fish, 9 fish to be exact, and the lady pulls out a handful of receipts. She has a receipt from April for 1 fish, a receipt from mid-February for another fish, and a third receipt from early February (a week past the 90 days) for two more of the fish. So basically, she has valid receipts for 2 fish (the most expensive ones), and no receipts for the other 7.
She wants money back for all of them, which I am not allowed to do, but I offer to get my boss over to ask about it. The lady starts telling me that the reason her other receipt is so old is that she's been exchanging fish all along and that no one gives her a new receipt for them. Uh, no lady, that's not how it works. We cross the fish off your original receipt and give you a new one when you get new fish so that you have a brand new 90 days. My boss comes up and tells her the same thing, but she insists that the pet manager knows her, so we try to contact her.
No luck, pet manager is on lunch, but an assistant manager (above pet manager) is there, and says that the pet manager will be back in 5 minutes, and that since she doesn't know the situation, we have to wait for the pet lady.
I explain the situation to the lady, who was trying to talk to me loudly while I was on the phone with the manager, and I tell her I will refund the fish she has a receipt for, so that when the pet manager shows up, it will go quicker for everyone. She agrees, I refund her two fish, and give her $21 and change. It is 15 minutes after my break time at that point, and so I explain to the other lady at the counter what is going on, reassure the lady that the pet manager will be right along, and then headed to the back for break, hoping that I'd cross paths with the pet manager to tell her what was going on.
I didn't find the pet manager but when I got back from break, she was up there talking to the fish lady. I come back to my register to find a slip saying that the fish refund I had just done was voided. So I ask why, and I was told, "It's because you never gave her the money for her fish. Don't worry, the other service desk lady refunded them and everything is taken care of."
"No, it's not taken care of. I gave this lady her money, I'm pretty sure of it! I remember having to open a new roll of pennies to give her her change!"
The fish lady says, "No, I think you just forgot to give me my money. See, this is where I keep my money *rummages through envelope in purse* and there is only $4 in here. *shows me money* I never got any money from you."
So my boss and the assitant manager run off to go watch the security tape really quickly, and I can't touch my drawer until they come back, so I can't help any customers and I am left there talking to the fish lady, assuring her that the manager would be right back and that I was sorry for taking so long and causing her so much trouble. She was like, "It's ok, you were just busy, I'm not mad."
The assistant manager comes back and goes up to the lady. "We just watched the tape, do you perhaps have the money in your left pocket?"
"No, it's not in there, all I have is $40 the other lady gave me *pulls out money* and some change *pulls out the $21 I gave her.* Oh, here it is after all! This isn't where I keep my money!" They have me redo the refund, assuring me that everything is ok, and then the pets manager goes back with the fish lady to help her select some more fish.
As the lady rounds the corner, I realize- they just refunded her twice for the fish, once by me and once by the other lady, and that she still has the extra $21! The assistant manager disappears and then comes back again with the $21. I was just shaking my head at this point. Not only had the lady been refunded for her whole bag of fish ($70 worth) when she only had the receipt for 2 fish, but she had also almost managed to get a refund for some of them twice. Then, she came back to the counter to ring up her new fish so that we would make sure she got a proper receipt this time, but she seemed confused for a minute when I asked her for money for the new fish.
I can't tell still if she was an annoying scammer, or just particularly scatterbrained.
and there's no doubt in my mind that she was scamming.
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