No receipt, no item. Why did you even come here?

[Eireann]

A woman just came in to tell me that she bought an item here last month for a rather high price, and that it is faulty. Okay, well, this is a thrift store, and as such, items aren't always going to be top quality (though we do have a surprisingly large number of items that are in perfect or near-perfect condition, thanks to the owners' eagle eyes).

She admitted she had no receipt. She didn't have the item with her. She just (so she said) wanted to ask what could be done.

Well, the store has a no-refund, no-exchange policy. This is on a sign hanging behind the front counter, though at the time she bought the item, the sign hadn't been made yet. So, yes, the item was on the costly side; no, she didn't get a receipt; no, the sign wasn't up yet. Even given that, she could have brought the item in to prove that it was faulty.

The owner told me to give the woman his wife's number. I did. She doesn't speak Czech very well. The woman gave up in disgust. I told her, several times, when the Czech-speaking owner would be here, but she kept saying that she couldn't come in then ... or then ... or then. I gave her several options, telling her when she could come in, but she had to work, so she said.

I asked her what she wanted me to do. She just stood there and bitched at me. I told her, several times, that I'm not the owner, but she was more interested in complaining about the fact that one of the owners couldn't understand her, even after rejecting the idea of coming back to talk to the one who does.

The way she was just standing there, not moving, I think she expected me to refund the full amount to her, without a receipt, without the item. She said something about reporting the store to some official institution (attempted intimidation!), and then gave up and left.

Ugh.

[Laund-o-rama Mama]

Hmm, I smell a special type of scammer! One that hopes that a business will get frustrated enough to just give her stuff to shut her up. All the pieces are there: the irrationality, the aggression, the language barrier (sometimes this is faked to add to the frustration and to tug on the cashier's sense of not wanting to be rude to a foreigner). Who even knows if she bought anything there at all? And as these boards will show, these scammers DO work sometimes if they make a big enough stink at the right places.

Good on you for sticking to your guns!

[Golden Phoenix]

Hmm, I smell a special type of scammer!

Yeah, the Fail-y, didn't-think-it-through-y, as-if-that-would-ever-work-y type.

I have to wonder why people try this, after all surely no-one has ever gotten a refund with no receipt and no item...but if they hadn't they wouldn't carry on trying it, which means someone, somewhere was dumb enough to refund under these circumstances...

I need a lie down.

[Eireann]

Well, in all fairness, she's not the foreigner here; I am, and so are the owners. So I can understand her frustration at the language barrier, but when a solution to said barrier was presented, she rejected it.

I think I remember her buying the item, because it was above the normal cost for the store. If it's defective, after only a month, then I can understand why she'd be upset. But without the item, nothing can be done. This country is fairly well-known for refusing returns, especially at the small, independently-owned businesses, and if I know it, she certainly does. It could be that she expected a return simply because we're not from this country. I don't know.