One of my customers today called me a “sweet-voiced, mealy-mouthed, corporate yes-man.” I wonder if I am supposed to take that as an insult or a compliment. He called to complain that one of our stores would not give him a cash refund for his shoes cuz he did’t have the receipt anymore. The store was nice enough to offer him a store credit or an exchange but not cash. This seemed reasonable to me. After all he didn’t have a receipt. I explained to him that this was store policy and there was nothing I could do. He went on and on about how we were the corporate bad guys only out to take advantage of him, the poor innocent consumer. He said we were trying to cheat him out of his $135.00. I sympathized with him and told him we could not give orders to the store or tell them to make exceptions to their policy, but that I could document the complaint and send the info to corporate headquarters. He went on with another 10 minute speech and then called me the aforementioned “yes-man.” He then concluded with the obligatory “I’ll never shop with you again.”

At this point I felt like I should get the last word. But he didn’t give me a chance. Before hanging up, he said he hoped I “sleep well at night with this kind of thing on my conscience.” If given the chance I could have assured him that, yes, I sleep very well at night, thank you. End of story.
Moral: It’s not my fault you lost your stupid receipt! Moral #2: They’re not paying me enough to listen to these complaints.