Oh, the fun stuff at work

My manager once told me that our store has so much drama going on that we could probably air an interesting reality show.  Not only drama between the employees but also with customers.

Like today, two girls walk into the store while my manager stepped out.  They brought in two pairs of the same style of flats and explained to me they bought the flats less than 3 weeks ago.  Even though the store's return policy is 2 weeks, I asked to see the flats and the receipt.  One of the girls was doing all the talking so she pulls out the flats and shows me the rubber soles were ripped from the fabric and one of them had rubber soles split into two.  I looked at the flats and in no way were they worn just for walking.  She tells me over 3 times that they were bought less than 3 weeks ago.  I insisted on seeing the receipt and she tells me she no longer has it.  So I tell her there's nothing I can do without a receipt.  For a good 5 minutes, I was just listening to her telling me she bought those flats less than 3 weeks ago.  I had no idea what she wanted from me so I - without sugarcoating anything - asked her "What's your point? What are you trying to tell me?" She called me rude.  Ok, so she didn't understand what I was saying, I had to rephrase that for her, "What do you want me to do? What do you want from me?" ... Can you guess it? She wanted her money back or store credit.  Oh wow, how many times did she need me to tell her? I can't do anything for her without a receipt.  Then she tells me she works in retail too and she knows how it works and you can get store credit or exchange merchandise.  Right and it's because of YOUR type of people who likes to play around with this system that makes prices increase every year! So she asked me if my manager was in and I told her to come back in a bit and they can directly talk to my manager.  My manager comes back and the girls come by again speaking to my manager.  They show my manager the flats and she asks them for a receipt.  And what did my manager tell her? The same thing I told them! They try to tell my manager that retail stores allow the returning of worn merchandise without a receipt, just so the customer is satisfied.  One of the girls told my manager she works at Marshalls - seriously? Then go buy your shoes from Marshalls.  And just for the record, no, you can't return ANY merchandise to ANY store with NO receipt and NON-RESELLABLE condition, especially when you're well past the grace period.  If I wasn't working there at that moment and just an ordinary customer, I would've straight up asked her "where were YOU when you had your training at Marshalls?" If you try to cheat the system, you should at least know the rules.  Companies don't come up with return/exchange policies just so customers can violate them.

There are so many unreasonable customers out there that would probably bring back dollar store items to the dollar store to get a refund.  And don't get me wrong, I value every penny I make, it's just that I understand "you get what you pay for".