'The grin slid off his face and his mouth went agape': Employee foils the plans of scam artist who thought he found a loophole

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 28, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

We all love a good loophole. Social media is full of people telling their favorite loopholes to get cash after a cancelled flight, return kids' clothing years after you bought it, or 'hack' a stores' return policy to your benefit. As a customer, finding a loophole can be great, but when too many people start to abuse the system, it results in a crackdown to stop customers from getting free stuff. However, it seems that some employees are wising up to these customers' sneaky tactics. 

In the r/MaliciousCompliance sub, u/griffyn79 shared their story from two decades ago, when DVDs and Blu-rays were all the rage. In case you don't recall that era, many people had VCRs which played video tapes. So when DVDs came along, it was a special new novelty, and the DVDs weren't cheap, either. 

That's probably why this customer thought he could turn a profit by reselling DVDs. From the OP's post, it seems like this scam artist thought he could resell a DVD after opening it. All he had to do was return the opened DVD and get a brand new one, still sealed in plastic, that he could sell or return for cash. However, this cashier got some satisfaction in stymying this customers' plan. In the comments, people shared their own stories of customers who tried to pull the wool over cashiers' eyes (unsuccessfully). 

Next up, this employee refused to do something his boss kept insisting on — but it was actually really hazardous. 

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  • 01
    Font - Customer found a return policy loophole. Or not. S OC Going back 20 years to my best buy days when hd-dvd and blu-ray started duking it out.
    via u/griffyn79
  • 02
    Font - As a customer assistant supervisor, i would occasionally help cover other supervisors or some manager duties. During a custer service manager lunch break, a customer came in and wanted to return an open dvd. Policy at the time was that we are unable to return those as piracy was a thing back then that people somewhat cared about.
    via u/griffyn79
  • 03
    Font - I let the customer know that I was unable to return the DVD, but I could exchange it for the same item if it was defective or he was having an issue with it. The customer said he'd like to do that and got a sort of grin on his face.
    via u/griffyn79
  • 04
    Font - When I came back with the replacement movie, I took the plastic wrapper off in front of him as the grin slid off his face and his mouth went agape. Handing him the DVD, I wished him luck that it worked better than his last copy. The customer retorted something that slips my mind, then tossed the opened DVD back at me and walked away.
    via u/griffyn79
  • 05
    Font - I still feel a small sense of satisfaction knowing the customer thought he would then be able to return the replacement "new" dvd. I just made sure that he got an exact replacement. How was I to know that this wouldn't be good enough?
    via u/griffyn79
  • 06
    Font - gadget850 +1. During my Army days, my roommate was always late. His excuse was his alarm clock was broken. Our sergeant ordered him to buy a new alarm clock and bring it in with the receipt, then tore up the receipt so he could not return it.
    via u/gadget850
  • 07
    Font - Going back 20 years to my best buy days when hd-dvd and blu- ray started duking it out. Jesus now I feel old.
    via r/MaliciousCompliance
  • 08
    Font - Irishpanda1971 Did the same when I was at BB. Usually it was some kid that thought they were clever, but more than a few adults. Of course, these were the sorts of people that would fork over a CD, with the Wal-Mart sticker still on it, and insist on a cash refund. Or the ones that got angry when we opened the box of the printer they were returning to discover the brick they had put inside. Never saw an angrier customer than the ones whose "cunning plan" was foiled.
    via u/Irishpanda1971
  • 09
    Font - GreenspaceCat Dragon +1 It just reminded me a time my mom bought a CD but ended up not liking it. She went back to the store and explained she wanted it re-sealed because she wanted to gift it to someone but also wanted to listen to it first to make sure the person would like it. They actually did it. When she came back another time she was able to have it refunded.
    via u/GreenspaceCatDragon
  • 10
    Font - Paul Michaels 73 +1. Saw this at least once a week working the returns desk at Wally World. Half the time they would come back saying we didn't have the same product. At which time, I'd call electronics (who always had better things to do than answer the phone) and ask them if we "had any in the back", which of course was code fore "I've got a Karen that needs slapped down" and almost always they were able to find the product and bring it up for an exchange.
    via u/Paul_Michaels73
  • 11
    Font - Quackcook I went our local rare video store, I video. They had three locations and two closed, so first time at this store I gave them the info and said I had an account. They said, "you do, it has been 18 YEARS since your last rental". Other than a new CC, no other problem.
    via u/Quackcook
  • 12
    Font - Pleasant-Excuse-2530- Had a woman try to get one over on me in my early years. She returned an over the counter inhaler and it didn't work. She wanted to exchange it. After she went to get a replacement I opened and found it contained an old empty one. When she came up with her other purchases, I rang it all up including her "exchaned" inhaler. She was not happy when she had to pay for it. This woman and her two daughters had been banned from several stores for theft.
    via u/Pleasant-Excuse-2530
  • 13
    Font - Malikissa +2 This nonsense used to drive me crazy. Never, in the history of ever, have you EVER been able to return media because you just didn't like it. DVD's, CD's, records, cassettes, VHS, NONE OF IT! And the number of people who kept insisting they had no idea they couldn't return it just drove me nuts.
    via u/Malikissa
  • 14
    Font - DarkSquirrel20 This is like when I used to tell people that the cash register didn't accept expired coupons at a place where coupons didn't have barcodes and were entered manually. Never had a single Karen figure that out either.
    via u/DarkSquirrel20
  • 15
    Font - RelentlessOlive54. When I worked at Shopko a million years ago, had these guys come in with a TV that was obviously super old and used, and they wanted to return it. I looked it over and found it wasn't even a brand we carried. They had a receipt, but it was clearly for a different TV. When explaining to them that we could t do the return because the TV wasn't ours, they pretended to not know English. I had to get our LP to hustle them out because they became very belligerent about the fa
    via u/RelentlessOlive54
  • 16
    Font - Nikkian42 Did you throw in an offhand comment about needed to make sure this one was in good condition before handing it over?
    via u/Nikkian42
  • 17
    Font - narhark That's exactly what we still do. (I'm in Canada). We are told it is a copyright issue, because of piracy. People get sooo mad about it, too. Lol.
    via u/narhark

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dvds malicious compliance customers malicious-compliance-reddit DVD loophole customer supervisor scammer policy purchase return blu ray
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