[My] manager never backs me up': Retail worker gets back at manager for refusing to "back them up" when dealing with customers

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 5, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

When working retail and customer service, you're playing a constant tug-of-war with customers over policy, laws, and even the simple ethics of trading—and it's not uncommon to have someone standing in front of you passionately quoting some piece of slightly relevant legislation their aunt's friend told them about, with flecks of spittle flying in all directions. 

The only problem is that they clearly don't fully comprehend the trading act that they're quoting, but there's no way they're going to listen to you, a lowly retail worker when you tell them that. Heck—you're not even a manager. So, now the problem's going to be escalated. Despite the fact that you know what you're talking about and have followed policy, the customer is refusing to budge—cognitively or physically—and now you have no choice but to do what the customer is demanding, so in the manager comes. You're frustrated because now the manager is probably going to come in and play the hero, giving the customer what they're demanding, even though it breaks the policy you have 

The thing is, now the manager's in a tricky spot. They can either stick to policy, as you have been, which will mean that the issue escalates even further up the chain, or they can do what you didn't have the authority to and cave. Usually, the latter option will end up being the desirable one, having been reinforced through repeated instances of issues being escalated further up the chain and drawing unnecessary attention to the store they're managing. Any experienced manager knows that the worst thing they can possibly do for themselves within the organization is have upper management's attention turned toward their store—it just creates too many unnecessary questions and that waste large amounts of everyone's time. So, eventually, they learn to just handle problems in-house, even if it means bending a few rules. Even if the decision and resulting resolution catch upper management's attention down the track long as you can explain why you've done what you've done—and why it was better for both the customer and the company—they're not going to mind one bit.

This can end up being frustrating for associates, who can be made to look stupid or arrogant if the manager goes about this in the wrong way—and maybe this manager was. It's important in any instance to make it clear to both the associate and the customer what the policy is and why you're making an exception. I've even had customers argue with me over this clarification, even when they're getting exactly what they want

This associate shared how they got back at their manager, who did as described above, but by going about it entirely the wrong way. Though, to be honest, the original poster themself sounds like they might actually be pretty difficult to work with.

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  • 01
    Font - Retail manager never backs me up and breaks store rules for customers. It backfired I Feel like anyone who has ever worked retail can relate to this. You go in the job and they tell you all the rules and things you can and can't do. Until a customer gets upset and gets a manager and then the manager comes over like "oh how could you not allow this sweet lady to not do this?" and uses their manager override to allow the customer to do whatever they want. Making them look like the hero and
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  • 02
    Font - Back when I worked retail I had this happen countless times. "This meal doesn't come with cornbread, that'll be an extra dollar fifty" manager comes over and gives them cornbread. "The discount you are talking about was a for a sale that ended two days ago sorry." they get pissed at you and the manager comes over and gives them the discount anyway.
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  • 03
    Font - I got super fed up with this and kept track of EVERYTHING a manger let happen. If a manager one time let a customer buy this for this amount of money. Every single time a customer asked about it I would call the manager over and get him to override it. I guess managers expect you to try to enforce the rule on the occasion they get pressed, they just fold and make you look like a jerk to a Karen customer. Well I got tired of it.
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  • 04
    Font - The moment a Karen came in and asked for something clearly against policy I would just call that manager over and make him override and say "he does this all the time" to the customer. It happened to often that he had a meeting and got reprimanded by corporate. He mentioned me by name as the one who does it and when questioned I told them the same thing. "He did it all the time before and I just assumed that he as the manager was doing the right thing." He wasn't fired or anything but he
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  • 05
    Font - Normal-Yogurtcloset5 I've worked retail at several places with horrible managers but the best place was at an art supply store. My manager's name was Leroy and he backed up the employees 100%.
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  • 06
    Font - One day, a woman came in looking for something. I tried to assist her and she didn't like what I was doing and asked to speak to the manager. I got Leroy and, when the woman started to complain, he stopped her and said that he wanted to hear from me first. I explained the situation and then Leroy turned to the woman and said, "I interviewed him, I hired him, and I trust him. If that's what he said happened then I take him at his word." The women started to say something about the customer
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  • 07
    Font - Both the woman and I were shocked. She was shocked because the manager didn't put up with her crap and I was shocked because, for the first time, a retail manager stood up for me. Reply Share 2.5k Ballgame4 Whoever said, "The customer is always right.", never met the customer. 880 Reply Share
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  • 08
    Font - OkIntroduction 5150 +1 Back in the dark ages, I worked at ry W. The managers M would do this all the time. Drove me nuts. Then I worked at Old Navy for years. Managers backed us up every time. I worked retail in a lot of places. Old Navy was my favorite. 386 Reply Share novembirdie +1 Omg MC Wa That's a store I haven't heard about since the Dark Ages, oops I mean my teen years. 96 凸 Reply Share
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  • 09
    Font - SuperPetty-2305 +2 I never understood this either. Even back when I was a manager. If my employees told a customer that what they wanted was against policy, then that's just too bad. My answer was going to be the same as theirs was. Some times I would get in trouble for not giving the customers what they want, but I never cared. I wasn't going to bend over backwards for rude, selfish, entitled people who thought they were above the policies/ rules. 156 Reply Share Milkarius Likewise. I wi
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  • 10
    Font - or ComeAndGetYourPug Oh I have my own retail revenge story from like a decade ago. So our store's layaway fee was a flat non- refundable $5 for up to a month, and you pay installments. This rather rude woman came in to cancel a very expensive layaway the day before the last payment was due - so she gets a full refund minus the $5 fee. I remember specifically it was a prom dress and a high-end purse... uncommon items in our store because frankly most of our merch was cheap shit. She also a
    via u/moshthepoundsaway
  • 11
    Font - Well 15 minutes later, she wants to put the same 2 items back on layaway. Now it made sense... this was a super blatant scam, and when I noticed what she was doing I denied her new layaway. Because, y'know, that's what the store policy says to do! She was basically using layaway to stash high-value items, one month at a time, until they went on clearance. A $5/month fee to save $hundreds. Clever, but not allowed. Well, the customer throws a fit and the spineless manager comes over and ove
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  • 12
    Font - I'm a petty but patient motherfer, so I waited like a week and a half. I was pulling all of the expired layaways out of storage one day, and I grabbed her stuff and thew it in with them. So all of her stuff got put back out onto the sales floor but the layaway would still be active in the system. When cancellation time came due, I wasn't there but spineless manager was! Apparently the customer threw a fit (again) and the only thing the manager could do was refund her $5 layaway fee becaus
    via u/moshthepoundsaway
  • 13
    Font - Spineless manager asked me about the missing merchandise later because my name was on it. Gee, I don't know what happened to it, I put it right there like I was supposed to. She probably knew exactly what I did, but couldn't prove it. At best they'd pull the footage from a month ago, if it even still existed, and see me putting the merchandise in layaway properly. No way anyone was going to watch 30 days of layaway footage to find that one random day I put the items back out. 141 Reply Sh
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  • 14
    Font - _dirt-nasty_ Happens a LOT in autoparts. When i finally became manager, I backed up my crew 100%. "Sorry sir, weve already warrantied your battery, the battery isnt the issue, the printout clearly shows its your alternator." Supporting your crew also helps eliminate fraudulent customers. If they know they cant scam your store, they dont even bother. Many headaches and problems are eliminated if you just support your employees. ↑ 93 Reply Share
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  • 15
    Font - Zoreb1 +2. "I'll never understand why managers never backup their employees on store policy." It is a power trip at it usually doesn't get back above them. For some reason your situation did (probably due to how often you had it happen which signaled some sort of notification or was caught by accounting). 486 Reply Share
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  • 16
    Font - teresedanielle In the early 00's I worked in a mall at a semi popular retail store for juniors/ teens and I had a manager like that. The worst incident was when she took back a pair of clearly worn (multiple times) jeans that were a brand we DIDN'T SELL that had one of our tags STAPLED to it. Lady was throwing a fit and she just fu caved. ↑ 40↓ Reply Share
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  • 17
    Font - MidLife Education +1 When I was in management and had to appease a Karen, I would invariably get the "I don't know why the cashier couldn't have done that!" comment, I would politely inform Karen that what she was asking was outside the cashier's authority. I followed that up with a comment that it required a manager's credentials. Karen appeased without diminishing the cashier. I would also tell the cashier (with Karen still there) that they did the correct thing by following policies. T
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talesfromretail toxic-workplace manager retail retail worker petty revenge managers
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