'I gave her a big sweet smile': Grandma demands a refund because she filled up the memory on her 3 month phone, manager tells her to ‘get out’

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
May 22, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

One elderly customer got up on the wrong side of the bed the day they went to pay a retail employee a visit to complain. 

The grandma was livid that her phone wasn't working anymore, and it was only 3 months old, so she wanted a refund, thank you very much. The employee informed her that there were no refunds after 3 months, but the grandma didn't accept that as an answer. So, after making a scene, the employee took a look at the phone. They quickly discovered that it was just full — the grandma had filled her phone to the brim with pictures of her grandson. But this grandma didn't have a logical (or practical) bone in her body and instead of being glad that the employee had troubleshoot the issue, she was even angrier. To find out what happened next, scroll down, and then afterward check out these employees who shared which jobs are the least enjoyable to work at. I guess they all lose their magic after a while.

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  • 01
    "Get out, now."
    via Canva
  • 02
    Woman wants a refund because she's filled up the memory on her three month old phone, fun ensues.
    via u/seg09
  • 03
    I work in a UK phone shop. One day a couple of months ago, I'm stood outside the shop at 08:50 waiting for my manager to come down and let me in. There is a middle-aged woman standing outside as well, glaring at me, tapping her foot and huffing impatiently. Uh-oh. Bad sign. At 9am we open the doors and she comes stomping in, straight up to me. I open my mouth but she doesn't give me a chance to speak. She bought her phone three months ago, and it doesn't work anymore, apparently. She wants a ref
    via u/seg09
  • 04
    Now before this conversation goes any further I feel I have to point out to her straight away that a refund is not going to be possible after this length of time. After 30 days we can send it off for repair, but that's it. "Don't argue with me!" she screeches. Okay. I ask her if I can have a look at her phone. She rolls her eyes and hands it over. After a few seconds it becomes clear that her internal memory has been filled up with photos of her grandson etc, and so there isn't any space to
    via u/seg09
  • 05
    install a software update. So there isn't actually anything wrong with her phone at all. With my best retail smile, I begin to explain this to her, and mention that she can always buy an SD card and move her photos onto that and hey presto, problem solved. Nope, she wants a refund. We're back onto that. I tell her I'm going to go and speak to my manager, I go upstairs and we laugh at her, the usual. But he still comes back down with me to
    via u/seg09
  • 06
    back me up because she's getting pretty horrible and we then spend another ten minutes or so trying to convince her that literally all we can do is send her perfectly working phone off for repair. She's now telling us she's going to go to Trading Standards, quoting the Consumer Rights Act at us, basically she's the biggest cliché going. Unreal. Eventually she admits defeat. But she still wants it "repaired". So I sit her down and start to take some details.
    via u/seg09
  • 07
    "Why do you want my details?" I am literally on the edge here. Eventually she tells me her first name. I start to type it in (she can see the screen) as Gill, and then she says "no you stupid girl, it's spelled J... I... L... L" (speaking slowly). I raise my eyes to her and give her a big sickly sweet smile and apologise profusely. I then ask her for her surname. "Let's see if you can spell THIS right, shall We?"
    via u/seg09
  • 08
    At which point I sit back and I say "I'm sorry but I'm not going to serve you". She goes bright red and starts sputtering. Kicking off, calling me thick, rude, etc etc. My manager comes over and tells her calmly to leave. "I'm taking this all the way to the top!" "Feel free, but please leave."
    via u/seg09
  • 09
    s1rp0p0. Thank god you defended yourself. One of the worst things in these stories is when a customer blatantly insults someone and they just give them the retail smile. To an extent, you have to defend yourself. I was lucky at my last job to have a manager who did lots of floor work so she knew how hard (most of us) worked, and how polite (most of us) were. If we had to tell a customer we weren't going to help them anymore it was for good reason.
    via u/s1rp0p0
  • 10
    If a customer ever overstepped their bounds she stood up for us and that's an important quality for a boss to have. 2.9k Share Almaironn I feel like at most places you're just sort of expected to take all the al se. 551 Share
    via u/Almaironn
  • 11
    cybercifrado Pink Mist Feels No Pain "It seems you've filled the phone to capacity. This is easily fixed by resetting the phone to factory settings." 796 Share [deleted] That will make it worse when she starts screaming they hacked her phone to get rid of her pictures. 500 Share
    via u/cybercifrado, u/deleted
  • 12
    PeterPredictable stole her pictures. 449 Share [deleted]. Yea, but they work with tech, which means they MUST be a hacker. 147 Share
    via u/PeterPredictable
  • 13
    kinyutaka. It is so rewarding with the boss has your back. 591 Share Slepnair My bosses in retail always backed me up, because when it came to tech, he could do nothing BUT assume we knew what we were talking about. The guy couldn't check his email unless we put a shortcut and saved his password for him. 13 Share
    via u/kinyutaka, u/Slepnair
  • 14
    Emrico1. People. What a bunch of b.. rds. 174 Share StardustOasis · Hello, IT support. Have you tried turning it off and back on again? 63 Share seg09 OP. "I BOUGHT THIS PHONE EARLIER AND THE SIM CARD ISN'T WORKING!"
    via u/seg09, u/Emrico1, u/StardustOasis
  • 15
    [deleted] She sounds insufferable. One time I sold a teenage girl a selfie stick, and she wanted to return it because she couldn't take anymore pictures. Turns out her phone was 100% full and she didn't have any memory left to take the pictures. She blamed the stick that held the phone on it. People are dumb. 152 Share
    via u/deleted
  • 16
    [deleted] And I want a refund on this car because it is out of gas! 295 Share stringfree No, I won't check in back for And full of garbage. 90 Share johnabbe Now, about these trash bags I bought here just a few hours ago... 25 Share
    via u/deleted, u/stringfree, u/johnabbe
  • 17
    TheSeaOfThySoul Here's this story retold using a filled water bottle instead of a mobile phone with full memory. "Hello, can I get a refund on this water bottle?" "What's the issue?" "It doesn't work anymore, I can't put liquids in it!"
    via u/TheSeaOfThySoul
  • 18
    "Oh, you mean the cap is stuck?" "No, it's not that" pulls out water bottle, it's full of water "You're aware that to put more liquid in it, you'll need to empty this liquid out, right?" "No, I want a refund" "This isn't how it works, I can only give you a refund if there's an issue with the item" "I'm going to Trading Standards!" 65 Share
    via u/TheSeaOfThySoul
  • 19
    kbean826 I thoroughly enjoy allowing these situations to get wildly unreasonable and then just saying "I'm sorry, but you need to leave." 30 Share
    via u/kbean826
  • 20
    FinalMantasyX to be fair TO BE FAIR gill? 168 Share [deleted] ⚫ I live in the UK and I have seen Gill a lot more than I have seen Jill. In the same position, I definitely would've put down Gill first
    via u/FinalMantasyX
  • 21
    jrwn "Let's see if you can spell THIS right, shall we?" T..H..I..S 26 Share nostalgya The only thing I could think of was some weird deal my dad used to quote: "Railroad crossings, watch out for cars, how do you spell THAT without any R's?" 8 Share
    via u/jrwn, u/nostalgya

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customer service boss sd card pictures employee manager refund customers upper management retail employee phone working grandma family new phone grandson workplace stories store
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