‘"I need to escalate this right now"’: Entitled customer boldly tries to return a stove he purchased 12 years ago, call center employee adamantly refuses to oblige

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Feb 27, 2025 9:00 AM EST

Return policies differ from company to company for a multitude of reasons. However, the main reason each return policy differs from one another so starkly is because of the quality of the product, the use of the product, and the expected wear-and-tear of the product. Some companies likely sinisterly calculate the average amount of time it takes for a product to show manufacturing errors/expected product degradation, and formulate the return policy accordingly (usually cheating the consumer in these cases). However, this story is not a tale of a big corporation cheating an unassuming customer. Rather, it's the opposite!

An employee working for a call center posted this story, where they pick up the phone and a customer is calling to return an electric stove. Sure, fine. The customer then mentions that he purchased the stove 12 years ago, in August of 2013, and needs someone from the company to pick up the stove and return the amount he paid for it… customer gluttony at its finest. Take a wild guess at how this story ends. Scroll to see how it unfolds.

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  • Entitled customers show a lot of gall, that's for sure. You see this behavior often in tales from innocent restaurant servers; the classic “I didn't like my food, I'd like a refund" even though their plate is wiped clean and there's no evidence of food having been on the plate in the first place. But you ate it…

    The call center employee doesn't have to abide by their entitled customer's wishes, however, because 12 years is a bit longer than what any return policy would support. Just a bit…

  • Cheezburger Image 10472910592
    via Matthew Jungling for Unsplash

  • "Entitled customer mad we won’t refund him for an item he bought twelve years ago"

    So I work at a call center for a certain members-only bulk store chain, specifically in the online branch. One of the perks we offer our customers is an almost comically lenient return policy-
    via pastdivision
  • we started limiting certain electronics to 90 days from the date of delivery back in 2016 (this will be important later), and our returns team needs to look over and approve any returns for orders over two years old, but by and large we'll accept anything.
    via pastdivision
  • I like this policy. It's a lot easier for me to just process a return than it is to argue with the customer for twenty minutes about how no, sir, it is not our fault that you didn't think to open
    via pastdivision
  • the box until well after 90 days and now the computer doesn't work, I can get you over to warranty but beyond that my hands are tied. The customers like this policy because it means
    via pastdivision
  • they basically can return stuff whenever they want within reason-returns usually approves the 2+ year requests unless it's something egregiously dumb. The key word there is "within reason".
    via pastdivision
  • It's early into my shift, I don't think I'd even had my first break at this point. Phones are de dat this time of day, as is typical once the holiday order rush and the post-holiday return rush
    via pastdivision
  • subsides, so I'm sitting there trying to figure out what the f 71 Down on my crossword puzzle is when a call comes through. I snap to attention, give my spiel, and ask what the guy needs.
    via pastdivision
  • "Nobody came to pick up the stove I'm returning. They delivered the new one and took the gas range but I still have an electric one to return." Well I'm sorry to hear that, sir, I'd be happy to see what's going on. I check the logistics scheduler.
    via pastdivision
  • Only return this guy has is for the one that got picked up. I ask if he has the order number for the item being returned; he does not. I pull up his order history and ask him when he ordered the item. For context, the order history we see on our end only goes back to about 2017. "I think... August of 2013?"
    via pastdivision
  • So it's gonna be one of those calls, huh? I am not looking forward to having to around in the DOS system to find this guy's order number but at this point I'm figuring he just had an old phone number on the order and that's why his pickup isn't in our scheduler with the rest of his orders.
    via pastdivision
  • After about 20 minutes of checking every single membership number on file in our DOS system (the guy claimed he had never changed his membership number at any point.
    via pastdivision
  • he was wrong) and multiple assertions of "the last people just pulled it right up!" (bulls, not only do you not have the order number but it's tied to your wife's membership number from over twenty years ago and can't even be pulled up with your info at all,
    via pastdivision
  • believe me i tried), I find the order. The return is cancelled because our returns team didn't think refunding a twelve year old stove because it stopped working (after twelve years of no issues with it judging by our records) is
    via pastdivision
  • in the spirit of our return policy since it's highly unlikely the issue is caused by a manufacturing defect at this point. I could go on about planned obsolescence and how things used to be built to last but unfortunately twelve years is
    via pastdivision
  • honestly a pretty hefty shelf life for a home appliance these days and it's definitely well out of any warranty we have. I explain this to the customer as gingerly as I can and he demands to know why we didn't tell him this years ago.
    via pastdivision
  • "I'm grandfathered into your 90- day policy, aren't I!? When did that change? Why didn't you tell me years ago that you weren't gonna accept my return anymore? I need to escalate this right now."
    via pastdivision
  • Cheezburger Image 10472910848
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • I try to explain to him that these sorts of situations are handled on a case-by-case basis and it's less. that there's a hard limit now and more that a twelve year old appliance starting to have issues
    via pastdivision
  • can't really be considered a manufacturer defect that we're obligated to refund you for. He's not having it and asks for a sup. You got it, sir. I kick him over to
    via pastdivision
  • "... my supervisor (who also is like ". a stove not working after twelve years isn't really something we can blame on the manufacturer, it's not like we sold him a lemon") and move on, but not before he gives me this gem:
    via pastdivision
  • "If I had known you wouldn't accept my return now, I would have returned this years ago!" So basically just admitting he wanted us to pay him to haul away his junk rather than actually thinking his stove reaching the end of its lifespan was a manufacturer defect. dear god i'm so glad this job pays well.
    via pastdivision
  • TL;DR: entitled customer finds the one return situation too ridiculous for our policy
    via pastdivision
  • bojenny Someone posted a picture of a kids wooden playground that was returned this week. It's obviously at least 10 years old and half falling apart, it's also Huge!
    via bojenny
  • I can't believe there are people so shameless that they would return something they obviously got their money's worth from. I would be so embarrassed, but I know people return de d Christmas trees so not too surprised.
    via bojenny
  • pastdivision there's a tale i was told in training about physical stores accepting returns for mostly-eaten rotisserie chickens (unsure how true it is, i have no desire to test it) so our returns team drawing a line here is...something
    via pastdivision
  • jadegives2rides Mom worked the doors, her favorite returns were the ones in fall when people would be dragging their still wet pools in.
    via jadegives2rides

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customer support customer service reddit stories entitled customer call center work stories entitlement work customers reddit story customer entitled customers reddit thread Reddit return entitled people
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