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Retail Workers Share The Most Memorable Attempt By A Customer To Scam Their Business (35 Pics)
A recent survey found nearly one in five shoppers said they have executed self-checkout fraud. Some of these tricks even have names: 'the banana trick,' 'the switcheroo,' 'sweethearting.'
But when it comes to serial retail scammers, the fraud goes much further than foolishly ‘mistaking’ carrots for a honeydew melon. It gets way more desperate too. So when someone on Reddit posed a question to retail workers “what is the most desperate scam a customer has tried to pull on you?” the answers crazier than fiction started flooding in.
From trying to pay with a coupon that says “guaranteed and payable by Bill Gates” for an iPod to a person wishing to return something without actually bringing the item, these are some of the most insane retail stories with a comedy, horror and drama twist all at once.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I worked for my mom in law at her home decor store. I had an older woman come in and when I rang her up she said she got a discount because she was the owner's mom. My immediate reaction was to yell, "GRANDMA!" and throw my arms out like I wanted a hug. She left very quickly. BTW it was not my grandma in law.
#2
Worked in a bottle shop. One afternoon a shady character entered and spent 10 minutes browsing the liquor section. I stayed at the checkout and watched him on the CCTV. He ended up shoving two bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue down his pants and walked out. Store policy is not to confront shoplifters; that's what insurance is for. I called the police and burnt the footage onto a DVD for them to collect. About an hour later the same guy returns with the bottles demanding a cash refund because he 'purchased the wrong type'. Just as I was telling him I can't do a refund without a receipt the police walked in to collect the footage. He left with them in handcuffs.
#3
Our store is carryout only — we don’t deliver the pizzas we make. We once had a customer call and have a long and angry conversation with me because I wouldn’t deliver to her. She proceeded to say (a couple of times), 'You must be new here. I know the owner personally,' to which I responded, 'Well, I’m the owner's daughter, and we don’t deliver.'
#4
This person came in with a coupon for a free iPod. The fine print said, 'Guaranteed and payable by Bill Gates.' I asked why Bill Gates would pay for an Apple product. They left.
#5
Years ago I worked at a small hardware store where they were constantly getting huge rolls of copper wire stolen. One day this guy and his girlfriend come in to return a roll. I was a few months in on the returns counter. They had no receipt and when I scanned the item for the return it was only doing the price per foot. I couldn’t figure out how to get the sku or the price for the whole roll. Called the manager and he comes out and right away knows there’s no way these people bought a roll and returned it. So he asks when they bought it and they say two weeks ago ( the common response ) and my manager tells them “oh really because the last time we sold an entire roll was over 3 months ago” the guy starts to get brave and tells him “so you’re saying I stole it?!” And my manager says yes. They end up leaving and left the roll behind. Before they leave the store the guy says “I’m coming back and bringing the cops” manager says “go ahead that way you can explain to them how you stole the roll”
#7
I was working customer service, and part of my job was to answer any incoming phone calls. We got a call from a guy claiming to be from technical support. He told me that he wanted to update our systems, and to do so, I needed to follow his instructions. I obviously knew this was a scam but decided to play along. He told me to log in to our computer, ring up a gift card for $100, say he paid cash, then read off the gift card number for him. He said that would update our systems! Still the funniest scam attempt I've ever seen
Cecilia Herrera 3 years ago
The pity of this all, is that someone, somewhere will follow his directions.
#8
I once saw someone trying to return an empty 10-pound bag of ice because it had melted too quickly.
#9
I worked in a grocery store. One night, a guy kept walking back and forth in front of the doors while jerking a plastic bag around. Finally, after his third try, a big jug of wine broke through the bottom of the bag and smashed right in front of the doors. He started yelling that our bags were [trash] and that we better get him another bottle. I walked him outside and told him we couldn’t replace it because we didn’t have any wine jugs filled with black cherry Kool-Aid. No, wine doesn’t smell like that.
#10
I was working at a place that had soft-serve ice cream on the menu. One day, a lady came to the counter and said, 'I'm really sorry, but my daughter dropped her ice cream and she's really sad about it. Do you think you could give me another?' I was about to, then I realized our ice cream machine was broken that day and we hadn't sold any. I looked back at her and told her that the ice cream must've not been from us because of the machine. She turned bright red and mumbled, 'Oh, then I guess it must be from Dairy Queen or something,' and left quickly
#11
A woman came in, grabbed an herb-roasted rotisserie chicken, plopped down in the casual seating area, ate 85% of it with her bare hands, then brought the carcass to customer service and tried to return it
#12
I used to work at a game store. One time, a woman came in and asked for two PSPs, two Xbox 360s, and a handful of games and accessories. When it was time to pay, she handed me a 'credit card' that was not laminated and appeared to come from a home printer. I told her the card wouldn’t work and she told me to scan it anyway. I scanned her fake credit card, which clearly didn't have a magnetic strip, and of course it didn't work. She told me to just type the number in on the computer. I refused, and she told me she would be back with cash. I put everything back on the shelves. She did not return.
#13
A guy comes in to fill his sons aderall script. Guy is super twitchy and son is chill as could be. For all controls we are supposed to run a report that shows every where in the state they have filled any. Of course the report is a mess, multiple pharmacys, multiple scripts, multiple doctors, all the red flags. To top it off an aderall script within that week had been filled so we really couldnt fill this one.
Dad comes back we tell him that we cant fill it and dad starts going on about how his wife must have filled it but they need some for today blah blah blah. We decline and his last words to us are ‘my son needs them for a birthday he has to go to today cant you help?’
No dude we cant help. Youre clearly taking your sons pills, get help and stop using your son to get high on prescription drugs.
#14
I used to work at Best buy. This guy came in and returned a laptop saying that the box had some old laptop in it. He was yelling and screaming that we dont know how to do business. Manager gave him full refund. We started to check that old laptop he brought in. It won't turn on. Looks like the motherboard was toast. We pulled the hard drive out and started checking the data. Hard drive was completely fine with everything on it. We started looking for the clues and found the pictures of the guy who returned the laptop. It was his old machine. We had all his info. Manager called him and said he has 15 mins to bring the new laptop back or he is calling police. That guy came in, dropped the laptop at front desk. Never saw him again in the store
Monica Martinez Castañeda 3 years ago
Sorry, but I think this only happens in the USA. I mean, in Spain if you come with an old laptop, that doesn't match with the box, pretending that they sold it to you instead of the new one, there's no way you're getting a refund. I guess the "customer is always right" has made american customers try all this types of scams, knowing they're most probably getting a refund
#15
I sold a guy a phone years ago when I worked for a wireless carrier. I spent an hour getting all his information transferred and setting up the phone. He came in the next day with a shattered screen. Apparently he didn’t remember that I was the rep who helped him and proceeded to tell me that the phone was like that when he left the store. Needless to say, the phone was not replaced
#16
I worked at Arby's, and we closed for a week while our store got remodeled. We were all there one day during that week preparing to reopen when someone called and claimed we'd messed up their drive-thru order the previous day. They demanded that we remake their order for free. The manager had to fight laughter while telling him that we'd been closed for a week
#17
Oh boy, back in highschool when I worked part time at a KFC, there was this one fat man who would come in, order a 2 piece quarter pack, and then claim we forgot his chicken. Like, when we turned around to fetch his drink at the end of the order, he would open the box, take out the chicken pieces and hide them in his pockets. Hot chicken. Right in his pockets.
I got so fed up with everyone just giving him extra chicken all the time that I demanded he turned out his pockets one day when he tried to pull it and WOW LO AND BEHOLD this guy has his pockets full of drum sticks.
#18
September 12, 2001. USA. A guy in Spartanburg South Carolina calls and says that his weed trimmer was in the twin towers in NYC the day before and got destroyed by terrorists. And demanded I replace it under warranty.
#19
A customer brought back a jumpsuit for a refund because it had [poop] in it. She claimed it was like that when she bought it. It stank so bad that you could smell it through the taped-up plastic bags she had put it in. It would never have gone unnoticed by the changing room staff, the customer, or the cashier if she actually bought it like that. Someone at the refund counter actually accepted it and put it in the trolley full of other returned items for us to put back out. There was a note stapled to it that said, 'Warning: feces inside.'
WildHoneyPie 3 years ago
Ah, a classic case of "shifting the problem onto someone else". Also, ew.
#20
I worked at a gas station. Once, a guy came in, grabbed a foot-long sub from the sandwich case, opened it up, pulled a hair out of his own head, and stuffed it in the sandwich. He came up to the register and demanded a refund.
troufaki13 3 years ago
Ask him what hospital he was born at. Then call the hospital and demand an immediate return
#21
I worked at Aldi, which has a return policy where you get your money back plus an item of equal or lesser value. One customer routinely returned a gallon of milk with just a quarter remaining, claiming it was 'rancid.' He’d then get a new gallon and his money back. This went on almost daily for two weeks until the district manager finally put his foot down.
Blakkur Sverrir 3 years ago
In Germany you get the item replaced, OR your money back. Never both.
#22
I was working in a betting shop during the 2014 Football World Cup.
We had this one really awful customer, must have been in his 80s and always wildly inappropriate (asking what colour my underwear was, did I need someone to keep me warm tonight etc) but I couldn't do anything as the higher ups wanted to squeeze money from him.
Anyway, the night before the final match he comes in and tells me he wants to bet on Germany to win. I spent about ten minutes explaining to him that as it was the final he could no longer have a broad bet like that, instead he'd have to choose between a 90 minute win or winning in extra time, on penalties etc. I showed him the odds for all of the different bets and he ended up choosing the 90 minute win, I put the bet through for him and off he went into the night to be creepy somewhere else.
The match plays out and of course Germany wins in extra time. The next day Unnamed Creepy Dude comes in grinning from ear to ear and telling me how he's a winner. Oh boy. Again I have to explain to him that his bet isn't valid as he predicted they'd win before 90 minutes, and they hadn't. Dude flies into a rage about how I'm a money grabbing slut who's jealous of his riches and I have to pay him out or he'll call the police. I tell him to leave my store or I'll call them myself, he complies.
A few days later I come back from my lunch break to see him ranting at my cashier, I ask what the problem is and he throws me his bet slip for the world cup, only now he's written 'extra time' on it in pen and is trying to get my less experienced staff member to pay him out. I tell him that when we scan bets the computer takes an image of it, obviously the slip he has given to us has been altered as it doesn't match what's on the screen (I even turned the computer to show him) and that counts as fraud. Again, he leaves spouting nonsense about how women shouldn't be working anyway because they can't count or read.
Next week I get told I have to go to a meeting as I've had a complaint filed against me by a customer. The day of the meeting rolls around and I'm greeted by my area manager, security director and CREEPY DUDE. He had phoned the customer line and said I'd refused to pay his bet and taken the money for myself. We ended up bringing up the CCTV of the night he originally placed the bet, complete with audio, to prove without a shadow of doubt that he was in the wrong. Dude won't accept this and starts screaming that we're all thieves, we faked the video, and threatening to get a lawyer. Security director escorts him off the premises and he is banned from all of our chains indefinitely.
The kicker is, if his bet had won it would have been a whopping £55.
Tl;dr old dude is creepy, refuses to accept that his bet isn't a winner, makes threats and escalates to head office, is banned from all stores.
#23
I worked at Ulta, and someone tried to return some liter-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner, but they had filled them with water and froze them. The temperature and condensation were a dead giveaway, so we refused to return their items. They proceeded to call corporate and complain, so they got a $100 gift certificate and we got b**ched at.
#24
I witnessed one. I was waiting to get my hair cut at my local barber and this woman hobbles in. She had a bandage on her head, a bandage over her eye, her arm in a sling, and a cane. She sat down and launched into this horrible sob story about how she had been in this terrible accident and had spent all her money at the hospital and her car was totalled and now she had no way to get back home, etc. And of course asked for money. My barber was entirely unperturbed and said "Okay, just let me finish with my customers." The lady, thinking she'd hit a score, sat patiently as he did five haircuts, then he calmly walked over to the phone and called the police. Boss.
#25
A customer called my company and complained that my shirt was untucked so that they could get free coupons. This woman made such a mess out of nothing, and I almost got written up over it.
#26
Not super dramatic, but kind of sad. I was working the register in a mall department store and policy was to only take returns without tags if they had a receipt.
Middle aged woman comes up and says she wants a refund on some clothes. She dumps out what amounts to dirty laundry of clothes that haven't been sold for at least a year and a half. I asked if there was anything wrong, as being well worn, fit couldn't have been the issue.
Lady says, no, but that the owner, her son, is in jail now and doesn't need them. She wanted full retail price, which she was happy to tell me what that should be. I tried politely enforcing the policy, but she wasn't having it. Called for a manager, who, to my dismay, gave her what she asked for. That was more than I was going to earn over two nights of work.
I guess they needed the money more than the store did but I couldn't believe the gall of somebody to legally rob a store like that.
Sasy 3 years ago
I believe it was Target that had some kind of crazy idea to allow returns on anything bought in their store regardless of when, it resulted in people hitting up charity stores in droves to find anything target for usually 50c to a dollar kind of prices then go to target with them for full price refunds, of original purchase prices no receipt needed.
#27
This probably doesn't really count as a scam, but had a teenage boy come into the store and say he had no money but needed condoms desperately for tonight or he "wouldn't lose (his) virginity". I really felt for the dude, so I ended up buying him some myself.
#28
Had a customer return a vacuum cleaner once, my supervisor did the return thankfully. The box went back on the floor unchecked. The next customer who wanted to buy it checked it out before they went to the register. The whole [friggin] thing had been replaced with a catering size tin of beetroot.
Hermien Greeff 3 years ago
Who does a return without checking? I would say the idiots in this thread are the managers and supervisors, not the people returning fake items.
#29
I work at a movie theatre. We have a 5 dollar discount day. A customer comes over and starts telling me how she was there the prior day and that we had given them the wrong soda and her Diabetic husband had drank it and suddenly had to go to the hospital to get medication to "cure him".
Several things wrong with that story:
That's not how diabetes works. You don't die from one sip of soda, and generally if you did, you'd have insulin to take.
The employee she had complained to in order to call me over had been the only concessionists the prior day and somehow she failed to identify him when I asked her who it was.
I asked her for a ticket stubs or proof of purchase, and she came up with nothing. I went to the attendance for the prior day and pulled the report for the movie they claimed to have saw. To my delight the showtime they claimed to have seen had zero tickets sold to it.
I printed the report and went back to meet them.
"Yea, sorry looks like there were zero tickets sold to that showtime." And I showed her the report. She then tried to say we sold her tickets to the wrong movie. I told her that was impossible because then she would have been in the wrong auditorium. She had no response to that. Then she spluttered that she "guessed she would just go buy tickets" and I said "yea I guess so"
She left.
Robert Bailey 3 years ago
"To my delight the showtime they claimed to have seen had zero tickets sold to it." not something you usually hear.
#30
I was working at Buckle for a while in college.
They offer 10% Military Discount with photo ID.
Lady comes to my register on Black Friday with an alleged photo copy of her husbands DD -214.
I kindly told her that would not be accepted and she was not eligible for a discount unless she could produce dependent ID on an official card.
She was pissed.
I gave zero f*cks.
Guess who paid full price?
#31
I had a customer try to pay with a check using an ID that was very obviously made of paper. When I wouldn't accept it she tried to get her boyfriend to fight me. He laughed and awkwardly walked out of the store. Leaving her there, crying now, from the embarrassment of failure I guess?
#32
At my old job, they used to have sales pretty often and would also give out coupons for specific dates. For Boxing Day, they had a 30% off sale and we'd also given out coupons that would start the next day. Lady comes in on Boxing Day and we worked out that she'd get more of a deal if she used the coupon instead, so I offered to hold her items for her. I explicitly told her that she wouldn't be able to get the 30% off and she decided to use the coupon instead.
She comes back the next day, goes to cash to purchase her items and gets angry because they wouldn't give her both the 30% off and let her use the coupon. She told the cashier that the person she'd spoken to the day before had told her she could do that, sees me, and says "it was that girl who told me!"
I went to cash to speak to her (I was a keyholder at the time) and her story changed about three times through the whole thing. First she said that I told her she could combine the discounts, then she said that I never told her she couldn't combine the discounts, and then finally it was "Well I don't understand why I'm not able to do this." Another manager came over to help sort it out and as I walked away I heard her saying that I was a liar.
Now, I work at Sephora and we always get people trying to return fake products. My favourite one was when someone returned a face mask but had put a can of tuna in the box instead of the actual face mask.
InvincibleRodent 3 years ago
God, I hate it when people who get called out on a poor scam attempt try to tell me that it was ME who gave them blatantly incorrect information. I just don't understand how this occurs to them. Like... why would I lie? For shits and giggles? Them not knowing company policy and harassing me benefits me in no way, why would I bring that onto myself?
#33
When I worked on a checkout: a woman pulled a barcode label from a container of $4 tinned fruit and stuck it over the barcode of a $25 container of medjool dates. She pretended that she didn't do it. Another time a man carried a $30 bag of dog food the customer service counter without paying for it and asked for a refund. My manager gave it to him even though we both knew he had stole it while we watched him. Oh, and another time a group of people were using fake credit cards to steal. Not sure exactly how it worked but they ended up typing in a different card number into the the eftpos terminal while another dude tried to distract you. These guys were super friendly and chatty and probably thought I was young and dumb but I caught them trying to take off with about $500 worth of groceries. They were all like, "Just let us go and get some cash out, we'll be back soon to pay". They never returned and my manager gave me a box of chocolates for picking up on it. Proudest moment of my retail career.
InvincibleRodent 3 years ago (edited)
Of, the barcode trick, I know that one. When I worked at a bookstore, I once had a guy scratch the price tag off a book, and put over it a tag he presumably got from the grocery store next door. There is absolutely no way a new hardcover book in a franchise store would go for $.20. No promotion is that good. I guess he didn't know that I could look up the price and check out any book in the system by title. When he tried to check out, I said the real price with a big smile (the genuine 'oh s**t' on his face before turning to feigned confusion was everything), and when he asked why I'm not honoring the pricetag, I just took it off, and said "sorry, someone must've been playing a joke- this isn't even the same kind of tag we use. It must be from the grocery store, someone must've stuck it there." He of course left without buying the book.
#34
When I was at Little Caesars, this lady came in with her pizza box and proceeded to tell the cashier she had bought the pizza the previous day and it was burnt, so she wanted a new one. There were only two slices left in the box, and it was a day old. They still gave her a new pizza. Not worth the fight for a $5 Hot-n-Ready.
Vasana Phong 3 years ago
Of course there’s more to it just cost $5 , there’s the labor, utility...ect, I would’ve said noooo!
#35
"I'd like to return this unopened pack of cigarettes I purchased earlier today at your establishment". Might be paraphrasing a little bit.
I open the store everyday, hadn't seen this dude once that day. Looked at his cigarettes, it's a brand we don't carry. Asked him for a receipt to "confirm" he purchased them here, but he obviously didn't have one.
"That's fine! If you can just tell me what time you were in here today I can look it up on our cameras to confirm your purchase."
My God the backpedaling and stuttering. I grabbed his cigarette pack and fake examined them.
"Wait a moment sir, are you sure you purchased these at this store? I don't think we carry this brand". He took the cigarettes back, came up with something about his brother must have yada yada and then he walked out.
A tobacco store in town sells some of the brands we carry at a much cheaper price, so people like to try and do returns at our store to make a quick buck. We generally don't take any returns on tobacco, but this guy didn't even scope out his mark.
What do you think ?
Cori 3 years ago
These are depressing. I had to quit reading. People can be so gross sometimes.
panDAheART 3 years ago
Did you quit after the jumpsuit with poop? That's when I had to quit.
Load More Replies...
Lunar Bicycle 3 years ago
This’ll date me: I was working at a music store, and some guy took the price tag off of a cassette tape and put it on a $70 VHS box set. When we called him on it, he claimed that it was bait and switch to label something one price, but charge a higher price. He argued so long that the manager was about to give it to him out of exasperation, when I said, “You know, you may be right that we have to sell it at the price on the box, but we do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” My manager smiled and said, “That’s right, sir. We are exercising our right to refuse service to you.” He yelled some obscenities and left.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago (edited)
While growing up, my father worked as the night auditor at a fancy hotel across the street from a bus depot. He also helped cover the front desk since it was 3AM. At least once a week, he'd have someone try to run "make change" scam where they would say they needed to break a $100 for bus fare. They'd keep asking for change, merging some bills back together, trying to confuse my dad. Being a numbers guy, he'd actually end up shorting them $20. They'd leave and he'd call over the house detective (really) who'd grab the cop out front and make a copy of the video tape. 20 minutes later they'd come back to complain they were $20 short and the cops would arrest them for attempted fraud. If he was called to court as a witness and the defense attorney would try to make him look like he was trying to rip off someone else, my dad would reply why would he film stealing $20 when, as part of his job, he could steal in the back office $1000 paid for the penthouse suite and the books would never show it. The videos also showed every time the change was made, my dad would turn to the camera and mouth what was done.
Cori 3 years ago
These are depressing. I had to quit reading. People can be so gross sometimes.
panDAheART 3 years ago
Did you quit after the jumpsuit with poop? That's when I had to quit.
Load More Replies... Lunar Bicycle 3 years ago
This’ll date me: I was working at a music store, and some guy took the price tag off of a cassette tape and put it on a $70 VHS box set. When we called him on it, he claimed that it was bait and switch to label something one price, but charge a higher price. He argued so long that the manager was about to give it to him out of exasperation, when I said, “You know, you may be right that we have to sell it at the price on the box, but we do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” My manager smiled and said, “That’s right, sir. We are exercising our right to refuse service to you.” He yelled some obscenities and left.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago (edited)
While growing up, my father worked as the night auditor at a fancy hotel across the street from a bus depot. He also helped cover the front desk since it was 3AM. At least once a week, he'd have someone try to run "make change" scam where they would say they needed to break a $100 for bus fare. They'd keep asking for change, merging some bills back together, trying to confuse my dad. Being a numbers guy, he'd actually end up shorting them $20. They'd leave and he'd call over the house detective (really) who'd grab the cop out front and make a copy of the video tape. 20 minutes later they'd come back to complain they were $20 short and the cops would arrest them for attempted fraud. If he was called to court as a witness and the defense attorney would try to make him look like he was trying to rip off someone else, my dad would reply why would he film stealing $20 when, as part of his job, he could steal in the back office $1000 paid for the penthouse suite and the books would never show it. The videos also showed every time the change was made, my dad would turn to the camera and mouth what was done.
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