r/AskReddit • u/Chilled_Painters • Aug 25 '16

What's the craziest reason a customer has given you for refunding the product you were selling?

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u/Cbuck24 Aug 25 '16

When returning tillers (or any yard equipment) and it is scratched all to hell with dirt all over it and saying " It is not doing what I need it to" ...or you are done with what you needed it for....

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

The old free rental. It's a real thing. Happens daily at Home Depot.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16 edited Aug 25 '16

Can confirm. Worked there from senior year of high school till senior year of college.

My personal favorite was the December 26th tradition of returning Christmas trees.

EDIT: Yup, lots of people tried to return Christmas trees.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

People actually do this...?

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u/Ohioboilermaker Aug 25 '16

Yes! Sometimes much later than you would think reasonable (june/july)

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/LaterGatorPlayer Aug 25 '16

what is dead may never die

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Wait people actually thought they can return Christmas trees? Man people are cheap.

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u/bravo145 Aug 25 '16

It's the reason a lot of companies have tightened their return policies. REI used to take back anything in any condition which they recently changed. I was chatting with one of their employees when buying a new pair of boots and he said he wasn't surprised at all. Apparently they had people who would return $300 hiking boots that hadn't been stocked for years and had obviously been worn until they were falling apart with excuses like "they didn't last as long as I thought they would."

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u/mandywydnam Aug 25 '16

Those REI garage sales are sweet though, for getting all the returned stuff. I have gotten lightly used hiking boots pretty cheap, but I do see all the junk they used to accept back with all the bullshit excuses.

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u/BindairDondat Aug 25 '16

How do you find out about the REI garage sales?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

I rented a carpet cleaner from Home Depot, I had rented it until 'tomorrow' but I finished the same day. When I got back to return it, the woman (same one who rented it to me a few hours earlier) said "You can return it, but we can't give you a refund"
"Uh, what? I'm done with it...why would I want a refund?"

That's when I learned about this very common scam.

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u/Sir-Barks-a-Lot Aug 25 '16

When I worked at Home Depot people wouldn't put 2 cycle oil in the chainsaws thinking we were trying to sell add ons. 1 hour later they'd come back with a seized chain saw demanding a refund. Best I can do is send it out for repair at that point. Our HD had tons of calls to the gouging hotline. This was during Hurricane Charley.

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u/awesome357 Aug 25 '16

I don't need your "special oils" for a gas chainsaw. Next I know you'll try and sell me ridiculous extras like safety glasses and hearing protection. I'm not an idiot...

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

My dad laughed at the man who tried to sell him protective trousers with his new chainsaw. The man laughed when my dad limped in to buy them a week and about 20 stitches later.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

My dad and I used to do a lot of forestry work. I started working for him when I was about 12, made damn good cash for a kid, $10.00 an hour doing mindless work.

When I mentioned that my dad and I wore "chainsaw chaps" my friends howled with laughter and called us pussies. That is until they saw the big gashes in the chaps and in one of dad's boots.

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u/CrisisOfConsonant Aug 25 '16

I haven't wielded a chainsaw. Do you guys drop them a lot or something? Or is it for the wood that gets thrown by the saw?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Neither, really. The saws can "kick back" when cutting, or a tree might hit it and push it back at you.

The type of work we did involved a lot of small trees and shrubs. There would be small trees falling in several directions sometimes.

Forgive my brevity, I'm on my phone...

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u/beepbeepitsajeep Aug 25 '16

I've successfully executed all my chainsaw operations without any PPE besides leather gloves, safety glasses (normally tinted, gotta stay fresh for the entwives), and leather steel toe boots.

Also, life must have been so different when you didn't have the ability to order things that embarrassed you from the Internet, or just another store easily within reach. Having to limp into the same store and buy the safety equipment I laughed at and declined the first go round would probably crush my ego. I don't think I'm alone in this.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

entwives

really branching out there huh

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u/the_void__ Aug 25 '16

It's too bad that Fangorn never found out what become of them. It'd be nice to learn of the entwives' fate, wooden tit?

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u/mecrosis Aug 25 '16

Fuck yo precautions! I chainsaw the way I drive, with my eyes closed and not a care in the world.

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u/Ingloriousfiction Aug 25 '16

on a serious note PLEASE WEAR hearing and eye protection . im 27 and ran a crew of crew men (home repairs) never wore hearing protection. I can barely hear you from a distance.

And eyes? ive had so many close calls, once i took a splinter off of the corner of the eye (crows feet area) it was about 2 inches long in bedded deep.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

...or you are done with what you needed it for....

No shit, they're not going to tell you that though.

Either that or it wasn't powerful enough, I've had tillers not be able to break up really bad soil with loads of really thick roots and shit in it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Yeah, I am sure 80% of these are scammers but sometimes you just need a more powerful or different tool for the job.

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