“I know the owner, they said I could have it for free/a discount”

[alloalloallo]

I had a customer in at work today.

Absolutely adamant that he was friends with the owner and that he had been promised a discount for cash. He was rude, obnoxious and demanded loads of freebies

We never give discounts for cash, and boss very, very rarely gives out free stuff and would have told me/left a note in advance.

Bloke insisted, so I rang my boss. Boss had absolutely no idea who this customer was and confirmed he’d promised no such thing.

DH owns his own business and I was in there with him over the weekend and someone tried it with him. My DH was like “I’ve no idea who you are, I haven’t promised you anything”

My DD was helping DH out once and someone tried it with her - told her that his brother owned the place. DD said - oh, you must be my uncle then

Why do they do this - well, I know why, but do they think we’re stupid and won’t check? Are they embarrassed when it backfires on them? I guess it must work sometimes or they wouldn’t do it?

You've met three lots of CFs

Outrageous, really

Glad you caught them ought early enough not to be fooled

At one time, whe dealing with tossers, I used to say "wait a minute, I'll get the boss."

Walk out.

Come back a minute later. "Yes?"

I suppose if they do that every time eventually they might get lucky, especially if they come across a nervous/inexperienced member of staff who doesn’t know much about the owner/boss and doesn’t want to get things wrong (not you/your DH in this scenario of course). A numbers game perhaps.

Customers lie all the time! I have had customers speak to me, call back five minutes later a totally lie to one of my colleagues about what I've said. I have them insist discounts were agreed with managers and the manager knows nothing about it. I recently had one get very shirty with me for not putting his dodgy credit card through, because he "knew the owner"...people never cease to amaze me

People like that have no shame - they really don't care about being exposed as bare-faced liars 99 times if it works on the 100th.

If they insist they know the boss, I'd challenge them to tell me 'his' name (if a female boss) or vice versa and, when they say they only know them to talk to, ask them to describe 'him'. At least make them look a bit stupid as you send them smartly on their way. Either that or ask them for the (non-existent) 'password' that the boss 'gives to all friends who are close enough for a discount'.

At any rate, 'knowing' could mean a whole range of connections - from knowing who the boss is (like if I saw a picture of the German Chancellor and said "Hey, I know who she is" - doesn't make us great pals), being on reasonably friendly terms, being a very close friend, or 'knowing' in a Biblical context!

This sort of person only ever sees other people as commodities to make their own lives nicer/easier/cheaper - couldn't care less about you as an actual human. I actually pity them.

I usually just tell them that no note of that has even made on my system and you will have to come back and deal with the boss directly. I had this kind of crap when I used to work in a bookies. They used to try and convinced me to place their bets without taking money 🤣🤣🤣🤣 eventually I would just walk off and serve other people.

I work in a large superstore on their fresh production sections where we make some custom food items. The number of people we get asking for elements for free (no reason, just can I have) is huge. People also seem to think extra veg or cheese etc is free and doesn't count towards the items on their order. And then there's the people who want to remove an essential part of the item (think cheese on a pizza) so they can have an additional item for free even though it's very clear in th signage that you have to pay for any extras. I always stick to the "sorry, we don't do that it's store policy blah blah blah", the usual response is "but they normally do it" (this is where is becomes hard to keep a straight face) and I repeat the store policy line until they finally understand.

Working in retail (I did it as student and since covid) has really made me realise lots of people will try to get something for nothing if they think they can. The will lie and in some cases try to create a scenario where they can get their way - I've watched someone damage a food item before in the hope they'll get it reduced price. They of course would never admit to doing this but they secretly love a bargain and getting something for nothing (even if it requires a lie) is a buzz for them.

I'd be inclined to tell them to call 'their great mate' the boss right there, tell him/her what discount they're after and then hand their phone over to you, so you can have a quick chat and see what s/he has to say about it. If they have to ask for the number, that's pretty clear proof that they don't actually know the boss very well after all.