Spilled paint, and other lies

Yesterday afternoon I had a woman call to complain - the can of paint they'd bought the night before had broken.  "What do you mean broke?" I asked.  "It broke all over the rug," she replied, "and we need a new can of paint."  "You need another can of paint?" I asked.  "Yes, cause the other one broke."
Well, paint cans don't really break.  The lid may come off if you drop it on the floor, and sometimes, if we tint it and don't hammer on the top on tight enough there might be a problem.  If there is a problem, it's going to happen well before you get home.  Anyway, after a minute or so of this conversation her husband got on a 2nd line (that's right, I got to speak to both of them simultaneously) and repeated what she had said, except he wanted to speak to the manager because their can of paint spilled and they needed another.  Now this guy was obviously giving me a line of shit.  All they wanted was another can of paint.  And, of course, we are 'customer service, customer service, customers service oriented I said "let me put you on hold so I can get this approved through the store manager," (who was not in the store yesterday).  After a bit I resumed the call and told him to bring in the empty gallon with the lid.

So, about 20 minutes later this dude shows up, who was neither the husband nor the wife, with an empty gallon paint in a supermarket bag, and asks for a gallon of white semi-gloss.  I pointed out that the can he had was satin, not semi-gloss and this dude says "he told me I'm supposed to get semi-gloss."  "Sorry," I said, "I can't give you semi-gloss when you bought satin."  He made a little bit of a frowny face and said "okay."

When I asked Cori, one of my associates, what she thought she said.  "They just needed another gallon of paint, probably for trim."  Of course, she was right.  The can was missing the tell-tale signs of a spillage.  You see you don't get drip runs down the sides of a can when it spills, just a long solid streak where it sits in the spilled paint.  This can had drip runs and brush marks.  These people just lied to get a free can of paint.  And it was obvious through the conversation that they knew, that we knew, they were lying.  This is life in the retail world.