Well this one's about a pond, but I had a woman bring her pump back into the store because she said it wasn't working anymore. Upon opening it up I noticed that the impeller was caked in grass that had wrapped all around the ceramic shaft, likely being the cause of why the shaft was broken. I asked her if she was using a prefilter for the pump, and she told me that her old prefilter melted...(I have no idea how), and the new one that the manufacturer sent to them wasn't one that they liked. I explained to her that without the prefilter, the impeller would continue to get debris wrapped around it or impeding with it and would likely continue breaking. The pump was well over the stores warranty so I told her that I can sell her a new impeller. That of course ticked her off. I then explained to her that if she wishes to she can contact the manufacturer and see if they would replace the impeller, but that there could be an issue because she wasn't using the the prefilter which would likely void the year long warranty on all moving parts. That, of course, ticked her off.
She complained that she could have opened the pump herself and called the manufacturer, and questioned me why she even came in. She also accused my coworker of selling her $400 worth of filtration (she said crap) for her pond that wasn't working properly either because the pond still wasn't clear. Because I wasn't there during the sale I questioned her about the size of her pond, how long it was set up for, and what filter it was. She was reluctant to give me any information and simply repeated "Your coworker sold it to me". When I again said "Yes ma'am I understand that, but I wasn't there", she quickly snapped back saying "You're right, you weren't. So drop it".
From there I knew there was nothing I could do to help this woman so I called my supervisor. When he showed up I explained the situation. He agreed with me that only the manufacturer would be able to help her if she wanted a free impeller. That, of course, ticked her off. She yelled for awhile and eventually my supervisor gave up and said that he would replace the impeller. He asked for her old impeller so he could send it back to the manufacturer as a defect so the store could get credit for it. That, for some reason, ticked her off. She wanted to keep the old impeller, and get a new one. She was one of the most unreasonable customers I've ever dealt with. But she definitely didn't leave the store with 2 impellers.
