The store I work at sells a limited BBQ menu. A few weeks ago a woman who is a notoriously bad customer, ordered item A, but ended up with item B instead. She's the type of person who even if everything goes perfectly, she'll still leave mad. She didn't think to check it in store so she called us once she got home and discovered the mistake. Obviously that was our screw up, and I felt bad and apologized for it and told her she could come back and get the correct food, or a refund. She then tells me she doesn't have a way to come back to the store, she had gotten a ride up there in the first place. I told her there wasn't really anything I could do to help her unless she was in the store. And then it was just a cyclical conversation her repeating she didn't want B, she wanted A, and me telling her the only options to solve it required her to be there. All the while I'm still dealing with a line of customers so I'm getting pretty frazzled. Finally I snap and say I have no way of getting item A or your money to you, we don't have a delivery driver and I would reprint her receipt and we can fix it next time she's in the store. She still wasn't satisfied with that answer but said she'd come in the next day.
She did, and she just threw item B onto the counter and didn't say a fucking word. So I force myself to planted on my best retail smile and use my chipper voice to ask if she'd like item A or her refund. She said she wanted the food, and started to fish for a refund as well but I cut her off and told her I'd get the order started for her and walked away. The thing is, I work at a mom and pop shop so I have a lot of leeway on how to handle things, and my plan was to replace the food, and give her a partial refund, but since she was so incredibly rude I didn't. I did give her a bit extra food, to make up for it but didn't get a chance to mention it to her because we were swamped and her food came out while I was doing something else.
The next week she came in to get the same thing again and "reminded" me three different times in maybe 8 minutes she wanted item A. She made a big show of checking the food, and then complained that there wasn't enough, and I got to tell her no, that's what you paid for, I just gave you a little extra last time to make up for the inconvenience. She thought I was lying, so I actually weighed it out for her to see. She still left angry, but I kind of felt like I won, and I didn't get in any trouble so I guess it all worked out.