Exchanging a discounted shirt with no paper receipt
You are in a department store in Nanjing, three days before flying home. Yesterday you bought a shirt for 180 yuan, size M, at a counter with a sign reading 打折商品七天内可以换，不能退（需带小票）. The shirt is too tight across the shoulders. You have no paper receipt, but you have a photo of it and a 微信支付 record on your phone showing the amount, the counter and the time. The assistant is a woman in her forties who has just finished serving a queue of three people and looks tired. There is no size L on the rack; there is an XL in a different colour, and a similar non-discounted shirt at 260 yuan. You speak clear but slow Mandarin and cannot follow fast replies, so you have key phrases typed on your phone.
1. Write your opening two sentences and explain what you deliberately do and do not say.
Read the worked answer
Opening: 「不好意思，麻烦您一下。我昨天在这里买了一件衬衫，肩膀太小了，我想换一件大一点的。」 Then hold up the phone with the receipt photo before she asks.
What I say and why:
- 不好意思，麻烦您一下 - she has just cleared a queue; two seconds of acknowledgement buys more goodwill than a long apology story.
- I lead with the request, not the narrative. The order (yesterday → too small → want bigger) is the information she needs to act.
What I deliberately avoid:
- The word 退. The sign says 不能退. Using 换 from the first sentence keeps the whole conversation inside what the shop has already agreed to, which is the only ground where she can say yes without asking a manager.
- Long explanations of the flight. 我后天回国 is true but irrelevant to her; save it for the manager if the answer is no.
- Producing the phone late. The sign requires 小票, so I show the WeChat record and photo immediately rather than waiting to be challenged - being asked 有小票吗？ and having to say 没有 puts me on the defensive.
2. She says: 没有大号了，而且打折的不能退。 Give your reply, in order, and explain the logic of the order.
Read the worked answer
Reply: 「好的，我明白。那这个颜色的 XL 可以换吗？如果换 XL，差价怎么办？如果不能换 XL，可以换成别的商品吗？」
Order and logic:
- 好的，我明白 - accept the fact (no L) without accepting the conclusion (nothing can be done). Arguing with a fact you cannot change wastes your credibility.
- First ask: the XL in another colour. The sign permits 换, so this is a request inside the rule, not an exception. Colour is a smaller loss than a shirt that does not fit.
- Second: the price difference. XL may not be the same price, and you need to know whether you pay more or receive credit. Asking now prevents a surprise at the till. 「差价怎么办？」 is neutral and does not accuse anyone.
- Third: 换成别的商品. If XL fails, this gives her a way to satisfy you without breaking 不能退 - the shop keeps the money, you get usable goods.
- Tone: 那…可以吗？ keeps it a question. 你们不能这样 is a public challenge and she will defend the sign instead of solving your problem.
3. She says 不行，都一样 and turns to the next customer. What do you do next, and why?
Read the worked answer
Immediate move: step aside from the queue, stay quiet, and ask one short question in a low voice: 「那请问值班经理在哪里？或者客服电话是多少？」
Why this and not the alternatives:
- Do not argue in front of the queue. In a face-sensitive service exchange, a public confrontation makes her defend the counter's rule; a quiet request gives her a way to pass the problem upward without losing anything.
- Ask for the mechanism, not the person's guilt. 值班经理 / 客服电话 are concrete, and a tired assistant is often relieved to hand it over.
- My evidence is a photo plus a WeChat record, not a paper 小票. That is a genuine gap on my side. A manager may accept it, but I should not walk in assuming I am obviously right.
- Set a stopping rule before I start. 180 yuan against three days left in China: one attempt at the manager, one at 服务台, then I stop and treat the shirt as a gift for someone smaller. Escalating past that costs more in time and temper than the shirt is worth.
- Language fallback: if the reply comes too fast, show the typed line 我想换货，不是退货；没有小票，但有微信支付记录，可以吗？ Slow speech is not the problem; pretending to understand and agreeing to the wrong thing is.