Not honoring winning bottle caps

[MoreWineII]

So I've hoarded up four of those winning Coke caps where you win a free one-liter Coke product and I finally decided to redeem them before I forgot or they expired or whatever.

I go down to the little convenience store near my work where I buy a Coke frequently. I grab four 1 liter Cokes, which are bigger than I expected btw, and a bunch of candy and gum and [censored] (since I'm getting like $8 free of Coke product, I figure I can splurge on the other stuff.)

I bring my stash up to the front counter and this exchange followed. I should note that she was an Asian lady and didn't speak English well if that matters:

Me: Hi, I have these winning bottle caps from bottles I've bought here that I'd like to redeem for these 1 liters I have.

Her: I don't take those back.

Me: Huh?

Her: No. I don't care. (???)

Me: Wait, so you sell the bottles with the contest on them, but you won't accept the winning caps back?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Okay. Well I'm not going to get all these Cokes then, I'll put them back.

So as I put my Cokes back, I started thinking. And the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got until finally I just put all of the [censored] back and walked out of the store.

Did I overreact or am I right in thinking that's pretty lame that she sells the contest bottles but won't redeem the winning caps?

Do most places redeem them or what? I feel timid, scared, and confused now that I got shot down by the evil asian lady.

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