At Bustice, we have a pretty lenient return policy. I've outlined it before, but the gist of it is that you have 90 days with a receipt to get back what you originally paid, or you can return the item without a receipt at any point for the current selling price. Like most return policies where clothes are involved, there's a stipulation that the merchandise must be unwashed and unworn, the exception being defective items.
We had a customer come in with what she said was a defective shirt. Personally, I think a bit of glitter coming off is something you should expect, that's why I don't buy things with glitter on them, but I can understand this customer's concern of a quality issue, so I go to process the return. She starts off the conversation by letting me know that she has already called our customer service hotline and they said she could bring the shirt back for an exchange or refund.
Which is correct. Except the customer service rep didn't bother asking for a few details which would highlight the fine print on his assurance that yes, she can bring the shirt back. See, this lady didn't have a receipt. She was SO SURE she had purchased this shirt at our location, so I looked up her phone number in our register to see if I could find a receipt for the shirt. No dice. So either it was purchased over 90 days ago (no records are kept past that time) or it was purchased at another Bustice. I told the customer that per our return policy, there was simply no way I could give her any more than the current selling price for this item -- not only did I have no way of knowing how much she paid for it, but the item's gone clearance, anyways. That pissed her off, because she was getting back less than $10 for a shirt I'm positive she did actually pay at least $17 for. This is the exact quote I received from her:
"I understand that you're just doing your job, but this is unacceptable to me and this is not what I was told over the phone."
Honestly, while this lady got on my nerves as the conversation continued, I appreciated this. My hands were tied, and at least she acknowledged this. Except then she kept going on and on. I even flat-out told her that the information the rep gave her was correct based on his knowledge of the situation -- as far as he knew, she had her receipt or was returning an item that actually was full price so she'd be getting her original money back. But as it stood, I could not process this return at the price she wanted.
As most customers do when they're upset, this lady asked for the store manager. Well, it was Bosslady's day off, so there was no chance of that happening until the next day. I'm just a shift supervisor, so I doubt she wants to hear anymore from me. The store assistant manager was out running a few store errands and would be back in half an hour, I told her. So I collected this lady's phone number and had the assistant manager call later. There was nothing the assistant manager could do, though, so the customer got even more agitated, even telling my AM that "This glitter coming off is a safety hazard!"
Well, gee, lady... you sure didn't think it was any more than a quality issue when you talked to me! Customer threatens to call customer service again. We tell her to go ahead and do that, and if they can find a record of her purchase, then by all means we would honor the original selling price for an exchange. We'd have to wait until we heard it from Customer Service, though.
I didn't work yesterday so I'm not sure how this story turns out. I'd imagine we just never hear from this lady again. I hope we don't, at least. She was one of those "I spend so much money in this store blah blah blah" customers. I checked her 90 day transaction history when I was looking up the receipt for the return she wanted to do --- less than $50 over 90 days hardly makes you a good customer. You may spend a lot at another location in our company, lady, but that hardly makes us want to bend over backwards and break policy for you.
We had a customer come in with what she said was a defective shirt. Personally, I think a bit of glitter coming off is something you should expect, that's why I don't buy things with glitter on them, but I can understand this customer's concern of a quality issue, so I go to process the return. She starts off the conversation by letting me know that she has already called our customer service hotline and they said she could bring the shirt back for an exchange or refund.
Which is correct. Except the customer service rep didn't bother asking for a few details which would highlight the fine print on his assurance that yes, she can bring the shirt back. See, this lady didn't have a receipt. She was SO SURE she had purchased this shirt at our location, so I looked up her phone number in our register to see if I could find a receipt for the shirt. No dice. So either it was purchased over 90 days ago (no records are kept past that time) or it was purchased at another Bustice. I told the customer that per our return policy, there was simply no way I could give her any more than the current selling price for this item -- not only did I have no way of knowing how much she paid for it, but the item's gone clearance, anyways. That pissed her off, because she was getting back less than $10 for a shirt I'm positive she did actually pay at least $17 for. This is the exact quote I received from her:
"I understand that you're just doing your job, but this is unacceptable to me and this is not what I was told over the phone."
Honestly, while this lady got on my nerves as the conversation continued, I appreciated this. My hands were tied, and at least she acknowledged this. Except then she kept going on and on. I even flat-out told her that the information the rep gave her was correct based on his knowledge of the situation -- as far as he knew, she had her receipt or was returning an item that actually was full price so she'd be getting her original money back. But as it stood, I could not process this return at the price she wanted.
As most customers do when they're upset, this lady asked for the store manager. Well, it was Bosslady's day off, so there was no chance of that happening until the next day. I'm just a shift supervisor, so I doubt she wants to hear anymore from me. The store assistant manager was out running a few store errands and would be back in half an hour, I told her. So I collected this lady's phone number and had the assistant manager call later. There was nothing the assistant manager could do, though, so the customer got even more agitated, even telling my AM that "This glitter coming off is a safety hazard!"
Well, gee, lady... you sure didn't think it was any more than a quality issue when you talked to me! Customer threatens to call customer service again. We tell her to go ahead and do that, and if they can find a record of her purchase, then by all means we would honor the original selling price for an exchange. We'd have to wait until we heard it from Customer Service, though.
I didn't work yesterday so I'm not sure how this story turns out. I'd imagine we just never hear from this lady again. I hope we don't, at least. She was one of those "I spend so much money in this store blah blah blah" customers. I checked her 90 day transaction history when I was looking up the receipt for the return she wanted to do --- less than $50 over 90 days hardly makes you a good customer. You may spend a lot at another location in our company, lady, but that hardly makes us want to bend over backwards and break policy for you.
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