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Through some bizarre freak of cut hours and requested time off, I got ten days off in a row. I needed it, December just fried my brain. So I came back to work today, relaxed and not even minding being at work much. But I wouldn't be posting here if it were a nice, calm, normal day...
It was getting into the evening when this guy came by. He was very polite at first, and had a not-too-unreasonable request: his son had returned an xbox 360, and gotten a gift card instead of taking cash back, could we fix it? He had the gift card, and an original receipt, but not the return receipt. He said his son probably still had it, and had done it while the father was on vacation. The kid had just misunderstood and made a mistake, surely we could fix it.
Two things that are important here: First, once a return clears the system, it is PERMANENT. This happens at the close of the business day on which the return occurs. Second, gift cards CANNOT be redeemed for cash.
I look at his receipt, at his gift card, and decide I'm not touching this one with a ten foot pole. There wasn't really any reason for that, I just had this tiny niggling feeling that he wasn't going to listen to me tell him 'no' and figured I'd just jump straight to the manager and save everyone some time. I apologize for not having the authorization to attempt what he wants (only managers can void a return anyways) and page the front-end manager for him.
After a bit of questioning, L finds out he'd bought two 360 systems, on two receipts. The receipt he didn't have had used a gift card (and therefore could only be refunded as a gift card), while the one he DID have had used cash and debit. Now she HAS to have the return receipt to have any chance of doing anything. The guy is an Interruptasaurus, and a very loud and angry one at that. L isn't having any of that, she just interrupts right back with "sir, let me finish explaining this". The questioning and explanations take nearly 20 minutes, and the store manager gets paged over to back L up because she's tired of dealing with this guy. The guy finally admits his son is 14 and could have grabbed the wrong receipt by accident, but his body language as he left to get it was very annoyed.
An hour later he's back, with the return receipt. At a glance, I can tell that the original receipt ID on the return does not match the debit purchase receipt...and it's dated 3 days ago. He's out of luck, but I immediately page L back. She arrives with one of our LP guys in tow because she'd been shutting down registers and he has to escort her.
She immediately determines the receipts don't match up. The guy doesn't like this and starts ranting. Now it's OUR fault the kid gave us the wrong receipt. We should have known better. L counters that if we are handed a receipt, we make a return with that receipt, there is no way for any CSR to know that there's another. The guy points out that the item numbers from both receipts match up, L points out that the receipt ID numbers do not.
The guy's furious now, red-faced and pacing and waving his arms, in full-blown SC bullhorn mode. He starts ranting about how we took both receipts and deliberately and callously tossed aside the cash one, taking advantage of his son's age to force a gift card on him, and he tosses receipts around to demonstrate. (The LP guy has him fixed with an intent stare at this point, just watching and waiting. N WILL go over the counter after someone if he thinks one of the team members is in danger. I've seen him do it.) The SC is BELLOWING about age discrimination and us taking advantage of minors, illegal business practices, fraud, and he ends up with this rant about how he's going to call corporate and get us all fired and the store shut down and bulldozed to the ground. He finally got fired up enough to remove himself so as to bring such doom and gloom on us.
...not likely, over the holidays we got ourselves upgraded to a 'high volume' store.
I feel sorry for the kid, it was an easy mistake to make. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't one that could be undone.
It was getting into the evening when this guy came by. He was very polite at first, and had a not-too-unreasonable request: his son had returned an xbox 360, and gotten a gift card instead of taking cash back, could we fix it? He had the gift card, and an original receipt, but not the return receipt. He said his son probably still had it, and had done it while the father was on vacation. The kid had just misunderstood and made a mistake, surely we could fix it.
Two things that are important here: First, once a return clears the system, it is PERMANENT. This happens at the close of the business day on which the return occurs. Second, gift cards CANNOT be redeemed for cash.
I look at his receipt, at his gift card, and decide I'm not touching this one with a ten foot pole. There wasn't really any reason for that, I just had this tiny niggling feeling that he wasn't going to listen to me tell him 'no' and figured I'd just jump straight to the manager and save everyone some time. I apologize for not having the authorization to attempt what he wants (only managers can void a return anyways) and page the front-end manager for him.
After a bit of questioning, L finds out he'd bought two 360 systems, on two receipts. The receipt he didn't have had used a gift card (and therefore could only be refunded as a gift card), while the one he DID have had used cash and debit. Now she HAS to have the return receipt to have any chance of doing anything. The guy is an Interruptasaurus, and a very loud and angry one at that. L isn't having any of that, she just interrupts right back with "sir, let me finish explaining this". The questioning and explanations take nearly 20 minutes, and the store manager gets paged over to back L up because she's tired of dealing with this guy. The guy finally admits his son is 14 and could have grabbed the wrong receipt by accident, but his body language as he left to get it was very annoyed.
An hour later he's back, with the return receipt. At a glance, I can tell that the original receipt ID on the return does not match the debit purchase receipt...and it's dated 3 days ago. He's out of luck, but I immediately page L back. She arrives with one of our LP guys in tow because she'd been shutting down registers and he has to escort her.
She immediately determines the receipts don't match up. The guy doesn't like this and starts ranting. Now it's OUR fault the kid gave us the wrong receipt. We should have known better. L counters that if we are handed a receipt, we make a return with that receipt, there is no way for any CSR to know that there's another. The guy points out that the item numbers from both receipts match up, L points out that the receipt ID numbers do not.
The guy's furious now, red-faced and pacing and waving his arms, in full-blown SC bullhorn mode. He starts ranting about how we took both receipts and deliberately and callously tossed aside the cash one, taking advantage of his son's age to force a gift card on him, and he tosses receipts around to demonstrate. (The LP guy has him fixed with an intent stare at this point, just watching and waiting. N WILL go over the counter after someone if he thinks one of the team members is in danger. I've seen him do it.) The SC is BELLOWING about age discrimination and us taking advantage of minors, illegal business practices, fraud, and he ends up with this rant about how he's going to call corporate and get us all fired and the store shut down and bulldozed to the ground. He finally got fired up enough to remove himself so as to bring such doom and gloom on us.
...not likely, over the holidays we got ourselves upgraded to a 'high volume' store.
I feel sorry for the kid, it was an easy mistake to make. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't one that could be undone.
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