It's been a little while as I've been enjoying my job lately believe it or not (generally as the post-holiday shopping is quite slow and it barely has any hagglers or scammers - In fact, most customers this time of year act mature and are willing to part with a couple bucks for the expertise and service we provide.)
Well, most are except this professional scammer that has been trying to pull one on us for a couple days now.
My store has Price Match Guarantees against the big box stores to remain competitive, which is all fine and dandy we just need to see it either on the store's web site or in a published advertisement. But Friday night a young lady (from now forward we will refer to as Lovely Lady or LL) came in claiming that a salesperson of ours told her that we would sell her a camcorder for $100 off (almost a quarter of the price discounted) because a salesperson at a competitor TOLD HER they'd sell it to her for that price. She came in conveniently when said salesperson was off for the night.
I quickly told her that we can't just match claims as anybody could just make a claim that anything is any price and it's against company policy.
LL - "Well this is f***ing ridiculous, your salesperson told me to come down here and you would sell it to me for that price!"
Me - "Unfortunately you must have misheard our salesperson, we require an advertisement either in print or on the internet to match, the price you claim is otherwise far to low for us to just sell it to you at."
LL - "I was told to come here and you would sell it to me at that price because the salesperson at (store name removed) said he'd give it to us for that price because they're changing the price to that on monday!"
Me - "well, first of all, Monday is a holiday, so I doubt the store will even be open to make such sale, but if it's true you can always bring your receipt back during that sale and we will refund you the difference."
(this goes on for quite awhile, including several requests for her to talk to a manager -who was not at the store at the time- and saying that "if (she) were to run a business she would just give the camcorder to somebody saying they were told this." - The reason I am quite certain she was trying to scam us is that she immediately went over the top when I said what our policy on the price matches are).
Eventually I had put the product on hold for them saying that I would have to check with the salesperson regarding said claim and she left dissatisfied with her boyfriend who basically didn't say a thing and just stood back and watched her freak out. I called the other salesperson afterwards and she had in fact told said customer to bring in an ad and we would match it.
The simple fact is if we did make such a price cut on such an empty claim, the poor salesperson would get penalized for selling such a discounted camera without reason and the company would not make any money.
The Lovely Lady called me today at work and I had told her I spoke to the other salesperson who told me that she needed to see the ad, to which she immediately replied "she told me to just come down and you would sell it to me at that price"
Me - "Unfortunately (the salesperson) herself has told me that she said to bring an ad in and it's against company policy to sell such a popular product at such a high discount otherwise."
LL - "Are you calling me a liar!? I want to speak to your manager!"
(conveniently my manager had stepped out, so this is two straight times that she missed the boss)
Me - "She's not in right now, but I'll gladly take your phone number and have her call you when she's back."
LL - "I'll just call back later!" *click!*
I've kept my assistant manager up to date with the entire situation who has told me that she isn't getting $1 off of the camcorder without an ad. The entire staff is still confused as to why if this competitor is offering such a great deal, why try to have us match it on word-of-mouth so desperately?
The entire situation wreaks of dodginess.
Also, I had a lady call me today to pin me against another salesperson and another one of our stores in a different location to see who would offer her the "best deal" we both quite quickly told her to find her deal elsewhere.
What's wrong with people these days? Generally I go by the deal of the price is the price unless price matching or the customer is actually pleasant and doesn't ask for a deal. Who would think that being nice and civil would get you somewhere in life?
Well, most are except this professional scammer that has been trying to pull one on us for a couple days now.
My store has Price Match Guarantees against the big box stores to remain competitive, which is all fine and dandy we just need to see it either on the store's web site or in a published advertisement. But Friday night a young lady (from now forward we will refer to as Lovely Lady or LL) came in claiming that a salesperson of ours told her that we would sell her a camcorder for $100 off (almost a quarter of the price discounted) because a salesperson at a competitor TOLD HER they'd sell it to her for that price. She came in conveniently when said salesperson was off for the night.
I quickly told her that we can't just match claims as anybody could just make a claim that anything is any price and it's against company policy.
LL - "Well this is f***ing ridiculous, your salesperson told me to come down here and you would sell it to me for that price!"
Me - "Unfortunately you must have misheard our salesperson, we require an advertisement either in print or on the internet to match, the price you claim is otherwise far to low for us to just sell it to you at."
LL - "I was told to come here and you would sell it to me at that price because the salesperson at (store name removed) said he'd give it to us for that price because they're changing the price to that on monday!"
Me - "well, first of all, Monday is a holiday, so I doubt the store will even be open to make such sale, but if it's true you can always bring your receipt back during that sale and we will refund you the difference."
(this goes on for quite awhile, including several requests for her to talk to a manager -who was not at the store at the time- and saying that "if (she) were to run a business she would just give the camcorder to somebody saying they were told this." - The reason I am quite certain she was trying to scam us is that she immediately went over the top when I said what our policy on the price matches are).
Eventually I had put the product on hold for them saying that I would have to check with the salesperson regarding said claim and she left dissatisfied with her boyfriend who basically didn't say a thing and just stood back and watched her freak out. I called the other salesperson afterwards and she had in fact told said customer to bring in an ad and we would match it.
The simple fact is if we did make such a price cut on such an empty claim, the poor salesperson would get penalized for selling such a discounted camera without reason and the company would not make any money.
The Lovely Lady called me today at work and I had told her I spoke to the other salesperson who told me that she needed to see the ad, to which she immediately replied "she told me to just come down and you would sell it to me at that price"
Me - "Unfortunately (the salesperson) herself has told me that she said to bring an ad in and it's against company policy to sell such a popular product at such a high discount otherwise."
LL - "Are you calling me a liar!? I want to speak to your manager!"
(conveniently my manager had stepped out, so this is two straight times that she missed the boss)
Me - "She's not in right now, but I'll gladly take your phone number and have her call you when she's back."
LL - "I'll just call back later!" *click!*
I've kept my assistant manager up to date with the entire situation who has told me that she isn't getting $1 off of the camcorder without an ad. The entire staff is still confused as to why if this competitor is offering such a great deal, why try to have us match it on word-of-mouth so desperately?
The entire situation wreaks of dodginess.
Also, I had a lady call me today to pin me against another salesperson and another one of our stores in a different location to see who would offer her the "best deal" we both quite quickly told her to find her deal elsewhere.
What's wrong with people these days? Generally I go by the deal of the price is the price unless price matching or the customer is actually pleasant and doesn't ask for a deal. Who would think that being nice and civil would get you somewhere in life?
Comment