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  • How hard is a refund?

    I know stores have suspended refunds, mine has an exception for products that are clearly not up to standards. We bought a tub of butter on 5/23, get it home (it's been in a cooler bag the whole time)...very rancid. I look closely at the sell-by date, the ink is smeared but I can read 5/20 O_o (honestly, I'm the only person there who gives a shit about rotation). This is good organic US butter, but when it goes off even under refrigeration it goes off.

    We were in yesterday and decide to return it. Mom goes up to the service desk with the butter, warehouse manager accepts the return as it was obviously out of code when we bought it (he said something along the lines of "This is why I want Dreamstalker back, she would have caught this."). We didn't have the credit card we used, so we get a merch credit for what we buy then. Why they didn't put the $ on a gift card I don't know. So when we're done shopping we go to check out and the following ensues.

    Mom: knows the fools I work for and relishes a chance to mess with them
    T: Cashier, obviously one of our "peacock" manager types (walks around, looks pretty, doesn't know or do a lot) who has never run a register. He doesn't recognize me.

    Mom has a chocolate bar in her hand as we walk up to the register, T takes it from her and scans it as she is telling him about the refund...guidelines state that cashiers cannot take items from customers, they must be placed on a counter and then picked up (no direct contact)
    Mom: "I was in here last week and I bought a tub of butter that was way out of date. I just returned it to [warehouse manager], he said you would give me a credit for the amount."
    T: "Pardon, what?"
    This continues in various forms for about 2 minutes.
    T: "So this chocolate is out of date and you want a refund?"
    Mom: "No, I am getting a credit for a tub of butter that was out of date. Here is my receipt and [warehouse manager] circled the item I'm getting the refund for. Just give me a sale credit in that amount."
    T: "So how much was the cost?"
    Mom tells him. We can see he's confused with the register. I know how to issue a refund but keep my mouth shut and see where this ends up.
    During the sale he double-scans a couple items, he's not bagging as he goes but letting crap pile up on the tiny counter made even tinier by the barriers they installed. We catch this, luckily the front end manager is there to fix things. When he goes to scan my employee ID that double scans, resulting in the discount being voided and the register locking up.

    As the transaction closes out, he announces the total and then puts the refund through (after I inserted my card in the reader, so it locks up again).

    I later see on the receipt that T had keyed in a line item called "TIP REFUND" that only the restaurants use (retail and restaurants use the same POS and all functions are available to everyone, the onus is on the user to know what they can and cannot do). T is going to have to explain that one to the cash office. Mom pointed out that she could have told him the full price and probably would have gotten it.
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

  • #2
    I'm not sure that is so much about how difficult a refund is, but more about what an idiot looks like running a register.

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    • #3
      This is what happens when you have the managers doing everything. Whatever "image" they're trying to cultivate has been torched by the "face of the company" screwing up basic tasks.

      (we have noticed that when this clown has been the only cashier, the SCOs have a line)
      "I am quite confident that I do exist."
      "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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      • #4
        Extremely hard That's what she said...
        The Copyright Monster has made me tell you that my avatar is courtesy of the wonderful Alice XZ.And you don't want to annoy the Copyright Monster.

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        • #5
          I like to think of myself as somewhat clever. I spent one season working in a superstore and almost anything other than a straight sale confounded me. Someone could walk me through it, but when I came back to work the next day I would have zero recollection of how I performed the operation 24 hours before.

          I am good with my hands.

          I suppose if one is going to make a career out of it, one ought to learn or be get used to being considered useless.

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          • #6
            Yup. Most of the managers can't do our jobs in any way; they're used to hiding in the office and ordering people around, not doing real work.
            "I am quite confident that I do exist."
            "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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            • #7
              Quoth Kit-Ginevra View Post
              Extremely hard That's what she said...


              My store has a similar policy: no refunds except for items that are obviously defective ... food that was bought yesterday and, once opened, turns out to be mouldy would definitely qualify.

              BUT in our store it's the shift supervisors (or people above them) who do the entire refund. I do not, and cannot, do a refund.

              My store manager seems to be one of the better ones; he's been at the end of cash registers packing bags, he's been seen running around the store with the "Personal Shopper" buggies filling orders, and so on.
              Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
              ~ Mr Hero

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              • #8
                Saw quite a lot of product that expired today...and an item from April that was still on the shelf So much for O's claim of "we're doing rotation now". Granted manglement has bigger things to think about, but I would still think that customers buying expired product would be Bad...?
                "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                • #9
                  Another one...

                  Last week we bought some fresh shrimp (from Florida). They went into a cooler bag immediately and then to the fridge, were chilled until we opened them up the next day...

                  YOW. The entire apartment smelled pretty bad. The shrimp were slimy and most definitely off. So they go in the garbage disposal, I find the receipt, attach the original price sticker (with the sell-by date matching the receipt date) and make a note of when we opened them.

                  We went shopping again yesterday and told the front end manager what happened--those shrimp had to be bad or on the verge when we bought them. Typical response would be to refund the $$ on a gift card or let us get an equivalent value to replace it.

                  Nope, that would be way too easy. Since the original purchase had been made on a grocery credit and was essentially free, the grocery manager and HR Guy had to be involved to "authorize" an equal exchange...and we were asked why we didn't bring the shrimp back. Because they were BAD upon opening and had we kept them another week the stench would have evacuated the whole damn mall (and had every dog/cat/rat/skunk in the city following us to the store). You really think that I, the queen of rotation who was raised by a trained chef, would lie about something like that?
                  "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                  "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I have purchased milk that spoiled. (In 40 years of buying groceries, milk going bad - twice - was the only time I ever asked for a credit.)

                    The only thing asked of me was to bring in the container. No one wanted the actual milk.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth workerbee222 View Post
                      ... The only thing asked of me was to bring in the container. No one wanted the actual milk.
                      Opening that container of spoiled milk in the store would be almost as effective as luring a skunk through the front doors!
                      I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                      Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                      Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth workerbee222 View Post
                        ...almost anything other than a straight sale confounded me.
                        Making sure people know how to do everything properly is management's job -- that failure is on them, not you

                        Personally, I am also of the mind that nobody should be a manager unless they can demonstrate skill doing everything their employees could ever be required to so. Otherwise, they're just, well...Manager Peacock up there. Worse than useless.
                        "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                        "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                        "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                        "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                        "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                        "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                        Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                        "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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                        • #13
                          Yup. Never was the distinction clearer than my now-former workplace. The original grocery manager did claw his way up through the ranks, and it showed--he not only knew how to do everything, but could also tell when one of us was ready to take on more responsibilities (and he would poll the whole team to make sure everyone was fine with it).

                          They start bringing in managers from the home country to maintain a "cultural look" and they know less than bupkis about actual operations...FAIL.
                          "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                          "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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