The Great Return

[silverstaff]

Date: Fall 2003
Time: Saturday evening
Place: Large Department Store in a Large Urban Mall

I was working the blue jean counter on the first floor of the store, only maybe 30 or 40 feet from the side entrance. A teenage/pre-teen kid comes up to my register with two giant shopping bags in tow, the biggest bags our store makes, and they are bulging, and he's straining to carry the bags that are practically dragging behind him.

He says he wants to return some stuff. Well, that's what we're here for. Well, we'd rather sell stuff, but we're also here to process returns.

He starts throwing all the various items onto the counter, and they all have their tags with the little "proof of purchase" bar code we put on them at the time of purchase, so we could take them for return without a receipt.

It's a LOT of stuff, from around the store. Blue jeans, pants, ties, dress shirts, sneakers, high heels, lingerie, pantyhose, dresses and skirts, pajamas, tee shirts, socks, underwear. . .it was essentially an entire families wardrobe, and it was all scanning as valid returns as they all still had all the tags and proof of purchase.

Since who sells every item is tracked with those bar codes, and we were all on a quota system, these returns would count against somebodies quotas and they were going to be in deep trouble.

Well, eventually this giant pile of clothing was finished tallying out, and it came to almost $3000 worth of clothes.

Now, before I finished, I had to ask a scripted question to the young customer:

"Do you want the return in the original tender?"

His eyes lit up like Christmas Morning. "Tender?!? Yeah! I want Tender!"

Okay, "original tender" it is. I push the button for that, and the register makes that loud grinding noise it makes while it prints out a receipt as I tell him that $2950.33 (or so) was returned to the American Express card that all this stuff was purchased on.

He goes from giddy to whiny brat in 0.5 seconds flat. "But I want CASH!! Give me CASH!!!" He is got a mopey look on his face and actually stomping the floor as he says it, starting on a temper tantrum more fit for a toddler. He keeps repeating that he wants that almost $3k in cold hard cash right now for the returns.

Well, besides the fact that I don't have even close to $3k in the register, so I'd have to send him upstairs to the office for that, even if he was going to get a cash return. The bigger problems were that you can't do a cash return for an item purchased on a credit card, and the biggest problem was that the return had been completed and the items were store property again.

I explain these points to the young man, who gets a sheepish look on his face and nervously asks for all the clothes back. I remind him that he has returned the clothes, but if he wants we will sell it all back to him for the ~$3k sum.

He gets a look of shock and horror on his face and makes a run for the exit, dashing out the side entrance of the store and into the parking lot.

I wonder what his mom did a few weeks later when she saw a $3k credit on her American Express card.

[LillFilly]

I wonder what his mom did a few weeks later when she saw a $3k credit on her American Express card.

I'm wondering what his Mom thought when she found all her clothes gone! But wow, that's a lot of clothes to buy all at once.

[Lyse]

I'm thinking more like the family that had all their shopping stolen from their car. But I'm cynical that way.

[Redbeard]

I'm thinking more like the family that had all their shopping stolen from their car. But I'm cynical that way.

Yup. Sounds like that was a pint sized mule right there.

[EricKei]

I'm thinking more like the family that had all their shopping stolen from their car. But I'm realistic that way.

Fixed that for ya ^_^ I find it suspicious, myself, that he had a TON of stuff to return all at once, tags intact, and that he freaked when he was denied cash.

PS to !

[Teskeria]

I'm thinking your company is smart to word it that way. As it will catch thieves like that one who think tender means cash.

[Hawaiian Eskimo]

Wait, $3,000, in clothes?



Who buys that much... wait, forgot where I was for a minute.

[EricKei]

Wait, $3,000, in clothes?

Sounds like one of Gravekeeper's customers -- Including the shipping and inevitable other charges, I can see someone racking up a bill like that quite easily. After all, those 3AM callers just gotta have those pink camo pants NOW NOW NOW >_>

[Mystic]

I suppose at least if a family had them stolen, they had a nice surprise waiting for them a few days later which probably made their lives a lot better.

[Moosenogger]

That situation just screams "theft." I was thinking that he had perhaps pilfered it all from around the store, then brought it up in bags as though he'd actually purchased it. You'd think someone with $3k worth of clothing would have kept a receipt or two. :/

[MoonCat]

That situation just screams "theft." I was thinking that he had perhaps pilfered it all from around the store, then brought it up in bags as though he'd actually purchased it. You'd think someone with $3k worth of clothing would have kept a receipt or two. :/

Yes, this is what puzzles me. If those clothes actually were purchased - and they must have been, because you had "proof of purchase" and a record in the system of an American Express card - then whose card was it? It does sound more like he stole stuff from somebody's car or house. In which case they just got back what they originally spent, not a windfall....

[Opalin]

Sounds a lot like he did steal them, saw the proof of purchase on them and wanted to make off like a king when he saw how much. I'd report it with almost 3k worth.

[Sapphire Silk]

Here's my theory.

Punk kid swipes someone's American Express Card, comes to the store, and buys 3K worth of clothes. Then he waits a bit, and brings the stuff back, assuming he'll get a nice cash return.

It explains his shock and why he took off running.

How much of a gap was there between purchase and return? My bet is less than 24 hours.

[mharbourgirl]

My thought is that the CARD was stolen. American Express takes a dim view of stores asking for ID to use the AE card - businesses have had their license to accept that card withdrawn because of it. It's not that hard to fake a signature that looks pretty much like the one on the card, either.

So someone went on a shopping spree with a stolen card with the plan to return it all for cash. Most places won't do that - around here even if you purchase with a debit card they will return it to that debit card, not give you cash. But dude didn't realize that. Gotta love ignorant thieves.

[Catwoman2965]

It's very strange that you posted this as I had a return of just about the same amount last night! without going into details, my store is a kind of upscale women's store, think Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, ilke that.

So customer comes in with two huge boxes and husband in tow. Comes to the register, and has stuff just stuffed into the boxes along with a bag of receipts. Do you think anything was matched up? Nope. So my CW and I had to spend close to an hour checking and matching up items with the various receipts. All the while she's hovering and yamming about why she's brining back so much (ordered multiple items in multiple sizes) and also how she bought some, then they went on sale, so she bought them again, and she wanted the highest price paid. well sweetie, you'll get what you get, if i find something matched on a receipt, that's what your'e getting as we don't have time to look for each item and see if you paid more for one than another.

Now I can see if you're unsure and need to order online, but order two sizes and bring back the one that didn't fit. She must have had 6 of each item, in different sizes and in some case,s differnt colors. There's something wrong with that.

This isn't the first time she's done this, but we all think there's something fishy going on, we just don't know what. she buys a metric fuckton, using her store charge, and then returns most of it. But its HER card, so we can't figure out how she's scamming us, if she is at all. Since all she gets is a credit for what she already put on her card.

And in her customer history, this year alone (not sure if it was from jan-now or the last 12 months) she has spent 30K, yes, that's right, and returned 22K. we think her account may be flagged, but sadly, as long as she still spends quite a bit, which she does, corporate probably won't do squat. But we report her to CS every time she does this, as a CYA manuaver, so hopefully it will stop.