The Epic Tale of Miss H.

[Marxfan]

I had customers return books to B&N, that:

Looked like they were purchased at a garage sale
Looked like they'd been dropped in the toilet
Had thumbprints all over it, dogeared corners, missing CDs

[Jester]

Why won't their "music" DVD play in their car's CD player? Yep, they didn't grasp the idea that a DVD is, and always shall be, a DVD.

Um, hi. Yeah, I was pretty much guilty of that one. Didn't actually make it to returning it to the store, though.

What happened was I bought Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell CD. And it comes with a bonus DVD. But for some reason my little jester brain read "bonus DVD" as "bonus CD." And I could not for the life of me figure out why the bonus disc would not play in my truck's CD player. It wasn't till I mentioned this to RW and she pointed out the error in my thinking that I realized my mistake. I was THAT close to going back to the store to return the disc as defective and buy a new one.

So yeah, I kinda feel their pain on that one.

[Banrion]

it reminds me of the "Buy-Burn-Return" thing that customers were doing in the store a few months ago.

They would walk around the corner to the local dvd store, buy a dvd, come into the netcafe, burn a copy, go back to the dvd store and return it (rince and repeat apparently, some of them would copy 5+ dvds a day)

apparently since there was only a 10-15 minute turn around between them buying and returning the dvd the store was assuming that they weren't watching the dvd before returning it, and couldn't be burning it

What kind of software/hardware did the netcafe have to be able to burn a dvd in 10 mins?!?! I have a 16x dvd burner, and the actual burning of a disk takes maybe 15-20 mins on a single layer, 25-30 for dual layer, but the decode/encode process takes 45 mins to an hour.

[JLG]

The store I work at will take back almost ANYTHING. Our return policy is 30 days but that is only to get cash back or put back on your credit card. After 30 days it is store credit. No receipt is also a store credit.

Many people take the tags off the stuff they purchased and put it on old clothes they have at home and return it for a store credit or get cash back or credit back on their card if they have their receipt.

They can also peel our sticky tags off and stick it on something else and return it.

If they have a tag and receipt and I know it is not our merchandise I MUST return it anyway. That for some stupid reason is what corporate says we must do.

If the customer has no tags or receipt then we can say no to the return.

I get that "It was a gift" all the time because people think if they say that then we will find a price and return it.

Every weekend we see the same fraud returners. They bring in walmart clothes with our tags on them. If the tag is attached but no receipt then most likely I will have to return it. A lady came in last week and had our sticky price tag of $59.99 on a pair of awful looking boots. We never sold that boot. The tag was not for a pair of boots but for another type of shoe. She had her receipt and I had to return it. This lady is in almost every weekend with her mom doing returns like this. We have people in our company that investigate these fraud returners but I have not seen them stop any of them yet.

[sld72382]

Wasn't it Neiman-Marcus who made the news by banning a pair of customers who were exactly like the one in the OP? They'd come in, buy a dress, wear it with tags intact, then return it. Over and over, to the tune of thousands of dollars.

I think Miss H. ought to be banned, as well. I agree with Marxfan, it's theft, especially since she's getting all of her money back ("renting" implies paying a non-refundable fee for use of the rented item).

That was Filene's, the 2 sisters were banned for "renting" and then sued because they said it was their right to do so. The judge sided with Filene's stating because the store is private property, they can do what they want.

Anyway, onto my own story of renting. I used to work at an electronics/office supply store in NY, and there was a guy they came in that was cool and all, but then we started noticing a pattern where he would buy stuff (not cheap stuff either) and return it. My SM told me NOT to sell anything to him after about the 3rd "rent."

[Tria]

Sorry to be self-righteous, but that doesn't sound remotely lovely or kind. It's fucking THEFT, and she's taking advantage of everyone's good nature with her "well meaning" facade. Oh, if only customers like that can just be banned...

Now, I admit to being slow.... But I do believe that was sarcasm inthe OP....

[Geek King]

What kind of software/hardware did the netcafe have to be able to burn a dvd in 10 mins?!?! I have a 16x dvd burner, and the actual burning of a disk takes maybe 15-20 mins on a single layer, 25-30 for dual layer, but the decode/encode process takes 45 mins to an hour.

Maybe not burn it immediatly, but copy/rip an image to the computer. Then, you can burn it later when you want, or you can have one person return it while the other burns the image. I could pull it off with some of the freeware available and a personal laptop.

<mutters to self> Must only use my powers for good. Must only use my powers for good. Must....

[Jewels]

I work in jewelry, and there are plenty of women out there who will come in, plunk down a nice chunk of change on some jewelry and return it the next week. This seems to happen a lot around the holidays and the summer weddings.

One woman came in and purchases a diamond circle pendant for herself, and then came back to return it claiming that it wasn't her style...even though she picked it out for herself and was clearly worn.

There was one woman who use to frequent our store who would buy thousands of dollars of stuff and then return it on the last day possible.

There was also a lady who came in and purchased three high end time pieces, claiming that they were to be handed out at her company banquet. She returned them a few days later, saying that her boss decided to go in a different direction. One of my coworkers recognized her at that point as pulling the same stunt at her old store the year before.

[wagegoth]

That so pisses me off, because the rest of us honest customers pay the prices for these thieves.

Is there any way to write to the company (I'm a member) without giving away the information that an employee is spilling the beans on this practice?

[XCashier]

That was Filene's, the 2 sisters were banned for "renting" and then sued because they said it was their right to do so. The judge sided with Filene's stating because the store is private property, they can do what they want.

Thanks! Couldn't remember the store, but I was quite pleased about the outcome.

[shenzee]

Yet I still get people that are shocked, and angry, that we will not take a vibrator back because "it wasn't strong enough".

If it's not "strong enough", methinks she needs to lay off for awhile, she is rubbing herself numb!

Oh and yuck.

[mirth]

Actually, I have found return policies to work to my advantage.

I used to work at a bougie health food grocery store. I worked in the deli as a barista then moved into the kitchen. Well, right by the loading docks there would be the expired/rancid/dented/returned food shelf. Many times very expensive items would be returned when they were deemed "rancid" or "expired." What that really meant was some yuppie realized they spent $40 on organic, fair-trade chocolate bars and returned them. Yes, sometimes the food was bad, but most of the time it wasn't. It was easy then just to get a back of house MOD to write off the item, and I got to take it home for free. Delicious. All those supplements kept me from getting scurvy...

[Becks]

Yet I still get people that are shocked, and angry, that we will not take a vibrator back because "it wasn't strong enough".

I'll have to comment more later, because I'm too busy laughing to be coherent.

[Dreamstalker]

My question is: Who the hell gave him year-old, unworn, 2XL (he was not that big) sweatpants?

I know a guy who would "regift" things (read: ship me unwanted crap that his relatives gave him). One such item is a brand new (tags still on) Hollister sweatshirt. Kinda nice, but way, way too big on me. I've been tempted to try and return the thing, but of course there's no receipt and I don't shop there so wouldn't have use for a credit. Ebay it is for that thing then...

[Lady Heather]

Returns

Another common one at my store is "lighting". Disco balls, strobes, fog machines. The SC buys it, partys, returns it. If the light still works we can resell it. But God that's annoying, I know they just rented it! Our no cash back policy helps though. (we are not required to tell them that policy, and SCs don't read recits so..)