Them's the rules

[Imogene]

Had a customer yesterday who bought stuff, paid with a check, and left. I moved on to the next customer, only to realize customer had returned, her receipt in her hand, staring at it as though it were about to tapdance. Customer I'm on is mostly done, just waiting for the receipt to print, so I turn to prior customer.
"Uh oh, what'd I do?"
PC: "I think you charged me for three of this item, but I only bought two."
"It's possible, the scanner doesn't work very well, and I may have missed hearing it beep."
PC: "I need to get that fixed. Maybe you could give me back my check, and re-ring everything, and I'll write a new one."
"Er... I'm sorry, but we have a ten-day holding period on all checks... However, since I'm not entirely sure what other options there are, let me call the FES and double check." *call FES M, explain* "I can only do returns for a check under that ten-day waiting period as store credit."
PC goes ballistic: "No! You rang it wrong! I don't want store credit! I want to talk to your manager!"
*point* "She's right over there in the blue."
PC walks over to M's line.

An earlier customer did a return with me as well. I got it all returned, and told her to go ahead and swipe her debit card (she'd purchased the items on Debit).
Woman, perfectly polite up until that point, says, "But, it was on a debit card."
"Yes, however, we can only return your money the way it was given to us."
W: "But it was on a debit card."
"And you'll get your money back just fine."
W: "In two days, right?"
"I don't know the turn around for that, I'd imagine it depends more on your bank, and their operating procedure."
W relents and swipes her debit card. Then leaves.

[simplyanother]

When we've had issues like that, the manager has voided the previous transaction and had everything rerung correctly.

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I think a lot of places are giving cash back for debit returns now. We never did when I worked at Sears, Penney's, etc. I might ask if they do returns in cash or back on debit...and then do whatever they told me!

When I worked at Sears we would have problems with a couple of people writing bad or stolen (however they did that...they always have to show ID) checks at one register and then taking the stuff to another register and returing it, and getting cash. If it was the same day, we started sending them back to where they rang up, and giving them the check back. Then they just started waiting until the next day. Although, they probably have a holding period on checks now, too.

[Emrld]

I had an odd one last night where a lady made a purchase . . .I had to get change from another registar and by the time it was done she decided she didn't want to make the purchase . . .I gave her the same $20 bill she paid me with . . .don't know if she was trying to pass off a bad bill or really changed her mind. Never can tell

[Dave1982]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I fail to see the Suck here. If I was overcharged, then told I can't get my money back, I'd be upset, too.

[smileyeagle1021]

this really could go under sightings, but it relates to the topic of refunds... I have only once walked out of a fast food place because I couldn't stand the employees, even the ones that irritate me I will normally write off as having had a bad day (because i've worked fast food, your days do suck). But I went into the restaraunt, the person in front of me was wearing a sears nametag, and the cashier just started attacking this guy about how their (sears) return policy was wrong and that she should have been able to get cash on her refund that had been originally purchased on credit card. She even said it had been her mother's credit card that had paid for the purchase .
This sears guy didn't even work at the store she returned at, he hadn't even said anything to the girl, he just walked up to order.
needless to say i had a and both of us walked out.

[Camry178]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I fail to see the Suck here. If I was overcharged, then told I can't get my money back, I'd be upset, too.

Me too. There's no way that I should have to wait for my money when there was a mistake made on your part.

[Saydrah]

Me too. There's no way that I should have to wait for my money when there was a mistake made on your part.

The suck is when the SC flips out on the ground-level associate for a policy they didn't create and they don't have a choice about following. I'd be annoyed, too, but I'd immediately ask, nicely, for a manager, not take it out on the cashier who made an honest mistake.

[Imogene]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I fail to see the Suck here. If I was overcharged, then told I can't get my money back, I'd be upset, too.

You would've gotten your money back, only in the form of a gift card, there's no way in the system to refund a full check if it has been less than ten days.

Her suck involved the cutting right back into line instead of going through the line again, and getting pissy before I could even get hold of the FES and double check what could be done.
Of course, I'm not sure what the FES did for her, but she definitely didn't come back through my line.

[alphaboi]

You would've gotten your money back, only in the form of a gift card, there's no way in the system to refund a full check if it has been less than ten days...

If a business overcharges me I expect to get my money back as actual money, not scrip that I can only spend in that store. I do agree that it's wrong to berate a cashier over a policy (however ridiculous) they have no control over. It was the store's mistake, it's not right to make the customer wait over a week to get it corrected.

[Sliceanddice]

i agree with the policy, because you know there where poeple trying to scam using bad checks to get cash from stores. i agree with it and im surpirsed you guys dont see it.

[Saydrah]

I think the appropriate method of dealing with the issue would have been to tear up the customer's original check, void the transaction, and allow the customer to repurchase the items.

[simplyanother]

At my location, that is what happens, Saydrah.

If it is a mistake on MY part, as a customer, then yeah, I'll wait the 10 days for the check to clear. If it it is the fault of the cashier or the store, then hell no I won't wait 10 days for my money to be returned to me. I won't be sucky about it, but it if it's not my fault, then it's not my fault.

[Saydrah]

Being sucky about it doesn't really change the fact that their system isn't set up to void a transaction, though, if that's the case in this story.

[BookstoreEscapee]

i agree with the policy, because you know there where poeple trying to scam using bad checks to get cash from stores. i agree with it and im surpirsed you guys dont see it.

I do also, but the issue here is that something was accidentally scanned twice, so she was charged for one more than she actually bought. It was the fault of the store. I've done it a million times as cashier. Usually I'd catch the extra beep, or realize the total didn't seem right, but sometimes I'd miss it until the customer brought it to my attention. In this case, I would have also voided the transaction, given back the check and had her write a new one. Though, if it was a small amount (say, under $5-10), I would probably just do it as a cash return (I was lucky in that I was head cashier and had the authority to do such things at my discretion - made my life a lot easier).

B&N does give back cash on debit purchases. When they installed the pinpads so that we could do debit, they programmed the system so that if you do a post-void on a debit transaction, the register automatically gives back cash instead of simply reversing the transaction. I've occasionally had a customer with a debit return request that the money be put back on the card, anyway, which is fine as long as they understand that it can take a few days before they will see it in their account.

I once had a guy try to return over $300 worth of (professional medical) books that had been bought earlier that day, by his business partner, at a different store, with a check. Our check hold was 5 days at the time. Oh, yeah, and it was around 9pm on Labor Day. No, I wasn't the least bit suspicious. (And no, he didn't get his cash back, either. He was given the option of store credit, waiting the 5 days, or going back to the other store before they closed that night and asking them to cancel the transaction and give him back the check.)