The Policies Don't Change Just Because You're Sucky

[InaHandbasket]

Grr. There I was at work today ringing a register on our long single queue. There is a HUGE blue sign which reads: "Purchase and Returns." That marks where ALL customers should get in line. I happened to be on the register closest to the exit. I notice a woman standing there, a cart of merchandise with her. She had bypassed the line and was looking at my register.

ME: Me, yeah
SC: HER, yeah

ME: Ma'am, the line begins over there. Enter at the big blue sign which says "purchases and returns."
SC: I have a return.
ME: [Not seeing anything but about 20 items of new merchandise in her cart] Purchases and returns are in one line over by the big blue sign which says "purchases and returns."
SC: I want to talk to a manager.
ME: Well, I am one, but I can call my boss. [I paged my boss]
SC: [Goes to the cashier next to me who tells her the same thing I did. Then she heads off to get on line with everyone else.]
My boss arrives and I point towards the woman explaining she didn't think she should wait in the line for a return. My boss noted that with all the merchandise she had, if we had the old system of separate returns, she would have had to wait in two lines -- one for the return, the other to buy all the stuff. 20 items and one return is nowhere near an "exchange."

Sure enough, it's my luck of the draw to get the same SC after she waited on line. She piled all of the merchandise on my counter.

ME: I thought you said you had a return?
SC: Yes. [Digs in pocketbook bringing out a rather battered hat with a price tag, no receipt.]
ME: Do you have a receipt? This hat is from the fall season. [Our price tickets have a date code on them I know by heart -- this was new merchandise in August.] I can only offer you a store credit for the current selling price without a receipt.
SC: I just bought it two weeks ago. I lost the receipt.
ME: [I check the hat for markdowns. It was currently at $15 instead of $19.99, the original price. It's probably even less as that was the first markdown, but I didn't run it through a second time.] It's selling at $15.00.
SC: I want the twenty dollars for it.
ME: I can only offer you $15 store credit, ma'am.
SC: I want to talk to a manager.
ME: [Calls boss who tells her the same exact thing I did. She shoves the hat back in her pocketbook and buys the rest of her stuff.] Thank you, ma'am.
SC: [Glare]

ARGH!

[Camry178]

I'm happy that your boss had a spine and backed you up.

[wagegoth]

This is something I've been wondering about. With the economy in such a mess, will stores (Nakajo's has already started) get serious about their return policies and quit just handing out freebies to anyone who complains? People are not spending as much money right now, so while some people think that stores will just keep dropping prices and doing giveaways to get customers, other people believe that stores will stop the hemorrhaging by tightening up and following the rules. Personally, I'd like to see all the stores get backbones; I'm sick of being an honest customer and having part of my purchases go to pay out gift cards and write off unsaleable goods that people return.

[blas]

I have been wondering the same thing, wagegoth. The woman at the grocery store who got me suspended with her complaint most likely got at least $50 in freebies, if not more. How can companies continue to afford to keep shelling out freebies to every single person who complains about an employee or a policy? Eventually they will all go bankrupt.

When will they get it through their thick hollow skulls that the best way to save money right now is to STICK TO POLICY and don't hand out freebies to every single Bitchy Betty?

[anyanka2]

I'd almost expect some stricter adherence to return/exchange guidelines at my store due to the razor thin profit we've had the past month and a half. The problem is that most of the managers except one or two have no idea of how to say no to a customer. They feel it's more important to keep a customer happy at the expense of the bottom line.

That's not a philosophy I agree with. If the customer is a regular who comes in at least once a week and spends a decent amount of money, I'd do anything to help them. If they're the type that shows up once a month at most and doesn't spend that much, I wouldn't be as motivated to help them. One particular customer fit this type - an older woman who I see fairly infrequently maybe twice a month returned a 10 lb bag of chicken legs that she had ate because she thought I overcharged her. My manager gave in to her, giving her the chicken at the sale price. Needless to say, I haven't seen the woman in since then.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This is something I've been wondering about. With the economy in such a mess, will stores (Nakajo's has already started) get serious about their return policies and quit just handing out freebies to anyone who complains?

I'd love it if my company did this. I really would.

Unfortunately they aren't. At least at my store, they're going in the opposite direction and focusing on "superior customer service."

Lately, at our team huddles, management has been reading various comments from the online customer service surveys. All the cashiers have to hand out a little slip of paper with the Web address for the survey to each customer and tell them they can win a $250 shopping spree for participating.

My unalterable opinion on these surveys is they need to DIAF. About 65-70% of the comments on these surveys are negative. I don't think we need to give the complainers extra incentive to complain.

Among the general complaints are:

• The employees aren't knowledgeable enough about the products.
• The employees don't greet customers.
• The employees greet customers too much (Hasn't this been established as one of the great Catch-22s in working retail?)
• The cashiers don't make small talk; they just take your money and hustle you out the door.
• The cashiers make too much small talk and make you wait.
• The employees look like they'd rather be anyplace than at the store. (Well duh, it's work.)
• There's trash in the shopping carts (Blame the piggish people who treat the carts as rolling garbage cans for that.)
• The employees aren't necessarily rude, but they aren't friendly enough.
• The parking lot is full of carts, although there are generally carts available at the entrances.
• In the interest of balance, we did get one good comment from somebody, who blamed other customers for things being messy and trash lying around. Which one of you CSers posted that particular comment?
• Another good comment--although our prices are higher than Wally World's, the value is better because the products are better than Wally World's.

At our last huddle, after the manager on duty read the survey comments, she gave us a big lecture about how our prices are higher than Wal-Fart's, and we need to go above and beyond because people won't pay our prices if the service isn't as good. The latest survey comments were also posted in the break room with selected comments highlighted and the message at the top of the page reading "Are any of these comments--good or bad--about you?" Why they are harping about our supposedly-subpar customer service when our sales this month are up 8% over last year is beyond me.

Meanwhile, we aren't tightening up our return policies any. We did that last year, but I recently found out we will still give no-receipt refunds on items priced under $20. I had thought we weren't doing that anymore.

So I guess corporate doesn't mind being nickel-and-dimed with returns as long as they can continue to flog us peons.