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How to not get a refund [Epic Rant]

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  • How to not get a refund [Epic Rant]

    Long time lurker, occasional commenter, but this will be my first post.

    I just had to post about this case. This has some suck on the customer's part, and quite a bit of complaint about our computer systems at work.
    Now I don't work customer service directly, but in the department that oversees the actual customer service agents, who are outsourced. As part of my duties I am now answering the charge backs from our credit card processor. A little while ago I got a charge back for a customer wanting a refund for some returned product...

    Along time ago (November 2010) in a sucky customer's house far far away SC placed three orders through our web site for some accessories. Each order was for three different accessories but in different mixes of quantities so each order was distinct and a slightly different price. SC decided that they only wanted one of the orders so they called our customer service group to have two of the orders cancelled...

    Now our system is a mis-mash of programs that makes a Rube Goldberg device look sensible, but it works for the most part. Today the system was apparently humming right along and as a consequence the warehouse already had all three orders picked and in the process for shipping. So the orders could not be canceled.

    Our valiant customer service agents recognized where this was heading and informed the customer that the orders could not be canceled. They offered to set up the Return Authorizations for the customer and to even provide pre-paid return labels through FedEx...

    Now I've used these return labels before for returns with a different company. What the customer gets is an email with the RA number, a return address, a serial number for the return label, directions to three FedEx locations that can process the return label and an attached PDF document with all that information and a bar code that the FedEx worker can scan to set up the label in their system. The only thing the customer does not get is an actual shipping label, and pick-up, and a box to ship the item(s) in.

    Due to how wonky our system is the agents had to set up three RAs, one for each type of item to be returned, even though the customer only had two orders they wanted to return. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, and no we can't change it or make it work a different way. Well we [I]could[I] but if everything doesn't go exactly right, the whole RA is thrown into worse disarray than doing it this way.

    Well of course that was unacceptable to the customer. First off they had trouble opening the attached PDF documents and complained that we should not use PDF , that we should send such documents in Microsoft Word DOC format since that is what they are used to using. Also, it was too much work for the customer to have to take the items they wanted to return to a FedEx location to be shipped to our Return Center. We should schedule FedEx to come to their location to pick up the packages. And why should they have to have three RAs when they wanted to return two orders. No that was all too much work and bad customer service.

    So what does the customer do instead? Why they use their Google-Fu to look up the Corporate telephone number and address (which is on our web site, and the box of the item they bought the accessories for) and shipped their items to Corporate. That is right, even after being given the address to send their items to for a refund and complaining about the time and money of taking their items to a FedEx location to ship their items back to us at our expense the SC went to the Post Office and paid to ship their items to our Corporate HQ.

    I do not work at our Corporate HQ. HQ sent the box to our facility, also not the Return Center either and not the call center. Remember the orders were placed in November 2010. The SC shipped their items to HQ in early December 2010. I do not get wind of this until April 2011.

    I know some of what the customer was thinking of our customer service and how complicated the RA process is because they wrote a letter to the CEO about it, including a print out of their Google search for the Corporate HQ address and phone number. Included in their complaint are the usual complaint about outsourcing, but also a complaint about how much paper we wasted. That is the SC printed out all of the emails for the Order Confirmations, Order shipments, and Billing statements, and the emails back and forth with customer service and the emails with the Return Authorization information AND copies of the packing slips from each of the three orders. But we are the ones wasting paper

    If the SC wanted to prove that our customer service agents provided bad customer service and that our return process is too difficult, then don't provide written documentation that our agents followed policy (some of which was set the folks at HQ) and then go out of your way to ship the items you want a refund for to the WRONG LOCATION. If you want to complain, go ahead and send your letter and half a tree of paper to HQ, but if you are going to go out of your way to ship your items somewhere might as well ship them to the Return Center whose address you have at in at least six places (emails, return label forms, the outside of the box the orders came in, our website...)

    So now four (4) months after this totally bogus journey began the SC will be getting a refund. My boss said, and i give in, that since we do have his stuff we will OK the refund.

    Oh and to top it all off, thanks to our Rube-Goldberg order processing system, the customer has only been charged for one of the three orders. And since that is the amount the SC is contesting, that is what they are getting back.

    I need a drink.

  • #2
    So in his pique, the SC returned all three orders?
    "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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    • #3
      A PDF file is too complex for them? What rock are they living under? Have they invented fire there yet?
      Bark like a chicken!

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      • #4
        Quoth Skeksin View Post
        A PDF file is too complex for them? What rock are they living under? Have they invented fire there yet?
        Probably not, because they're still trying to decide if rocks are edible.
        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

        "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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        • #5
          So he was never charged for 2 of the 3 orders ever? Hope they didn't cost much.
          A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

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          • #6
            They...mailed it to your corporate office? Whose address they had to first look up? When they had all the info they needed to return the stuff to the right place?

            I can't even figure out what the point of that was. I know they thought the process was too complicated, but making it even MORE complicated sure wasn't going to prove their point. Very strange.
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              Quoth Ironclad Alibi View Post
              So in his pique, the SC returned all three orders?
              No they only returned the contents of two of the orders. The SC kept the third.

              Comment


              • #8
                So... SC ordered three orders... then decided to cancel two orders... they received all three orders... they returned two orders without permission and to the wrong location... they were only ever charged for one order and they're going to get the money they were charged back?

                Where do you work again? I may want a widget or three.... >_>

                ^-.-^
                Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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                • #9
                  In other words...they're keeping that "one" order, for free...

                  OP, My condolences.
                  "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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                  • #10
                    First, the idiot places "three orders...for three different accessories but in different mixes of quantities". Then he refuses to follow protocol for returning the wrong orders and sends everything to the wrong address. And he has the gall to complain about your way of doing things?!

                    If he had two functioning brain cells to rub together, he would've figured out what the heck he wanted and how much, then made ONE order for all that he wanted. The Fail is strong with this one! Too bad he's getting rewarded by getting free stuff.

                    Just reading that gave me a headache. I think I'll join you in that drink.
                    I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
                    My LiveJournal
                    A page we can all agree with!

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                    • #11
                      Oh my word. I always assumed stuff from the Internet was generally non-returnable. Believing that way makes me much more cautious with my debit card.
                      Customers should always be served . . . to the nearest great white.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Kristev View Post
                        Oh my word. I always assumed stuff from the Internet was generally non-returnable. Believing that way makes me much more cautious with my debit card.
                        In the UK internet orders are covered by distance selling laws, which allow anything ordered by post to be returned if it proves to be unsatisfactory. The principal being that a picture in a catalogue may not show everything about an item and clothing may not fit, etc.

                        Is there something similar in the US?
                        "I can tell her you're all tied up in the projection room." Sunset Boulevard.

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                        • #13
                          You can return things you order over the internet, so long as it's from a company. The main things that aren't returnable are opened software (games, programs, etc), certain types of clothing (underwear), and things you purchase from private individuals (that's more a case by case basis).

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                          • #14
                            The FTC covers all mail order items, which includes anything that gets shipped, regardless of method, and actually includes person to person transactions, but since those are usually unstructured, it's next to impossible to go after an individual, although set-ups like with eBay and Amazon are making that easier.

                            If what you received wasn't what was advertised, you have no obligation to keep it. However a seller has no obligation to refund shipping in either direction, though a business will often do so as added customer service.

                            ^-.-^
                            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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