No You Can't Return It Now

[starsinthesky]

This is kind of my greatest hits of return stories.

The company I work for has, what I think, is a pretty generous return policy. I will from time to time get people that think that 6 months to a year is what they should be allowed.

1st story

Me: Doing opening line " Thank you calling Big Bobs Junk Consortium this is Me, may have the item #
SC: Yeah I don't want to buy I want to return
Me: Grumbling in my head, then you should have called customer service and not sales. " This is Mary Smith?"
SC: Yes (sounding annoyed, like how I dare I inquire her name)
ME: May I have the # or name of the item in question
SC: Yes, I want to return the coral necklace I bought in April
By this time it is now September
ME: I apologize Mary, the return policy is 30 days and it is now September
SC: Well it broke and I have had it less than a year and you should stand by your product
ME: I am sorry ma'am but the return policy is 30 days
SC: Well I already sent it back and you better refund me.
As I am about to explain it to SC that it will be sent back to her when the return dept checks the receipt, she hangs up.


2nd Story

Again with the opening thing, and again the SC calls the wrong department and wants a return for an item that she ordered a year ago.
We get a lot of people like this, shopaholics and hoarders who buy a massive amount of crap, and then when they find it unopened they think they can return it.
So the lady tells me that she wants to return the item because it is damaged. So I tell her that it has been nearly a year since the order we can't take it back. Again I get the stand by your product spiel. She then tells me that she needs a return because the product is damaged. I ask her when did she discover the damage.

She tells me the day she got it, the box it was shipped in was damaged, and that she never opened it, she put in her dining room and forgot about til that day when she order some other expensive kitchen appliance.

So I explain that the manufacture may cover the damage under the warranty and I would be happy to give her all the information to contact them. She refused, she just wanted her money back. Again I tell her the return period is over and we can't not accept the item, that forgetting about the item doesn't suspended the return policy and that you should always open the item as soon as you get to make sure it is in perfect condition.

So then she requests a supervisor because I clearly don't know what I am talking about. Sup tries everything not to take the call, tells me to tell her everything I have already told her and then Sup finally relents and takes it. Poor Sup, because they were not going to authorize the return.

3rd Story

The company only extends the return policy during the holidays, so that extends the return policy up to 4 months depending on when you bought the item.

So I get this SC, again calling the wrong line, and again accusing us of not standing by our product, and false advertising.

SC bought a laptop during the holidays, SC believed that a $600 contained a full version of Office ($149 program), called up ranting and raving that we lied when we said it came with Office. I explained that it comes with a trial version that all lap tops the company and others like us sell. She still thinks that because she never opened the item til then and it was a gift and blah blah blah. That merri go round when like that for a bit.
I finally had to tell her that we can not accept the item back at this late date. Then she hung up.

Just a little taste of the crazy I get every day.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

We get a lot of that "I just noticed" or "we just got around to unpacking it" at High End Home Store. Some of that is kind of understandable because it's stuff that has to be installed during a remodel or other home project and the contractors get the stuff and don't look at it, or the customer just never thinks to check to make sure everything is OK when the package first arrives. If there is a damage or defect that is clearly not the customer's fault we generally try to accommodate them, but it gets ridiculous sometimes. Also, today we had a guy who freely admitted that the lamp he'd had for 2 months (we also have a 30 day return policy) was defective but he'd just been too lazy to call us before now.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yeah, the wholesale club I used to work at had a 30 day return policy except on some items. Refurbished items that had been sent to us to re-sell by the service center were "no return, period." Computers were 14 days from date of sale. Not 14 business days. 14 days, period.

During the holidays, the 30-day return policy gets extended to 30 days after Xmas. This does not, however, override the refurbished items policy or the computer 14-day policy.

We'd still get people who'd try.

[Andara Bledin]

I will admit that I've called very late to ask about returning an item or two due to being a flake.

But I accept when I'm told no because it was my fault I waited till past the date.

^-.-^

[manybellsdown]

I ordered a birthday present for my daughter from Amazon way early, and never opened the box. Her birthday rolls around (way past Amazon's return date) and she opens the gift and discovers I'd bought her a video game for a console we don't own.

Amazon CS let me return it, but they didn't have to, since I was the dumbass that didn't check the box.

[notlovinit]

As a customer I feel like if you call and beg for a return (nicely) after the alotted amount of time, you should get it, because I know that would make me feel sooo happy about the company for helping me out when they didn't need to. However, as someone who was a manager of the entire front end of a retail store and had to handle any and all returns I say eff 'em. If you do it for them once they will ALWAYS come back and want you to do it for them again.
I once had a lady come in without a receipt and want to return it which I can't do. Then I look at the tag and the tag had the date on it for over 2 years ago. (we always dated our tags with the month and year of when it went on the floor) I told her that I couldn't accept it anyway because the tag was over 2 years old and we only took returns for (I think, I can't remember now) 2 weeks. She tried argueing with me that it couldn't have been that long. Yeah, we just randomly put two year old tags on things that you bought last week. Uh huh.

[retailsweetie]

Bustice (back when it was Restricted Also, and probably for a little while into its full time as Bustice) used to have a "no sale is ever final" policy... meaning that no matter when you purchased the item, you could return it. Now we've just got 90 days unwashed unworn as our policy. Which is much better in my opinion.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

We actually do grant returns outside of our 30 day policy quite a bit...and even returns on items that are supposed to be final sale (discontinued stuff, custom made items, etc.) But it really depends on the circumstances. I even go to bat for some people who really don't deserve it, and sometimes they get their wish...but sometimes I just flat out say no. If they don't argue, that's the end of that.

[ThanosIsKing]

3rd Story

The company only extends the return policy during the holidays, so that extends the return policy up to 4 months depending on when you bought the item.

So I get this SC, again calling the wrong line, and again accusing us of not standing by our product, and false advertising.

SC bought a laptop during the holidays, SC believed that a $600 contained a full version of Office ($149 program), called up ranting and raving that we lied when we said it came with Office. I explained that it comes with a trial version that all lap tops the company and others like us sell. She still thinks that because she never opened the item til then and it was a gift and blah blah blah. That merri go round when like that for a bit.
I finally had to tell her that we can not accept the item back at this late date. Then she hung up.

This is why I love OpenOffice. It's pretty much just like Office but free.

Plus, isn't it common knowledge that almost everything that comes pre-loaded on computers nowadays is the trial version?

*looks at site*

Oh yeah. Forgot about that for a second.

[Megg]

Our return policy at work IS for a year. I'm sorry, but if you have had a pair of shoes for a year, just keep the damn things! lol

[Andara Bledin]

This is why I love OpenOffice. It's pretty much just like Office but free.

Totally but most of the devs double-tasked to LibreOffice for more potential freedom from corporate interference, and offered Oracle the chance to join them, which Oracle declined, further demanding that the devs in question pick one or the other citing "conflict of interest." Unsurprisingly, most of them chose to go with LO, and after the brain drain, Oracle pulled the plug on OO back in April.

^-.-^

[dalesys]

Unsurprisingly, most of them chose to go with LO, and after the brain drain, Oracle pulled the plug on OO back in April.

So the OpenOrifice is now free?
[/pune]

[PatchO'Black]

My feelings are this:

Once the return period is up, one should not expect that the store will accept an item back. Of course, a company may make exceptions on a case-by-case basis, but one shouldn't go in with the expectation that the company will (or must) take the item back. This goes for when the warranty expires as well. It is amazing how many people don't seem to understand this! They think that, even if the warranty expired over a year ago, if anything goes wrong, they should be allowed to exchange the item for a new one.

[wolfie]

Plus, isn't it common knowledge that almost everything that comes pre-loaded on computers nowadays is the trial version?

Whadda ya mean this computer came with a trial version of Windows, and I've gotta spend another $250 if I want to use it for more than 30 days?

Seriously, my laptop came with Diskeeper Lite. It's not time-limited, but rather function-limited - if you want to run scheduled defrags (one of Diskeeper's claims to fame relative to other defragmentation software), you need to buy the full version.