Retail Hell Memories: Custys Trying To Return Items Not From Your Store

It’s me again, The Guy Who Didn’t Shut Off the Ride, but that’s a bit wordy so just call me Dweazzle.

I’m out of the service industry and working a job where I get to catch Nasty Ass Insurance Fraudsters, so buck up Retail Slaves! Escape is possible!

Anyway, I thought I’d share a gem from my days at Old Slavery. It was after the helliday rush had ended and I was working the opening shift on the register when a middle aged woman came in and told me she wanted to return a coat.

Ok, no problem. Then she handed me the coat.

I discovered that it was a different label. To be fair, the coat she was trying to return looked very similar to coats we sold, but it wasn’t one of ours.

The exchange went like this:

Me: I’m sorry, I can’t return this because it wasn’t purchased here.

Stupid Stubborn Woman (SSW): No, I bought it here. I need my money back

Me: See this label? (Shows label) it says (Brand X). It’s a (Brand X) coat. We only sell Old Slavery stuff here.

SSW: I’m SURE I bought it here, and you need to give me my money back NOW.

Me: I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.

SSW: I want to talk to your manager!

Me: All right, but she’s just going to tell you the same thing.

My occasionally cool manager comes over and I explain the situation. The manager takes the coat, confirms the label isn’t ours, and tells the SSW exactly what I had, and attempts to hand the coat back to the woman.

SSW: NO! I’m not taking that! GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! I BOUGHT THAT HERE!

She refused to take the coat and argued with the manager for a solid hour in what was basically a kindergarten “Yes I did, no you didn’t” argument before finally yelling, “FINE! I’m never shopping here AGAIN!”, snatching the coat, and stomping out the door.

Manager: She didn't shop here in the first place.

Me: And apparently that's our fault.

What is it about customers that they refuse to accept bulletproof evidence that they’ve made a mistake?

May your escapes from Retail Slavery happen soon,

--Dweazzle

 

Comments

[MahiMahi]

I've made a pledge. Whenever I a retail Slave being wornged, I will stand up for them. I will do that by swearing at the Custy, SO LONG as there are no children around, belittling them, telling them to stop being an idiot.
If you're you're going to insist on acting like an idiot, I reserve the right to treat you as such.
Honestly, some people need to be beaten repeatedly with a metal chair.

[The Last Archimedean]

I know it's here somewhere... [rummages through closet]... aha! [Pulls out clue-by-four]

Next time I see an idiot acting like such and causing misery to a retail slave, I'll smack them upside de head with this until they grow a functioning brain.

[Bored at the Bookstore]

We had one of these charmers... Lady came in with a book, wanted to return it, nothing wrong, she just didn't like it. Our policy is "No Cash Refunds; Exchange or a Merchandise Credit ONLY with receipt." No receipt, no return, unless I personally sold you the book, like, yesterday, and remember that fact... And even then, it's exchange only.

I 'splained. She had no receipt. I knew darn well we hadn't had that title in yet, so knew she hadn't bought it from us. Offered her a standard credit voucher for bringing in a used book - 15% of the cover price to use toward some other used book. No, she wanted full cover price, in cash. NOW.

We sell new books for 20% off cover, used ones for 45% off cover. No way was I paying her full price, even if it wasn't allowed by policy. We went back and forth, forth and back, with her insisting on full cover price - "After all, you can just sell it again; you won't be out anything," even as I tried pointing out that we would LOSE money.

Asked one more time if she had our receipt and there it was - "Why would I have your receipt for it? I didn't buy it *here*! I bought it at B&N, up the road!"

"Then may I suggest you take it there and get your refund, ma'am?"

"I DID! And they wouldn't give me my money back, either!"

"Well, neither will we. Have a good day."

Evidently she thought the little store would just jump at the chance to lose money...

[Sales Agent Guy]

Why do they do that? Because of five words that they go by:
"The customer is always right."

Of course, the truth is they're not always right, which is why the site which led me here exists. As does this blog so we can share our stories here.

I've had a few times where this happened, where a customer tried to return an item that they claimed was from our store, but when I tried to check it, it wasn't in our system. If it's not in our system, we can't take it back.

[Bored at the Bookstore]

P.S. to The Last Archimedean... My dear, may I please borrow your "clue-by-four"? What a great phrase!

And we really need one behind the counter here at the bookstore, to fend off the clueless nitwits who wander in. Like the kid, old enough to be able to count (10? 12, maybe?) who comes in four times a week, picks out candy, and then has to be shown that he hasn't enough money? Today it was a Nerd Rope ($.75), a pack of Gummy Bears ($.75), a pack of Juicy Fruit ($.35), a Cowtail ($.35), and a 3-D bookmark ($1.99 + tax) and handed me $1.80 in coin.

[fitty sense]

some ppl think if they yell at you long enough, you will get worn down; tired of listening to them and will cave in to their demands just to be rid of them. they are trying to intimidate you and back you into a corner because this is the tried and true method they always use to get their way, so they expect it will work on the retail slave, too. these ppl unfortunately never grew out of two-year-old temper tantrums.

[trekkiebabe31]

I had a guy like that tonight, he'd bought two books in our store, gotten home and for some reason decided to check online, discovered that the price was different so he brought the books back. My manager came over to do the return and he explained it to her, which she then explained why they were listed as different prices and he kept saying "Yeah, I'd love to keep the books if I could get them for the online price". Now, he was decent about it but I'm glad that I didn't have to deal with it.

[The Last Archimedean]

[rummages through closet] Ah, here's my extra clue-by-four. [Hands it to Bored at the Bookstore] There you go. Enjoy.

And credit NC Tony for the term. I got it from him.

[greenie]

We sell snorkel masks at our store. A lady brought one in the other day for a return. (Our masks are sold in those plastic shells that you have to pretty much cut open with a knife to get out.)The slave behind the service desk ask why she wanted to return it. The reason--she had mistakenly bought a child's small and she needed an adult's small. She had opened it at the beach and discovered her mistake. So since she had ripped over the packaging, and there was sand all over the snorkel mask, there was no way we could resell it. (I suspect her children used it too)

So through no fault ours she wanted a full return on a product that was not defective. She got one too. That is the part that makes me mad. This ditzy bitch who bought the wrong product, opened it, and used it beyond the point where we could resell it and gets her money back. UGH.

[pennyslut<33]

Dweaz, I feel your pain. In the department stores like mine, we get this fairly often because we carry so many brands. I would have never thought it would happen in a branded-name store :p

The worst is the department stores that take anything back at any time. We get (worn!) stuff from 5,6 years ago, and we offer the customer the lowest price that it sold at (usually, by 6 YEARS everything has been clearanced to 3, 4 dollars.) Even if you were to come up to me and say "Here. I wore these for 10 years and don't want them anymore", I would still, under policy, return them and give you a few dollars for them. I think this is a really generous policy. Custys, somehow, don't feel the same. Ugh....the entitlement!

[bbbeans]

I had it happen at B-Cubed once where a guy exchanged a rusted dish strainer and claimed it didn't fit in his sink. We had another lady who always brought back heavily used stuff as well. We had a nickname for her but I can't remember it now. The last story is when I had a lady come in asking if we carried lotion and shower gel. I tell her we don't carry it, you are thinking for BBW because its on sale now and I just bought some for myself. The confusion happens all the time at B-Cubed. She threw a fit that I was wrong and the other employee I asked was wrong too and insisted on talking to the manager. We were busy at the time so he never came and she stormed out. She wasn't happy but smelling good wouldn't have helped her she was still ugly and stupid. Most people who got us confused just realized and accepted their mistake but I don't get how people could be so clueless.

[Mjay]

This would happen a lot at the 7. A customer would come in with a gallon of milk that had a eyedrop left. The milk was bad, they want a new one or a refund NOW. Only problem is that the milk was a different brand.
They would insist they got it here, they always shop here even though I never saw them before. I would point out the milk but logic never held. After goihg back and forth, they would leave.

[ScanGunMonkey]

@BBBeans....I just got out of the BBB here, thank goodness, to work security at a factory in town. I was telling some of the guys about the policy that hellhole has, of never ever EVER saying "no" to a customer. You should have seen the jaws drop wide in pure, utter horror.

[Igor]

As I recall the trresuay modelling was that about a billion would be spent each month for seven months, and the rest saved. So if so far 2 billion has been spent in 3 months they were 2/3s right not great, but closer than the opposition.Of course there are all the possible distorting factors mentioned above, so that $2billion could be a lot higher or lower.

[JohnSwagg]

The expertise shines through. Thanks for taking the time to awnser.

[Antonio]

That's the smart thinikng we could all benefit from.