(no subject)
99.9% of the time, I love our customers. We're a fairly specialty store, meaning that most of the people who come in are either experienced in what they're doing or know they know nothing about the stuff and are willing to learn. (A lot of the newbies just ask us right away, and it's awesome. I love taking someone step-through-step through the whole starting-out process, maybe because I'm weird).
Thus, when we get the occasional bad apple, it's like a kick in the proverbial nuts. When I worked at Talbots, I just knew to expect a lot of middle-aged, rich entitlement bitches. Here? I don't. Our customers are sweet and wonderful. They show us pictures of their kids. I've helped pick out materials that became gifts for this kids -- hell, I've seen pictures of the kids WITH the stuff I helped pick out for their mom or grandma.
And then this lady. Hoo boy, this lady.
She came in about 2:30, when we were steady but not hideously busy. She had a return.
Snafu #1. Her receipt shows 3 of Item A and 2 of Item B. She has 2 of Item A and 3 of Item B. When I ask about it, she tells me she bought several of both items during different trips, and didn't check the receipt too closely, and wanted to return all of them. (This should have been Warning #1)
Fine, fine. I tell her I can take both of Item A and the two of Item B that are on the receipt, and ring the other Item B separately as a return without a receipt. Her response? "Well, the receipt tells you how much I paid, why does it matter if there are two or three?" If she'd asked it in a nice tone of voice, it wouldn't be that bad. But her tone was nasty, sharp, angry.
I explained to her gently that it wasn't just about price, it was also proving when and where she'd bought it.
She sighed, as though she were very put upon, and I proceeded.
Snafu #2. Our store has a 90-day return policy, and she'd purchased these at the beginning of October. Her ninety days are up. Technically, at this point, I could have handed the items back to her and said "Enjoy, ma'am! They're yours forever now!"
I didn't. I pride myself on good customer service and on being nice to people. I explained to her gently what the problem was. She took a deep breath, I could see the tirade coming, and I cut it off with an immediate, "Would you like me to call a manager?"
"You'd damn well better!" she snapped at me.
So I did. H, our manager, is a very cool woman. I like her. She doesn't take shit, but she's very polite about it -- even when people are being monumental dickheads, she doesn't lose her cool. She listens to the woman, and tells me to go ahead and enter the items as a return without receipt.
And she explains in very simple language. "Ma'am, what this means is that oceanica is going to pretend she never saw your receipt, and that she doesn't know when you bought them. Doing it this way means you'll get the lowest recent price, but you'll at least get something back."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, fine," the woman snapped.
Is that really what you say when someone is bending the rules to be nice to you?
So I ring up her return as though she had no receipt. Among other things, this means taking a bunch of her personal information (name, address, phone number, and driver's license number). I'm rather hard of hearing, so when I'm taking information like that, I repeat it back to make sure I have it right. The first time I did that, she snapped, "Yes, damn it! What are you, deaf?"
"Slightly," I told her. She didn't ask again, but every time I confirmed the information, she bit it out with a sneer.
Turns out, the items had been on a 40% off sale a little while ago. None of them were that expensive (I think the Item Bs were $1.59 and the Item As were $2.99). H had explained to her that she might not get full price, but I think it went sailing over this lady's head.
I handed her the return receipt, and she started to shout at me, accusing me of cheating her, accusing the store of having a completely ridiculous return policy, just going on and on. When I finally got a word in edgewise, I explained to her that
a) She bought these items over three months ago.
b) H did tell her that she might not get full price.
c) that this was all I could give her, and it was this or not take the return at all.
"You have the receipt!" she snapped at me. "You can see how much I paid! Give me this same amount back, right now!"
Again, I called H. This was out of my league. I opened up a different register and started helping the HUGE line of people that had built up behind her.
H talked to her. H reasoned with her. H called our corporate offices.
I didn't hear all of the exchange, since I was helping other people, but I did catch this snippet.
H: Ma'am, our return policy is that you have 90 days. After that, your receipt doesn't mean anything to me. We're breaking the rules to give you even part of your money back.
Woman: Where does it say your return policy?! I've never seen any return policy!
H: ...It's printed on the back of your receipt, and there's also a sign right here on the counter, and another sign by the door.
Woman: ... Well who reads all those anyway?
Finally, H used her Magic Manager Button to override the 90-day limit and give the woman the full refund price for all the items.
Remember way back at the beginning where I said that the woman brought in not quite the same items as were on her receipt? When H finally caved and overrode the limit, the first thing out of the woman's mouth was, "I didn't get the same amount back! It's still wrong!"
I am amazed H didn't leap over the counter and throttle her at this point. From first contact until now, it had been at least forty-five minutes, maybe an hour. Instead, she explained to the woman that the amount was different because she was returning DIFFERENT ITEMS.
The story ends with a slight Zorro (delivered by another customer, not by me or H) but in deference to comm rules, I'm leaving it off.
Thus, when we get the occasional bad apple, it's like a kick in the proverbial nuts. When I worked at Talbots, I just knew to expect a lot of middle-aged, rich entitlement bitches. Here? I don't. Our customers are sweet and wonderful. They show us pictures of their kids. I've helped pick out materials that became gifts for this kids -- hell, I've seen pictures of the kids WITH the stuff I helped pick out for their mom or grandma.
And then this lady. Hoo boy, this lady.
She came in about 2:30, when we were steady but not hideously busy. She had a return.
Snafu #1. Her receipt shows 3 of Item A and 2 of Item B. She has 2 of Item A and 3 of Item B. When I ask about it, she tells me she bought several of both items during different trips, and didn't check the receipt too closely, and wanted to return all of them. (This should have been Warning #1)
Fine, fine. I tell her I can take both of Item A and the two of Item B that are on the receipt, and ring the other Item B separately as a return without a receipt. Her response? "Well, the receipt tells you how much I paid, why does it matter if there are two or three?" If she'd asked it in a nice tone of voice, it wouldn't be that bad. But her tone was nasty, sharp, angry.
I explained to her gently that it wasn't just about price, it was also proving when and where she'd bought it.
She sighed, as though she were very put upon, and I proceeded.
Snafu #2. Our store has a 90-day return policy, and she'd purchased these at the beginning of October. Her ninety days are up. Technically, at this point, I could have handed the items back to her and said "Enjoy, ma'am! They're yours forever now!"
I didn't. I pride myself on good customer service and on being nice to people. I explained to her gently what the problem was. She took a deep breath, I could see the tirade coming, and I cut it off with an immediate, "Would you like me to call a manager?"
"You'd damn well better!" she snapped at me.
So I did. H, our manager, is a very cool woman. I like her. She doesn't take shit, but she's very polite about it -- even when people are being monumental dickheads, she doesn't lose her cool. She listens to the woman, and tells me to go ahead and enter the items as a return without receipt.
And she explains in very simple language. "Ma'am, what this means is that oceanica is going to pretend she never saw your receipt, and that she doesn't know when you bought them. Doing it this way means you'll get the lowest recent price, but you'll at least get something back."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, fine," the woman snapped.
Is that really what you say when someone is bending the rules to be nice to you?
So I ring up her return as though she had no receipt. Among other things, this means taking a bunch of her personal information (name, address, phone number, and driver's license number). I'm rather hard of hearing, so when I'm taking information like that, I repeat it back to make sure I have it right. The first time I did that, she snapped, "Yes, damn it! What are you, deaf?"
"Slightly," I told her. She didn't ask again, but every time I confirmed the information, she bit it out with a sneer.
Turns out, the items had been on a 40% off sale a little while ago. None of them were that expensive (I think the Item Bs were $1.59 and the Item As were $2.99). H had explained to her that she might not get full price, but I think it went sailing over this lady's head.
I handed her the return receipt, and she started to shout at me, accusing me of cheating her, accusing the store of having a completely ridiculous return policy, just going on and on. When I finally got a word in edgewise, I explained to her that
a) She bought these items over three months ago.
b) H did tell her that she might not get full price.
c) that this was all I could give her, and it was this or not take the return at all.
"You have the receipt!" she snapped at me. "You can see how much I paid! Give me this same amount back, right now!"
Again, I called H. This was out of my league. I opened up a different register and started helping the HUGE line of people that had built up behind her.
H talked to her. H reasoned with her. H called our corporate offices.
I didn't hear all of the exchange, since I was helping other people, but I did catch this snippet.
H: Ma'am, our return policy is that you have 90 days. After that, your receipt doesn't mean anything to me. We're breaking the rules to give you even part of your money back.
Woman: Where does it say your return policy?! I've never seen any return policy!
H: ...It's printed on the back of your receipt, and there's also a sign right here on the counter, and another sign by the door.
Woman: ... Well who reads all those anyway?
Finally, H used her Magic Manager Button to override the 90-day limit and give the woman the full refund price for all the items.
Remember way back at the beginning where I said that the woman brought in not quite the same items as were on her receipt? When H finally caved and overrode the limit, the first thing out of the woman's mouth was, "I didn't get the same amount back! It's still wrong!"
I am amazed H didn't leap over the counter and throttle her at this point. From first contact until now, it had been at least forty-five minutes, maybe an hour. Instead, she explained to the woman that the amount was different because she was returning DIFFERENT ITEMS.
The story ends with a slight Zorro (delivered by another customer, not by me or H) but in deference to comm rules, I'm leaving it off.