After Christmas Returns Sightings.

[notalwaysright]

Just two, both sightings happened less than two weeks after Christmas.


First time at the brand new warehouse store, about a week and a half after Christmas. The returns line was out the door. You could hear the complaining from the food court, it was practically a mob. I wanted to just start yelling "rabble rabble rabble!" and see if anyone got the joke. The whole store was crazy busy, it wasn't just the returns line. This store had only been open for a little over a month, as it opened right before Black Friday, so I think it was still experiencing a new store rush. Anyway, either wait in line now, or later when it's calmer. Oh, never mind. You're going to wait in line and make everyone miserable listening to you whine.


Second, was about a week after Christmas, at a mall department store. This store has multiple checkouts throughout the store, and I believe you can do returns at all of them. In any case, they all had long lines, which is unusual for this store. As I walk by one, there was a SC arguing with a cashier about a return. I was meandering slowly, and I got the gist.

-the SC had no receipt for her return
-she was pissed because the amount was not what she had originally paid
-she could see the full-priced amount on the cashier's screen,* so she was trying to argue that she should get that amount
-the cashier was trying to explain the idea that you don't get full price on a return without receipt, and that the computer said original amount is *amount* and the refund is *lower amount*
-SC repeats that she "can see" the higher amount, and that's what she should get, "see, it says it right there!"



*At my old work I don't think customers could see the original price when they did a return without receipt, and boy I don't think it's a good idea to show them! But, I wonder if the SC and leaned around to look at the cashier's screen?

[Slave to the Phone]

Some SC's will just reach over and turn the monitor so they can see it.

I saw a new one today. SC didn't have a receipt for her item, but was able to pull up her card statement on her phone to show the cashier how much she had paid for it. Or rather, how much she had spent at the store that day. Somehow the SC didn't seem to understand that showing proof that she had spent $X at the store that day didn't prove that she had spent $Y on that specific item.

A manager was called and I was on lunch, so didn't stick around to hear the end of the story. Sorry guys

[Pixelated]

Upper Management at my store's head office has gotten tough on no-receipt returns ... tough as in "Tough Luck."

So of course we had one woman come in with a container of tea and ask to return it as her daughter didn't like it.

Me: "Do you have a receipt?"

Unhappy Customer: "No ... it was a gift."

*sigh*

I called the Ass't. Mgr. over to see if there was anything she could do. There wasn't. I know I was automatically saying to people "D'you wanna gift receipt with that?" all through the holiday buying season ... but it's possible that other employees (especially the newbie seasonal hires) weren't. And this customer might not have thought to ask for one.

So, in short, it might not be her fault she doesn't have a receipt. And nobody else in this city has containers that look like that. AND the tea inside was factory-sealed and hadn't been opened.

But ... no receipt, no exchange.

I went off to help somebody else, leaving A.M. to deal with UC. All I know about how it ended is UC is now stuck with tea that (she claims) her daughter doesn't like, and apparently nobody else does either.

Wonder if she's ever heard of the concept of "regifting" ...

[gremcint]

Some SC's will just reach over and turn the monitor so they can see it.

I saw a new one today. SC didn't have a receipt for her item, but was able to pull up her card statement on her phone to show the cashier how much she had paid for it. Or rather, how much she had spent at the store that day. Somehow the SC didn't seem to understand that showing proof that she had spent $X at the store that day didn't prove that she had spent $Y on that specific item.

A manager was called and I was on lunch, so didn't stick around to hear the end of the story. Sorry guys

reminds me of the price matching dance. where someone thinks a picture on their phone of the shelf at the other store is what we need for price matching. nope it's got to be on their website or in a flyer with the name and date and everything.

[Slave to the Phone]

I get the same dance with my customers at work, but I consider it to be a play in 3 acts.

Act 1: I'll ask to see their paystubs to be told that they don't get paystubs, but can show me their bank statements on their phone so I can see the deposits.

I have given up trying to explain that unless someone is working under the table, they get paystubs somewhere online. (Personally, I go online and check my paystub every other Thursday. If there is a mistake in my pay, I want to know about it right away so I can have it corrected.)

Act 2: I will explain that I need to know their gross pay for the last 30 days and what is deposited is what comes after taxes and stuff are taken out. Subset of that act is them trying to tell me that I should use the net because that is what they are actually making.

Act 3: I give them a form to be filled out by their employer and they demand to see a supervisor or have a fair hearing. I hand them off to a sup and the talks to sup and leaves with form in hand.

[MoonCat]

trying to tell me that I should use the net because that is what they are actually making.

TBH, if this is to see if they qualify for benefits, I have always believed this makes more sense than going by someone's gross pay. You don't get to KEEP the gross amount, and you have no choice about paying FICA and SS tax, etc. The net amount is what goes to pay your bills, and if it falls short, what difference does it make if the gross amount was higher?

But a lot of services use the gross to determine if someone qualifies for aid.

[Sulhythal]

TBH, if this is to see if they qualify for benefits, I have always believed this makes more sense than going by someone's gross pay. You don't get to KEEP the gross amount, and you have no choice about paying FICA and SS tax, etc. The net amount is what goes to pay your bills, and if it falls short, what difference does it make if the gross amount was higher?

But a lot of services use the gross to determine if someone qualifies for aid.

I suspect it's because those payments you have no choice about are easily calculable from the gross pay, if they use the net there's always a possibility that they'd try to sneak something through (I don't think they'd succeed, or at least not for long) Perhaps by means of unscrupulous employers adding something to this or other thing and then passing the employee the difference under the table, to make sure their paycheck is small enough to qualify

[Slave to the Phone]

While I can see both sides of the "using the net" argument, I don't have any say in the matter. I have to go by policy. Arguing with me over it is like arguing with a c-store employee over the price of gas.

The end result will not be to get the worker to override policy, it will just annoy at least 1 other person and waste everyone's time.

Not to mention that if you try to argue with me over policy, I will just open the policy manual and print out everything associated with the point in question. Not only will I win that argument, I will have wasted at least an hour of your time and bored you to tears. PLUS I will do it with a helpful and cheerful attitude.

I've had a big attitude change since my monthly evals started saying that I walk on water. I don't mind having a policy pissing match with a customer and ending up taking the double whammies of an overtime pended case once in a while because I know that I will make it back up in no time at all.

All of which is reserved for the SC's I encounter. The reason I walk on water is because my normal interview is fast, correct, complete and done in a cheerful and helpful manner. I don't even say poopie-head anymore!

[dalesys]

... I don't even say poopie-head anymore!

Until the computer needs the boot put in again...