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Don’t get me wrong, great customer service and a wonderful shopping experience will make me want to return to a store to shop again. The problem lies when retailers are pushed into breaking their own policy to satisfy a customer. This in turn has created a culture in this country that expects to get have their hands held at every turn. Let’s face the cold hard truth America; most issues that a Retailer takes care of are your own fault. You either did not read the return policy, you changed your mind or you simply didn’t look! The truth is that 99% of the consumer complaints I read are about bad customer service. Out of those 99%, only a handful are legitimate complaints. Most of the issues and complaints written stem from one undeniable cause, YOU!
Let’s start off talking about one complaint that is written over and over again, returns. Almost everyone in this country knows that if you complain enough, most retailers will take anything back. What I’d like to know is why? Why do you think a company should have to pay for your mistake? Let’s use a situation that I recently witnessed as a great example.
A man purchases a coat, takes it home and rips off the tags and then tries it on. At this point he realizes the coat does not fit him like he had hoped, so he decides he will exchange it for a larger size. Being as it’s so late though, he decides he will wait to take it back. He waits, and waits, and waits and waits……. For five months! Then one day when he’s cleaning out his closet he notices the jacket and decides it’s time to take it back. When he gets to the store, he takes the coat to the service desk and informs the cashier that he would like an exchange. She asks for the receipt (which he no longer has) and begins to inspect the coat. She then tells the man that without a receipt, and without any tags on the merchandise she could not return the item. He then proceeds to tell her the story I wrote above, and demands that she gives him a refund since the coat never fit and he never wore it. She apologizes and tells him again that she cannot refund the item. The man then explodes into a rage, slamming his fist on the counter and demanding to see a manager. The cashier calmly pages for a manager and tells the man someone will be with him shortly. While waiting for the manager the man proceeds to tell every customer that walks past that the store is trying to rip him off, and they shouldn’t buy anything here because you can’t return it if it does not fit. When the manager arrives the man is still very angry that he was told no and does not even give the manager a chance to understand the situation. He begins telling her that if he does not get a refund he will tell everyone he knows that the store rips people off. The manager very politely apologizes to him for the inconvenience and sends an employee to find another coat like that one, so they can get the proper UPC to do the refund. After about 10 minutes the employee returns and informs the manager that they no longer have that coat anywhere in the store. The man then again proceeds to start yelling at the manager who has been more than willing to take care of him. The manager then calmly asked the man how much he paid for the coat so she could refund it another way. The man replied $100, which the manager later admitted she new was at least twice what the coat had cost. Rather than argue with the man anymore, she performed a refund and gave the man $100. Instead of being grateful the man turned to everyone else that was waiting and said “You see what kind of bullshit this place is, I’d put your stuff back because they’ll rip you off if you don’t.” He then left the store, making a scene the entire way out. A short while later, he returned and demanded the phone number for the corporate office so he could tell them how the store had tried to rip him off.
That was a prime example of how years of “The Customer is always right” have created a problem that stems far beyond actual service. It has been bread into our though processes, and become the “norm”. At no fault of the store, this man was unhappy that he would not get a refund. At no time did he accept responsibility for not returning the coat in a timely fashion, he simply expected to be “right” and get a refund. When confronted with the chance that he may not get his refund, he immediately asked for a manager and became irate. He also played the “Corporate Card”, by threatening to complain even after he had been taken care of.
Unfortunately, returns are not the only issue that plagues this country when it comes to retail stores. Retailers waste millions of dollars a year on signs and other tools to make their stores more customer friendly. I used the word waste since 90% of the population seems unable to read the moment they walk into a store. I can’t count the amount of times I have been in a store and listened to complaint after complaint of how hard it is to find anything. If the store was a mess with no direction to it I could understand that, but almost every retailer has giant sign’s hanging from the ceiling to direct you to products. The reason the signs don’t work most of the time is because consumers have become lazy. Then, when someone is unable to locate something, the first thing they do is complain! I could talk about the laziness of consumers for hours upon hours, so we’ll leave it at that so I don’t end up writing a book.
What most consumers don’t realize is that by giving into customers that have this mentality, retailers lose money. When retailers lose money, prices go up and people lose their jobs to cover the cost. The current economic situations have caused a major influx in customer situations like the one I wrote about above. The more issues that arise, the more money a retailer loses, and the situation continues to get worse. It’s not just the big corporations and executives that are to blame for the job loss and financial instability this country is suffering from. It’s you…… It’s me……. It’s every consumer that walks into a store believing they are owed anything! You want to see things get better in this country? Start taking responsibility for yourself, stop forcing the companies fix your mistakes and stop acting like an idiot when you go into a store! Remember that every person you talk to is just doing their job and it’s not their fault you’re an idiot!
The next time you walk into a store, try to remember that your probably wrong. Asking them to break the rules to keep you happy is just going to hurt everyone, including you in the long run.
Let’s start off talking about one complaint that is written over and over again, returns. Almost everyone in this country knows that if you complain enough, most retailers will take anything back. What I’d like to know is why? Why do you think a company should have to pay for your mistake? Let’s use a situation that I recently witnessed as a great example.
A man purchases a coat, takes it home and rips off the tags and then tries it on. At this point he realizes the coat does not fit him like he had hoped, so he decides he will exchange it for a larger size. Being as it’s so late though, he decides he will wait to take it back. He waits, and waits, and waits and waits……. For five months! Then one day when he’s cleaning out his closet he notices the jacket and decides it’s time to take it back. When he gets to the store, he takes the coat to the service desk and informs the cashier that he would like an exchange. She asks for the receipt (which he no longer has) and begins to inspect the coat. She then tells the man that without a receipt, and without any tags on the merchandise she could not return the item. He then proceeds to tell her the story I wrote above, and demands that she gives him a refund since the coat never fit and he never wore it. She apologizes and tells him again that she cannot refund the item. The man then explodes into a rage, slamming his fist on the counter and demanding to see a manager. The cashier calmly pages for a manager and tells the man someone will be with him shortly. While waiting for the manager the man proceeds to tell every customer that walks past that the store is trying to rip him off, and they shouldn’t buy anything here because you can’t return it if it does not fit. When the manager arrives the man is still very angry that he was told no and does not even give the manager a chance to understand the situation. He begins telling her that if he does not get a refund he will tell everyone he knows that the store rips people off. The manager very politely apologizes to him for the inconvenience and sends an employee to find another coat like that one, so they can get the proper UPC to do the refund. After about 10 minutes the employee returns and informs the manager that they no longer have that coat anywhere in the store. The man then again proceeds to start yelling at the manager who has been more than willing to take care of him. The manager then calmly asked the man how much he paid for the coat so she could refund it another way. The man replied $100, which the manager later admitted she new was at least twice what the coat had cost. Rather than argue with the man anymore, she performed a refund and gave the man $100. Instead of being grateful the man turned to everyone else that was waiting and said “You see what kind of bullshit this place is, I’d put your stuff back because they’ll rip you off if you don’t.” He then left the store, making a scene the entire way out. A short while later, he returned and demanded the phone number for the corporate office so he could tell them how the store had tried to rip him off.
That was a prime example of how years of “The Customer is always right” have created a problem that stems far beyond actual service. It has been bread into our though processes, and become the “norm”. At no fault of the store, this man was unhappy that he would not get a refund. At no time did he accept responsibility for not returning the coat in a timely fashion, he simply expected to be “right” and get a refund. When confronted with the chance that he may not get his refund, he immediately asked for a manager and became irate. He also played the “Corporate Card”, by threatening to complain even after he had been taken care of.
Unfortunately, returns are not the only issue that plagues this country when it comes to retail stores. Retailers waste millions of dollars a year on signs and other tools to make their stores more customer friendly. I used the word waste since 90% of the population seems unable to read the moment they walk into a store. I can’t count the amount of times I have been in a store and listened to complaint after complaint of how hard it is to find anything. If the store was a mess with no direction to it I could understand that, but almost every retailer has giant sign’s hanging from the ceiling to direct you to products. The reason the signs don’t work most of the time is because consumers have become lazy. Then, when someone is unable to locate something, the first thing they do is complain! I could talk about the laziness of consumers for hours upon hours, so we’ll leave it at that so I don’t end up writing a book.
What most consumers don’t realize is that by giving into customers that have this mentality, retailers lose money. When retailers lose money, prices go up and people lose their jobs to cover the cost. The current economic situations have caused a major influx in customer situations like the one I wrote about above. The more issues that arise, the more money a retailer loses, and the situation continues to get worse. It’s not just the big corporations and executives that are to blame for the job loss and financial instability this country is suffering from. It’s you…… It’s me……. It’s every consumer that walks into a store believing they are owed anything! You want to see things get better in this country? Start taking responsibility for yourself, stop forcing the companies fix your mistakes and stop acting like an idiot when you go into a store! Remember that every person you talk to is just doing their job and it’s not their fault you’re an idiot!
The next time you walk into a store, try to remember that your probably wrong. Asking them to break the rules to keep you happy is just going to hurt everyone, including you in the long run.
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