Over here we have a Bottle Return Law. It states that ALL stores have to claim deposit for bottles, and the stores are also obligated to pay the deposit back when the bottles are returned. Most stores have machines to take care of it (you put the bottles in the machine, the machine scans the bottles and prints out a receipt that you can get changed into cash at the till).
Now, our local store has a lot of problems with their new bottle return machine at the moment - it breaks down constantly, most often due to a software failure (which means that a tech has to be called, and it most often takes a couple of days before the problem is fixed).
Before New Year it was no biggie - you just asked for an employee and he/she would handle the bottle return manually.
After New Year, apparently Corporate made a new policy - manual bottle returns were not allowed, customers had to either wait until the machine was fixed or visit another store. (A bit of a problem if you have bottles that can ONLY be returned at that explicit store). Thing is, that policy is illegal according to the Bottle Return Law.
So my SO went once with a lot of bottles and was yet again met by the sign "sorry but the machine is out of function, due to Corporate policy we can't handle manual returns".
He then went ballistic, swore up and down to the cashier AND the MOD, referring to the Bottle Return Law, but there was nothing they could do, again they referred to the new Corporate Policy.
He then went home and ranted about the situation - and then I ripped him a new one I then told him that I would take care of the issue from now on.
So what did I do? I did the following:
1) Wrote a polite mail to the agency who is responsible for enforcing the Bottle Return Law and asked about what normal procedures are when a bottle return machine is out of order. They replied that the store IS obligated to make bottle returns at all time, so they MUST handle returns manually if/when the machine can't.
2) Copied the mail from the agency and sent it to Corporate. Corporate + the store will most certainly get a call from the agency as well
3) Told SO that he must get to the store and apologize to the cashier and the MOD. He had a right to be angry, but he let his anger out to the wrong people. He admits that, and promises to do so - once the return machine DOES work, that is.
Now, our local store has a lot of problems with their new bottle return machine at the moment - it breaks down constantly, most often due to a software failure (which means that a tech has to be called, and it most often takes a couple of days before the problem is fixed).
Before New Year it was no biggie - you just asked for an employee and he/she would handle the bottle return manually.
After New Year, apparently Corporate made a new policy - manual bottle returns were not allowed, customers had to either wait until the machine was fixed or visit another store. (A bit of a problem if you have bottles that can ONLY be returned at that explicit store). Thing is, that policy is illegal according to the Bottle Return Law.
So my SO went once with a lot of bottles and was yet again met by the sign "sorry but the machine is out of function, due to Corporate policy we can't handle manual returns".
He then went ballistic, swore up and down to the cashier AND the MOD, referring to the Bottle Return Law, but there was nothing they could do, again they referred to the new Corporate Policy.
He then went home and ranted about the situation - and then I ripped him a new one I then told him that I would take care of the issue from now on.
So what did I do? I did the following:
1) Wrote a polite mail to the agency who is responsible for enforcing the Bottle Return Law and asked about what normal procedures are when a bottle return machine is out of order. They replied that the store IS obligated to make bottle returns at all time, so they MUST handle returns manually if/when the machine can't.
2) Copied the mail from the agency and sent it to Corporate. Corporate + the store will most certainly get a call from the agency as well
3) Told SO that he must get to the store and apologize to the cashier and the MOD. He had a right to be angry, but he let his anger out to the wrong people. He admits that, and promises to do so - once the return machine DOES work, that is.
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