ok...so for those of you that dont know I work in an outlet mall. Today was half way busy, and all H*ll broke loose. First of all...on a normal day we usually have 1 or 2 returns...max. Today I had TWELVE. I spent half my time behind the register doing returns (only managers are allowed to do returns.) Most people were very nice, and very patient with how long I was taking. I did have one guy though who was VERY impatient with me. He wanted to return a product without a receipt, or tags on the product of any kind. In addition I had never seen any of these products in my store, nor had my employees.
I informed the man that without a receipt showing proof of purchase, or tags showing they were ours, I wouldnt be able to do a return. He stated that our brand name was sewn into the clothing so we HAD to give him a refund. I asked him if he had specifically purchased the clothes in my store.....Nope....at our store up by Green Bay....uhm...ok....so I decided to give corporate a call.
It turns out that the particular style that he wanted to return were created by a subsidiary of our company who sold our product to wal-mart about 5 years ago. They also informed me that this guy has been trying to con us into returning those items for about 3 years and not to give him anything.
Having this knowledge, I inform him that I cant do anything for him, and he will have to contact the corporate offices if he would like further information. I gave him the contact info and off he went into the store. I was very happy that this was over...or so I thought.
Pretty soon I was flagged down by him and he asked me "do you have any of the sexy underwear that the ladies like?" hmmm...let me think...if you paid attention to me at all you would quickly figure out I dont swing that way.....second.....the guy weighed about 450 pounds (no kidding)...so I showed him everything that we had in the store.
After working with him for a while, he asked me "do you think the cute little brunette over there would want to go into the dressing room with me and watch me model them? As a manager I know you can make that happen."
I replied "sir....there is a thin line between joking around and sexual harrassment. While I realize that my employee didn't hear you, you just crossed that line. I need to ask you to either purchase your merchandise now and leave or just leave."
I was royally ticked off, and I think my co-workers could tell..because they started joking around with me and got me in happy spirits again....it just ticks me off more and more now that I think of it. Did I do the right thing or should I have done something different? sorry...Im kind of new to management.
Thanks for any help!
I informed the man that without a receipt showing proof of purchase, or tags showing they were ours, I wouldnt be able to do a return. He stated that our brand name was sewn into the clothing so we HAD to give him a refund. I asked him if he had specifically purchased the clothes in my store.....Nope....at our store up by Green Bay....uhm...ok....so I decided to give corporate a call.
It turns out that the particular style that he wanted to return were created by a subsidiary of our company who sold our product to wal-mart about 5 years ago. They also informed me that this guy has been trying to con us into returning those items for about 3 years and not to give him anything.
Having this knowledge, I inform him that I cant do anything for him, and he will have to contact the corporate offices if he would like further information. I gave him the contact info and off he went into the store. I was very happy that this was over...or so I thought.
Pretty soon I was flagged down by him and he asked me "do you have any of the sexy underwear that the ladies like?" hmmm...let me think...if you paid attention to me at all you would quickly figure out I dont swing that way.....second.....the guy weighed about 450 pounds (no kidding)...so I showed him everything that we had in the store.
After working with him for a while, he asked me "do you think the cute little brunette over there would want to go into the dressing room with me and watch me model them? As a manager I know you can make that happen."
I replied "sir....there is a thin line between joking around and sexual harrassment. While I realize that my employee didn't hear you, you just crossed that line. I need to ask you to either purchase your merchandise now and leave or just leave."
I was royally ticked off, and I think my co-workers could tell..because they started joking around with me and got me in happy spirits again....it just ticks me off more and more now that I think of it. Did I do the right thing or should I have done something different? sorry...Im kind of new to management.
Thanks for any help!
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