whose side are you on?

[Ljt09863]

this happened awhile ago. ill give my thoughts at the end. here is some background. at my store, we do not lock up our condoms. i don't know why, they are always ripped off(like that is a surprise), so to try to prevent people opening them, and pocketing them, we have started using packaging tape to tape them shut. surprisingly, this has helped some.

well, one day, we had a young couple buy a pack of condoms, and then return later that day. they decided they didn't want them, because the saw the package was taped. they were afraid that somebody had bought them, and returned them, and either they, or us taped it shut to resell it.

my manager told them it wasn't so, and explained what we do. the couple still weren't sure, and they said they were afraid somebody might have poked holes in the condoms. they just wanted their money back.

my manager wasn't happy. he gave them their money back, but then complained alot about. he felt that since he explained, they should have accepted his repsonse, and left.

the way i feel about it. i understand my manager being a little upset about them not trusting his answer, but honestly, im more on the side of the young couple. I feel that they were more responsible, and wanted to ensure their actions kept them safe. i understand where they were concerned. there are sick people out there, who get their kicks off of doing stupid things.

so just out of curiousity. where do you stand?

[myswtghst]

I think as long as they were polite in insisting on the refund, they did nothing sucky. But I do understand your manager's frustration as well. I guess each had a little bit of suck, but neither was terribly sucky. I'd side more with the customers though.

[bigjimaz]

While I agree that merchants need to take steps to insure their products are not tampered with, surely sealing them with packaging tape, and the time that takes, is not very cost-effective. They might do better by securing such items behind a counter somewhere or putting a few cameras in the area of these items. Making the items look like they have been resealed defeats the purpose entirely. IMHO.

[cinema guy]

I can see the customers' point of view. Failure of a condom could produce a life-changing result.

[BaristaGirl]

I can see the customers' point of view. Failure of a condom could produce a life-changing result.

Or life-creating results. Yeah, way to go them, if I had any questions whatsoever (no matter what any store manager told me, though I understand his perspective) about the safety of the condoms I was using, I wouldn't use them, either.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Generally, when something is covered in packaging tape, it's because it has been previously opened or damaged, so I can see where the couple was coming from. I think it would probably be easier just to keep the things locked up or behind the counter.

[qaxons]

Where I shop, the condoms are in clear view of two cameras and the pharmacy. The only way to tamper with them would be to gather up in a cluster around them, and use a very long, thin pointy thing to poke straight through the entire box and hope no one notices the strange cluster of people at the condoms, or the tiny pinhole in the box.

Still though, i side with the customers. If I notice that something has tape on it, or even looks like it may have been vaguely tampered with, I just go and get something else. I do this before ever leaving the store though.

[Ljt09863]

while i agree,my store unfortunatly doesn't have the space to keep the condoms locked behind a counter. the only place we would be able to do that would be behind the front register, and we have all the cigarettes there.my store is not like all the other ones in the company. usually, there are at least 10 full aisles, we have 6 and then half of two other aisles.

they need to give us a new store...

[mrtauntaun]

I think its a perfectly reasonable request on the customer's side, providing it was withing the return window.