Early Christmas present for the store! An epic tale of triumph! (long-ish)

[jedifarfy]

The greatest event occured today and we literally danced a little.

So there's this woman. In polite company, she's Manga Girl. To us, she's Manga Bitch. She's in her early 20s, if even that. She used to come in, order bunches of manga, take piles of what we DID have to our chairs (sometimes entire shelves), and just read. Sometimes she had a small toddler with her that she kept strapped into a stroller the whole time who whined and cried non-stop.

At first she purchased a bunch, even getting a member card. Then something changed.

1) She discovered that she could buy the books at 10% off with her membership, then return them at full price without her receipt (just the way returns are done, sadly). Well, we knew she had a membership, but without a receipt couldn't prove anything. One of our head security company-wise monitored it, got enough evidence to cover us, and we banned her from returns.

2) She wore, at these times, full muslim garb with just her face. After the return-ban, she started coming in with a friend or sister. One would grab books, they'd sit and read, then head to the bathroom, come back less than a minute later, grab more books, etc etc. This is when we started to watch more closely and just take books left on the table in front of them. Can't prove they took anything, but we were later missing titles from the series they were taking off the shelves.

Basically, she was heavily watched by everyone when she came in, and finally she stayed away for weeks at a time. She stopped wearing her muslim garb (sorry, late, can't recall the term), but we knew her face so well, she didn't get away with anything. She behaved, stopped scamming us, and all seemed to stop. Until tonight.

She comes in with her sister and camps out in the back cushioned chairs. They were there for an hour and a half or so, making a mess with 2 dozen manga, all sorts of crap, etc. The sister starts to scream at someone on her phone, and another customer tells them off for being loud. They all exchange words, and happily, our security it right around the corner!

What I heard:

M - Manager
SS - Stupid sister
MB - Manga Bitch

M: Ok, we've asked you to be quiet. You can't sit here and yell on your phone. It's upsetting and disrupting other customers.

SS: Well they don't need to sit here!! They can sit somewhere else!!

M: No, these chairs are for customers to browse through books before purchasing them....

Grr, had a phone call at this point. So I'm on the phone, looking down the aisle towards the chairs, and I see them storming towards the desk (and the door). According to my witness, they were asked to leave TWICE, they screamed "Fuck this place! I'm sick of this fucking shit blah blah blah", threw books (some even hit other customers), and they were escorted out.

Being mature at they are, they both pulled books from the shelves onto and in front of all the other customers in the store all along their way.

Finale: Never again shall they step foot into our store! w00t!

Bonus: The race card was pulled!

Oh, what a wacky season this is turning out to be.

JF

[Parrothead]

muslim garb (sorry, late, can't recall the term)

Burka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burka

[Becks]

Burka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burka

That's not the only word...

Where's my Middle Eastern culture books?

[Imogene]

The face covering is a hijaab. I know this because I want one.

[jedifarfy]

Burka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burka

That's the word! Thanks! Brain = mush.

JF

[mariamousie1]

Hooray for permanent bans!

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I did returns without a receipt, we always gave the "lowest selling price" which was usually the online price (which is usually at least 10% off) on store credit. And when I was in Store2 they started doing credit by mail if you didn't have a receipt (not all stores do this, though. It started as a test thing for certain districts). Your mention of the "member card" makes me think we might work for the same company. I never worked in a store with actual security, though.

[TheKit10666]

I am more of a store reader than purchaser. I read the first chapter to get a feel for the book, so that I am relatively sure I will like it. I know that it must make people that actually sell books crazy to see someone reading and not buying though.

[jedifarfy]

When I did returns without a receipt, we always gave the "lowest selling price" which was usually the online price (which is usually at least 10% off) on store credit. And when I was in Store2 they started doing credit by mail if you didn't have a receipt (not all stores do this, though. It started as a test thing for certain districts). Your mention of the "member card" makes me think we might work for the same company. I never worked in a store with actual security, though.

Based on your stories, I'm 99% sure we work for the same company. The issue with the returns is the "lowest" price is determined by us by the online price (we use the trusty search program to get it). Sadly, manga is same price online as in store, and unless we can prove without a doubt she had one (which corporate was doing rather than us), we took them. We mostly just waited until she gave her real name, ID, and phone number with a return to prove it.

TheKit10666:
Reading some of the book to see if you like it is TOTALLY fine. I do it too! It's how I was taught in school to pick out books in the first place. The people that make us reach for weapons are those that sit for HOURS reading the same book, all the way through, without purchasing it. THEN it's time for a discussion.

We either banned or scared away one guy reading through our entire collection of John Grisham. After several books were left behind with broken spines, dog-eared pages, and bent up covers, he was talked to and haven't seen him since.

JF

[Sliceanddice]

huh my paki raise teacher always called them veils...
oh omg i wish i could have seen that, and to bad you dont have security tapes of ittt cause Youtube would love it

[Dave1982]

Hooray for bans! Now if only I can get the B.A.N. banned (Box Art Nazi)........

Not to hijack the thread, but at my store we used to go by "lowest recent sale price" when doing returns w/o receipt. We'd do a price check on the item, which would give us a price history, and take the lowest price on the list.

Note that I said "used to."

My company recently revised the return policy and now it explicitly sates no receipt returns will be credited "the current selling price" which totally opens the door for people to buy something on sale, then return it a week later for a full price credit.

All this (Manga Bitch + my company's BS) makes me believe all the more fervently that returns should NEVER be allowed without a receipt. Period. No exceptions under any and all circumstances. Oh, you told me you didn't need a receipt, but then 5 seconds later changed your mind and don't want it? SORRY, no receipt = no return!

(An extreme example yes, but any exception just opens the door for more exceptions).

[Plaidman]

I agree. No recipts, no return. Period. It was a gift? ask your friend for the recipt. I've always given the recipts to customers, and guess what? MAYBE one a day will take his, all the others just laeve the recipt on the counter as they leave. So annoying, cause then I get to toss it.