Angry Balloon Refund Man (Long)

[Azumizai]

(I apologize for the length in advance)

Now, I work at a "Extreme Retail" store. Which, is, like a dollar store... but not. At least, that's what we say. So... we basically have items up to 10$ (possibly more), but we got quality stuff. Not the junk you'd get at the honest-to-goodness dollar stores that fall apart rather quickly. So it’s understandable that people get frustrated at our prices. And returning things.

Anyway, we do big business on balloons. It's actually rather surprising on how many balloons we blow up. Sometimes, on a Saturday, I'll be standing there from 9:00am to 4:30pm doing balloons. It's rather crazy. And my legs get stiff. And I deal with a lot of cranky customers.

Note : That here, we do everything. From cash, to balloons, to cleaning and merchandising. We know the ins and outs. Everything. Everywhere. We also know what we can and cannot do.

Anyway...

It was around 7'clock or so at night, nice and dark outside, about a week or so ago. This guy comes him. A nice fellow at first, seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. Just one of those people you can feel has a bit of a time constraint.

Well, he orders a singing balloon. Now, 1: They're big, so they take 5$ worth of helium in them. 2: They can sing for months. 3: They are refillable. And 4: They are usually brand names. So that one balloon alone, came up to 17$.

Surprisingly, he didn't seem to surprised, and agreed to it. And he also got 4 other balloons and a weight to hold it down. So that was an extra 5$ to the 17$ (not including our Canadian Taxes).

Well, I go off to blow up said balloon, but then I feel a leak, yes... the blasted thing had a leak. Now, usually, this is absolutely no trouble whatsoever. I can go on my merry way, and just get another balloon like it and blow it up as a replacement since it's kinda not fair to charge them for a second one. Easy. Right? Well... we didn't have any other "Happy Birthday" singing balloons.

SC - Angry Balloon Man
M - Me

M: Sorry sir, we don't have any more singing balloons. Only the self-recording ones.
SC: You don't have the other?
M: No. Sorry. Do you want this one? You can record your own signing message with a bunch of your buddies or family. And it won't cost you, I'll just fill this up instead.
SC: No. I wanted the other.
M: Ah. Okay. Sorry about that.
SC: Yeah... just give me a cash refund.

Now... at our store we can't give cash refunds. After its rung into the till and you've given us your cash, I cannot give money back, I’m not allowed to since I’m not manager or head-cash or the boss. We do store-credit and dollar-by-dollar refunds. That's it.

M: Sorry sir... I can't do that... I'm not authorized to do that. But we do have store-credit and dollar-by-dollar... You can pick out anything in the store and add it up to 17 dollars and we can give that to you instead...
SC: No. I want a refund. Just give back my money.

Now... I really felt for this guy. I totally understood that it was frustrating. But I was not allowed. I couldn't do anything.

M: I know... I understand. If I could, I would open up the cash and give you back the 17$. But I think it has to do with the way it's rung up.
SC: I don't care. I just purchased this a few minutes ago, and I want the money back.
M: Ah... geeze... I know how you must feel… Look, I'll call the person in-charge, and she'll most likely be allowed to give it back to you. And since it was only within minutes of your purchase, I'm sure that she'll refund you by cash. I mean, it's perfectly understandable.
SC: I don't need her. YOU give me back my money now.
M: I am not allowed to sir. I would if I could.
SC: I don't know why you're making a big deal out of this. Give me back my money.
M: I cannot do it. I'm sorry. I'm not allowed.

At this point, I was getting frustrated. I was trying to be nice, but the guy wasn't going to let it go, and it was taking a while for the person in charge to get there because she was pre-occupied with more important stuff. Couldn’t he wait? And note: He was starting to get an obnoxious tone that he knew what to do and I didn’t, sort of deely.

M: Here. How about this, while we wait, I'll blow up your other balloons. How's that sound?

I quite literally go over there and start blowing up the balloon. When I finish blowing up one, that’s when he complains.

SC: Why the hell would I want those? I don't want those.
M: But you never actually said-
SC: I was only buying them with that balloon.
M: But they're separate. There's nothing wrong with them and you never told-
SC: Look. If I wanted just four balloons, I sure wouldn't pick the colours you picked. I don't want them.

I was very frustrated by this point. I was trying to be nice. And also by this point, another customer was also trying to get him to understand that we had to wait for the person who had the authority to, and that we couldn't yadda-yadda-yadda. All the while he was huffin' and hawin' at the fact we couldn't give him back his money and how that he didn't want the other balloons.

Well, a few minutes afterward, the other person finally gets there. She finally arrives. We tell her the situation. And she told the person to "shh" so that she could listen to us. And she looked at me, because I had to tell him again that she, as I was pointing at her now, could help him, and that we couldn't give back the money.

She saw I was ready to explode, cry, implode; possibly at the same time. She told me to take a 6 minute break.

I don't know how it came out, but she looked pretty darn frustrated when she came into the back room.

As far as I was aware she had to deal with him for a good 5 or so minutes.

I didn’t see him thankfully after I’d taken the full 6 minutes.

Ugh… I dunno if I’m over-reacting… but the tone of his voice, coupled with the situation, and we me trying to be nice and showing that I understood the situation… but man…

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Sounds like he needed to take a deep breath, calm down & get a grip. However frustrating it was for him, it wasn't worth you losing your job. And you could have let him take the balloon home & you know, 'find' the leak himself.

[marty]

Over balloons? Geez, man. Priorities. Where the hell were his? So caught up over a stupid balloon that he couldn't just listen to you..

[Becks]

I feel your pain. I really do.

However, maybe you should think about filling the balloons first, and THEN ringing them up...

[Skandranon]

The thing is, I could see myself acting exactly like that man. He never even got his full purchase, because you were out of the balloon, so how exactly is it a "refund"? If someone took my money, couldn't give me what I'd asked for, and then refused to give the money back when I didn't want anything else, I'd be pretty irate too.

It was, however, pretty sucky of him to insist that YOU, not the person in charge, gave the money back.

[Eben56]

Don't hurt me

I have to completely agree with the customer. He paid cash, did not receive the goods he paid for, and was told he could use it as a "credit" toward other stuff. The person who could help him was doing "more important" stuff. He had not left the store, he was more than willing to pay for the product he asked for. This is the kind of situation that creates a lot of SCs. I am not talking about the scammers, etc. but the honest customer who suddenly perceives himself as being totally screwed.

Say I walked into a store and said I'd like a Winston Box. The clerk says sure, thats $5.50. I pay and then she says "sorry we don't have any". I say OK, I'll pick them up somewhere else. She says "I can't give you your money back, what would you like instead." "If you want to wait 10-15 minutes because the lady who can do this is doing something "more important", you can get your money back."

Typical store scam... If the cust doesn't want to wait he will take something else.
The Attorney Generals office of the state I live in actually took a prominent national chain store to court several years ago for this very thing under the states "Bait & Switch" laws and won. (Purchasing items and then being told the computer must be wrong, we are all out.)

Sorry, don't mean to rant or to act unsympathetic, but ask yourself how you would react if you were the customer and was put in this totally ridiculous (I know, bad word) situation.

Perhaps in the future, you could make it a point not to charge customers until you know you have the product they are purchasing.

OK.. rant off..

Throw eggs and ban me forever. I await my punishment m'lords.

P.S. Welcome to retail.

[iradney]

Thing is, the OP says there that they HAD a balloon like that. But while filling it up, she found a leak. So it's not a case of they were out of stock. They had stock, but since balloons DO degrade (whether we like it or not) it developed a leak.

Well, I go off to blow up said balloon, but then I feel a leak, yes... the blasted thing had a leak.

They offered something else as a replacement, that to me seemed better, coz it's personalised!

You can record your own signing message with a bunch of your buddies or family. And it won't cost you, I'll just fill this up instead.

The OP literally COULD NOT give a refund. Not allowed. Rules of the company. How many times have we complained about co-workers not following the rules? True, this is a sucky rule, but not one that the OP came up with. Trust me, I'm sure the OP would have given this guy's money back if they could've.

A little suck on both sides, but more on the customer's side than anything else. He just refused to listen to any alternatives or realise that the OP would give the refund if they could, but they're NOT ALLOWED TO.

[Azumizai]

I have to completely agree with the customer. He paid cash, did not receive the goods he paid for, and was told he could use it as a "credit" toward other stuff.

I also completely agree with the customer on that point. I know I would have been rather frustrated myself if I had to deal with the issue of that balloon and not get my 17$ back in return. But it's against the store rule to do other wize and I really felt bad that I couldn't open the till and give it back. S'why I went to the trouble of getting the person in charge to see if she could bend the rules for him.

Perhaps in the future, you could make it a point not to charge customers until you know you have the product they are purchasing.

I usually make a point of making sure we have two. And there are times were I'll fill them up before they get them rung through, but since I was doing cash, I rang them up first before going off to blow them up. Which is perfectly normal. (Plus, the store prefers if I ring them up first. It blocks up cash if they have to come back to buy them after waiting so many minutes for them to get blown up, because we get a lot of people that come in and act like they're priority over the line that had built up while the balloons were blown up. And we get a lot of SCs that way...)

Sorry, don't mean to rant or to act unsympathetic, but ask yourself how you would react if you were the customer and was put in this totally ridiculous (I know, bad word) situation.

Nah... You aren't ranting. Just stating your opinion. Which is just fine and dandy.

The only issue I had with this customer, he wasn't listening to the fact that I was going to try to get his money back, and find someone who could bend the rules for him. And he actually stayed there for another 5 minutes afterwards, so he didn't seem to really need to go where he wanted to go as he seemed in the beginning...

[marty]

The only issue I had with this customer, he wasn't listening to the fact that I was going to try to get his money back, and find someone who could bend the rules for him. And he actually stayed there for another 5 minutes afterwards, so he didn't seem to really need to go where he wanted to go as he seemed in the beginning...

And that's why I think that guy needed to get his priorities straight. He obviously cared more about bitching and moaning then actually getting his cash back and getting to wherever he needed to go.

He also needed to pull his head out of his ass and understand that when the OP told him they could not do it, that they could not do it and stop insisting that they do. The moment the OP told him that they would get a manager, he should have shut his mouth and waited, or, if he was that upset about having to wait, get the corporate number and ask them why it was that they made that rule that made OP unable to give him cash back.

I've been in the same situation before, and no matter how much a person bitches a moans, if I'm told I can't do something and the computer system won't let me do it besides, then I can't friggin' do it. No matter how much someone yells and screams and pitches a fit, I still can't. Yeah, the guy was right to want to get his money back, but there really was no need for him to be an ass about it.

[Eben56]

Not blaming OP

OK. Sometimes I am not very clear about the point of my rambling.

In a perfect world, the customer would wait patiently while a solution was found.

The OP was not at fault, the customer was not at fault. The customer over reacted and the OP was over sensitive. BUT..... I don't know what the SUP was doing, but if it was not CPR then it was not more important than this customer's problem, and then telling the customer to SHH.

And I have to honestly say that if a clerk said to me I can not give you your money back because you didn't buy anything that would strike me as so ludicrous that it had to be a lie. Or I was dealing with a moron. Or a thief.

Also, the first reaction was not to "let me get someone to take care of this", it was an offer of store credit. An honest mistake of inexperience, but the kind of thing that would make a customer's hair stand up on the back of the neck.

I may have a little different perspective than some on the board as I spent 20 years behind the counter and the last 10 years in the ivory tower. My first reaction was to want to know the supervisors name so we could have a little "talk". My second reaction was to wonder what kind of moron makes a rule that is so enbendable that a customer who did nothing wrong is reduced to SC and a clerk who did nothing wrong is reduced to tears. (But then almost everyone in this corporate office started out in the stores so there may be just a touch more empathy for the effect of corp rules on stores). Our philosophy on these types of situations is that you take care of the customer, we'll sort the paperwork out later and if you did nothing illegal or with less than honorable intent, you won't get in trouble. Employees are the most important people in the organization and must be allowed to think and act a little independently.

Probably I over reacted too.

Send me the name of the store and I will be happy to send a letter to their corporate moron office.

[Rapscallion]

Interesting split of opinion here. I know my view as a customer is that I should be able to get the cash back, since that is what I would expect over here in England. I believe that's a legal requirement. I'm fully aware that the US has different laws, allowing shops to set their own policies.

The point is well made that he could have waited for a manager. I don't think you as an employee were put in a tenable position.

Rapscallion

[Eben56]

Concur

I believe that is true in the US also... Varies by state but in Maine comes under what we call our "bait & switch" rules. (mentioned in my original post). I think the OP is from Canada, our brothers to the north (salutes in respect).

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I can't believe for a second that there was nobody at the store who could give cash refunds. Unless the person in charge ultimately did.

This is pretty open and shut to me. Customer paid for an item, couldn't get the item because of a defect, and couldn't get his money back. He had every right to be unhappy. I'd be pissed off too, but I'd be more understanding when told that somebody with enough authority had to come get my money.

I do not blame the OP for this, because his hands were tied by store policy.

[Pedersen]

I do believe that I would have gone to a level of suckage that leave a story about me as the SC here.

Review: I've come into this store for a specific reason. I've given money over for that. I have not received what I paid for. Furthermore, I cannot receive what I've paid for. Finally, I cannot get my money back.

I do believe that I would have waited only a very short time before getting the police involved. Possible charges to file? False Advertising (I was told I could get it, then told I couldn't). Fraud (store has my money, I have nothing to show). If bait-n-switch is an actionable item, separate from false advertising, that would stick too.

No, you didn't suck. Your store did, though, and put you in a very bad position because of it. With policies like that, you can be very sure that I would never again be a customer.

[Azumizai]

I agree with a lot of what everyone is saying. In fact, I am very displeased with how my store manages the money-system in the first place. It's a wonderful store, the people are great, but how they manage the tills are less to be desired.

I know, if I were the customer, I would want my money back as well.

And I have to, as part of our store, tell them that we have dollar-by-dollar refunds first and cash credit, right away. I was never told what to do in cases like that, and since the person in charge was out of range, I had to tell them only what I was told. Most of the time the people don't care about the dollar-by-dollar and they take that anyway, usually telling me that, "I wanted something else anyway".

I seriously have to go talk to my manager on what to do in cases like that. So it never happens again. They were never clear on what to do in a case like that, and I hate to frustrate customers.

I get a lot of huffing and hawin' because of our no cash-back policy and our dollar-to-dollar refunding, and I wish I could make it loads easier.

In the end, I feel bad for the guy, and I sure hope he got his 17$ back in the end. I don't know if he did though.