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I got an empty box! aka Sabbarin plays Detective!
Hi All, first story post for ya! Sorry, it's a bit long.
I work in mail-order retail and have had the pleasure of dealing with some delightful customers over the years. One of the jobs I have handled in the past dealt with contacting customers who had made returns that were unjustified, contained used or abused goods or were potentially unacceptable for a host of other reasons.
One of the things that gets flagged up to us is where the returns team has received an empty box. In these cases, we check our account record for customer contact, do some investigation and call the customer before deciding whether to credit the account for the goods.
Anyway, a few months back I get one of these reports. Check the account, customer had called in in mid-January to report receiving an empty box. It seemed like a straightforward 'credit the account' situation until I checked what the goods were. Turns out this customer was claiming for a £2,600 platinum solitaire ring!
Well it goes without saying that this set off some alarm bells in my head, so I started digging. I checked the delivery date and found it was delivered by post before Christmas! For some reason, the customer hadn't reported an empty parcel for over 3 weeks after delivery. Considering we only close on Christmas Day and New Years Day, she would have been able to ring in.
So, joy of joys, I get to call our customer. Mrs Smith (name changed to protect the guilty) told me that;
A) She opened the parcel on the day of delivery, which was 3 days before Christmas.
B)The packing on the parcel was torn, the customer assumed this was caused by the postman forcing the packet through her letterbox. (This is important later on).
When questioned, she said that she hadn't called in sooner because she was ill with the flu! Well, I don't know about you guys but if I had over £2,000 of missing goods, only death would prevent me from dragging myself to a phone to report it.
Anyway, I thanked our customer for her time (Yeah, right!) and said I would investigate further. Cue call 2, to our supplier.
This is where customer point B comes into play. In the UK, high-value items can be posted on recorded delivery. This means that a unique barcode gets issued to the parcel and a signature must be obtained from the recipient to confirm delivery was completed. A quick phone call to our supplier got me the barcode for the parcel. (Thanks chaps!)
Phone call 3 was to the Post Office, who confirmed the following;
A) Yes, the customer signed for the packet.
B) If the packet showed any signs of damage, it would be logged and the damaged packet would be delivered in a special sealed bag confirming the damage and advising the recipient how to claim for any losses.
C) No, there was no damage recorded for this particular packet.
So, not only has our lovely customer 'forgotten' that she signed for the packet, her excuse that it was damaged has just been blown out of the water. Cue 2nd call back to customer!
Funnily enough, when I tried to call the customer back, she wasn't answering my calls. I wonder why......
At this point, I have no intention whatsoever of crediting the customer's account. I report the matter to our fraud team for follow up.
Cutting a long story short, I hear back a couple of weeks later. It turns out that two of our fraud prevention team paid her a home visit. She still insists that she never got the ring but she was gonna pay for it anyway!! Our fraud guys make their way back to the office with a cheque for £2,600! (Which reminds me, need to take a look and see if it cleared!)
Anyway, that's it! My chance to play detective. Sorry about the length, hope you all enjoy!
I work in mail-order retail and have had the pleasure of dealing with some delightful customers over the years. One of the jobs I have handled in the past dealt with contacting customers who had made returns that were unjustified, contained used or abused goods or were potentially unacceptable for a host of other reasons.
One of the things that gets flagged up to us is where the returns team has received an empty box. In these cases, we check our account record for customer contact, do some investigation and call the customer before deciding whether to credit the account for the goods.
Anyway, a few months back I get one of these reports. Check the account, customer had called in in mid-January to report receiving an empty box. It seemed like a straightforward 'credit the account' situation until I checked what the goods were. Turns out this customer was claiming for a £2,600 platinum solitaire ring!
Well it goes without saying that this set off some alarm bells in my head, so I started digging. I checked the delivery date and found it was delivered by post before Christmas! For some reason, the customer hadn't reported an empty parcel for over 3 weeks after delivery. Considering we only close on Christmas Day and New Years Day, she would have been able to ring in.
So, joy of joys, I get to call our customer. Mrs Smith (name changed to protect the guilty) told me that;
A) She opened the parcel on the day of delivery, which was 3 days before Christmas.
B)The packing on the parcel was torn, the customer assumed this was caused by the postman forcing the packet through her letterbox. (This is important later on).
When questioned, she said that she hadn't called in sooner because she was ill with the flu! Well, I don't know about you guys but if I had over £2,000 of missing goods, only death would prevent me from dragging myself to a phone to report it.
Anyway, I thanked our customer for her time (Yeah, right!) and said I would investigate further. Cue call 2, to our supplier.
This is where customer point B comes into play. In the UK, high-value items can be posted on recorded delivery. This means that a unique barcode gets issued to the parcel and a signature must be obtained from the recipient to confirm delivery was completed. A quick phone call to our supplier got me the barcode for the parcel. (Thanks chaps!)
Phone call 3 was to the Post Office, who confirmed the following;
A) Yes, the customer signed for the packet.
B) If the packet showed any signs of damage, it would be logged and the damaged packet would be delivered in a special sealed bag confirming the damage and advising the recipient how to claim for any losses.
C) No, there was no damage recorded for this particular packet.
So, not only has our lovely customer 'forgotten' that she signed for the packet, her excuse that it was damaged has just been blown out of the water. Cue 2nd call back to customer!
Funnily enough, when I tried to call the customer back, she wasn't answering my calls. I wonder why......
At this point, I have no intention whatsoever of crediting the customer's account. I report the matter to our fraud team for follow up.
Cutting a long story short, I hear back a couple of weeks later. It turns out that two of our fraud prevention team paid her a home visit. She still insists that she never got the ring but she was gonna pay for it anyway!! Our fraud guys make their way back to the office with a cheque for £2,600! (Which reminds me, need to take a look and see if it cleared!)
Anyway, that's it! My chance to play detective. Sorry about the length, hope you all enjoy!
to 
at the lady. How stupid do you have to be to not realize that if you're claiming something that expensive, they're going to check!
rb
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