I still hate returns

[bbaaww13]

This morning I got stuck at customer service. This lady walked in carrying a crumpled box and a remote control boat. She told me that her and her grandson bought the boat this morning and took it home to try it out in there pool. Something messed up with it and it quit working. No big deal. I can give a refund for a defective item. I ask for her receipt and she hands me it. I return it and the register shows I need to give her back $25.67. I tell her what she gets back and go to open the register. She tells me that can't be right. She paid 34.99 for it. She wants all her money back. I look at her receipt and it shows that the boat was 34.99 but she had coupons. At my work if you have a ten dollar off coupon it doesn't take it from one item. It takes a little bit off of each item until 10 dollars has been taken off. Most people hate it but hey, I don't make the rules. I just get paid to check people out. She had 2 items on her receipt. The boat and some batteries. I explain that the boat was 34.99 but she only paid 25.67 because of the coupon. She just keeps staring at me. So I tell her since she only paid 25.67 that's all I can give her back. Again she just keeps staring. Finally she tells me that since she can't get back her coupon she should get back the full amount of the boat. She still isn't getting that she's only getting back what she actually spent. After trying to explain it again she gets mad and tells me she's don't talking to me. Where is a manager? As I go to get a manager I can hear her telling her grandson how fed up she is of stores trying to steal money from customers because they think they can pull a fast one. I get my manager up there and explain what's happening. My manager tries to explain all over again about how he's only giving back the 25.67. All of a sudden this lady starts screaming about how she wants her money back or she's calling the cops for us stealing her money. She even pulls out her cellphone like she's about to dial the police. My manager quickly opens the register and pulls out the 34.99 and hands it to her. The lady gives me this smirk then grabs her grandsons hand and heads for the exits.

[Josh]

As a manager having dealt with similar moronic customers you learn to choose what battles to fight.. In this particular case I can see this escalating to a corporate call and have it resolved at the customers favor WHILE at the same time getting dinged for failing to take care of a customer at the local level. It's best to learn never to take it on a personal level.

[EricKei]

The lady obviously did not understand the concept that she did not pay full price

Actually, I think she understood quite well why she wasn't supposed to get the full $35 back >_> I smell a rat. Josh is probably right, though. If it DID go to Corporate, the manager probably would have gotten into trouble for the egregious sin of having a spine. Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

[Bob The Random Boy Wonder]

At my work if you have a ten dollar off coupon it doesn't take it from one item. It takes a little bit off of each item until 10 dollars has been taken off.

This is, verbatim, what these coupons (called "<Store Name> Bucks") at my former workplace used to do. I won't ask you where you work, but it wouldn't be surprising if you and I have both worked for a company that's based in a state surrounded by about five lakes that I've been told are great.

I would have let the lady call the cops. All that has done is set a precedent for this sort of thing to occur again.

Heck...at my store, she would've got an extra $10 back just for threatening to call the cops!

At any rate, patiokitty is right. Spineless Boss has just encouraged this kind of behavior in the future and proceeded to make bbaaww look like a fool in the process. It's a little cliche to say, but I know how the OP feels.

[blas]

I'd say it's a proverbial rock and a hard place, and even though a lot of manager types are spineless wussies, I can see where it'd be a really tough decision to make. Risk corporate taking the customer's side and losing a good associate and having to lose money by giving idiot scammers tons of freebies, or just giving in to shut them up.

Unfortunately, the giving in to shut them up just encourages them to keep doing it. But at the same time, I'd be afraid of losing my best employees because of customers throwing tantrums and corporate suits with their assholes continually spread wide open to receive the big juicy cock of customer complaints.

[ShootMePlease]

corporate suits with their assholes continually spread wide open to receive the big juicy cock of customer complaints.

This is probably the coolest analogy ever.

[blas]

Or the most painful.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

But at the same time, I'd be afraid of losing my best employees because of customers throwing tantrums and corporate suits with their assholes continually spread wide open to receive the big juicy cock of customer complaints.

Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it. Look! A unicorn! Don't say it....

Not assholes. Mouths. And they all swallow.

There, I said it! Highlight above for a good time.

[blas]

meh, they oftentimes go ass to mouth to really make the customer happy.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

meh, they oftentimes go ass to mouth to really make the customer happy.

And that's a mouth you definitely do NOT want to kiss.

[Peppergirl]

begin/ broken record

And THIS, my friends, is why spineless managers are mostly to blame for SC's.

/end broken record

[b2addm]

I would have let the lady call the cops.

Me too. And I would've watched her wait and wait and wait on them to show only to be told she did not have an actionable, criminal complaint. While I smirked...
And I am the manager. Corporate almost never backs *me* on these issues but when they send the customer back for me to "make it right" I make sure I knock the smug off their faces in some sarcastic way that won't get me in trouble. And I'm very good at that.

[Juggler]

If I understand the coupon policy you described. shouldn't she have gotten the $25.67 and a $5.00 coupon back?

[EricKei]

If I understand the coupon policy you described. shouldn't she have gotten the $25.67 and a $5.00 coupon back?

Generally speaking, once a coupon has been used, it cannot be returned (if it's from Corporate, ti is sent in to them or destroyed; if it's form the manufacturer, it is mailed to them). After all, the "money" represented by the coupon is money the customer never actually GAVE to the store, so they're not entitled to get it back.

I'd be afraid of losing my best employees

Sadly, it's been my experience that most corporations have no problem with losing veteran employees. Why? Long-timers tend to cost more. This totally ignores how many thousands of dollars it costs to train a newbie up from scratch, though.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

And THIS, my friends, is why spineless managers are mostly to blame for SC's.

That, and stupid corporate policies that encourage managers to be spineless and/or feed right into the SC's evil plots. They complain, we front line clerks/reps apologize and quote company policy, they go berserk and we end up spending more money appeasing them than we would have if we just had fair practices and people doing their jobs right up front. And of course, I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like the corporate people who are causing these problems ever have to deal with the consequences...we, the poor sap front line agents, have to hear all about it.