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So today, when I came in for work, I noticed a flatbed piled high with six pieces of furniture, still sealed in the unopened boxes, from a collection we discontinued a long time ago. As in all the pieces were marked down and gone several months ago.
Attached to the furniture was a cryptic note indicating a couple people in the store knew the story behind the furniture.
One of those people was working today, and I got the story from her. The furniture was purchased by a couple who had purchased some cabins up north, and were fixing them up to rent them out. They bought our entire stock of the furniture and possibly more from other stores. When they were done they found they had purchased too much furniture, and came back to return the excess to the store.
Where they were informed they could not, because policy gives 90 days for returns. So cue the normal SC threats and insults--"You people are crooks, we're never shopping here again, blah blah blah blah blah."
The couple claimed we couldn't enforce the policy because it isn't printed on the receipt. It isn't--but it is posted on a sign behind the service desk, and also spelled out on our website. I know this because I just checked.
Then they claimed they had spoken to store manager over the phone and he said it would be okay to return the furniture. We don't know if this is true or not; he wasn't in when these people came in with their furniture.
Planogram supervisor happened by, and she took it upon herself to play manager, as she tends to do. I don't know exactly what she said or did, but it sounds like she was the one who convinced the service desk people to do the return.
And then the person I talked to was dragged into the whole mess to override the system and give the SCs their refund, in the form of a gift card.
Nobody's going to say boo about any of this, because the SCs turned around and bought $400 worth of stuff from us after getting their gift card. Every business professor and customer service "expert" alive would say we did the right thing in caving.
So now we have these six pieces of furniture languishing in the backroom, and nobody knows what is going to happen with them. We figure they will be marked way down and placed out on the floor for sale, but displays of each piece (three different items) may need to be built to actually sell them.
I really don't know why we bother with return policies. I really don't. Seems they are only for nice people who read rules and follow them and keep their mouths shut.
Attached to the furniture was a cryptic note indicating a couple people in the store knew the story behind the furniture.
One of those people was working today, and I got the story from her. The furniture was purchased by a couple who had purchased some cabins up north, and were fixing them up to rent them out. They bought our entire stock of the furniture and possibly more from other stores. When they were done they found they had purchased too much furniture, and came back to return the excess to the store.
Where they were informed they could not, because policy gives 90 days for returns. So cue the normal SC threats and insults--"You people are crooks, we're never shopping here again, blah blah blah blah blah."
The couple claimed we couldn't enforce the policy because it isn't printed on the receipt. It isn't--but it is posted on a sign behind the service desk, and also spelled out on our website. I know this because I just checked.
Then they claimed they had spoken to store manager over the phone and he said it would be okay to return the furniture. We don't know if this is true or not; he wasn't in when these people came in with their furniture.
Planogram supervisor happened by, and she took it upon herself to play manager, as she tends to do. I don't know exactly what she said or did, but it sounds like she was the one who convinced the service desk people to do the return.
And then the person I talked to was dragged into the whole mess to override the system and give the SCs their refund, in the form of a gift card.
Nobody's going to say boo about any of this, because the SCs turned around and bought $400 worth of stuff from us after getting their gift card. Every business professor and customer service "expert" alive would say we did the right thing in caving.
So now we have these six pieces of furniture languishing in the backroom, and nobody knows what is going to happen with them. We figure they will be marked way down and placed out on the floor for sale, but displays of each piece (three different items) may need to be built to actually sell them.
I really don't know why we bother with return policies. I really don't. Seems they are only for nice people who read rules and follow them and keep their mouths shut.
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