No. I believe if a company has a policy, it should be enforced without exception, and the consumer has a duty to expect that and not argue the point.

I am no longer in retail partly because the typical consumer has become a cry baby and has become quite rude. When I was in management and a person refused to comply with policy, I had two ways to solve it. Either they complied or they left the store. If they were rude, they would get nothing. Not even a refund. If they were nice, then I would comply with company policy.

BTW. When I buy something and it does not work, if it has a warranty, I do what the warranty information says to do. Regardless, I rarely return anything. And, if the place has a no return policy, such as a sale, then I bought the item. No questions asked. And while on the subject of store policy... I never ask for a price match. I shop around first, then buy from the place I like best. Often it is not the lowest price. I buy based on the way I am treated by the sales staff. Plus the quality of the manufacturer.

If you disagree, then that is your right. I was taught how to shop carefully and how to react to policies. I also have the right to shop the way I wish.

mranderson, I have no intention of starting an argument with you, but surely you must know that the position you state above is simply not supported legally?

I am NOT a lawyer, but I understand a few basics of contract law, and the customer's duty to be bound by a policy "and not argue the point" is constrained by that customer's protections as provided by law. It is the customer's legal right to expect a product to perform as it is intended, and the retailer bears at least a portion of the burden of the risk that it doesn't. Policy does not contravene the law when a product is DOA out of the box!

Under the terms of the Uniform Commercial Code, this is called a "revoked acceptance," wherein a buyer accepts an item with a defect that is not "readily apparent" or "easily discovered." This is expressly not talking about situations where people have just changed their minds over some subjective issue, but can demonstrate a material defect or failure of an item to meet the implied warranty of fitness.

There is no question, as was mentioned earlier, that many consumers are blowing their return privileges out of the water - there was a story about highbrow, high dollar women buying expensive dresses for a formal, then returning them immeidately afterwards for full refunds. To me, that's tantamount to stealing. That kind of ethic is what has led retailers to start tracking habitual returners.

Now, on the flip side, surely you realize this sounds like an antagonistic, even condescending attitude toward the customer? On the one hand, you've said you wanted company polices enforced absolutely, every time - but you clearly state here that you didn't even live by that principle - you picked-and-chose whom you gave policy, and for whom you wanted to make life difficult by your own standards of who was "nice;" standards that probably varied from day to day, even hour to hour.

Everyone is entitled to their own way of conducting business (within the law), and I'm in no position to say yours is better or worse than anyone else's. But it is clear to me that I'd have been very, very wary of doing business with you in whatever retail capacity you participated. And I just don't see how a consciously belligerent attitude toward the consumer makes good business sense. In many or most cases, you may even have been right,, but at what expense? But that's just me...

Have a pleasant evening.

-SoonerDave

Yeah, I love Sam's Club but speaking of returning anything anytime.. I bought a Paper Shredder from the area of Discounted Items from Costco in CA.. brought it home and took it out of the package, started trying to set it up and noticed the thing was covered in dried blood! omg. YUK!

Someone obviously put their hand in the wrong place at the wrong time, cut themselves pretty badly and decided it was too risky of a product!

They returned it and so did I!

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

So THAT's where my missing finger ended up....

-sd

So, by these statements it can be deduced that you would not have bought anything from yourself.

You just liked having the power of giving someone a rough time. I don't know where you worked but you were probably one of the flunkies that I've had to go over their head from time to time.

You probably never realized that the customer was the one paying your salery and if you treated them badly then that portion of your paycheck would go to a competitor's store.

EVEN in Karrie's case of buying a shredder that had blood on it? What a petty person you must be.

that is freaky and disgusting! oh... but you totally should have taken that up with the manufacturer. *snicker*

-M

LOL -

The manufacturer must have been in the wrong and made the blades too sharp. I should have sent it back and paid the postage and waited 3 months to get a new one..

nah, I'm a horrible consumer. I prefer bothering the clerks.. you know, those people who get paid to deal with demanding customers such as myself.. thankfully, I kept my receipt.

Thinking back on it, how fun would it have been to buy a halloween prop of a fake finger and put it in the box? ha,ha.. fun for me, not very fun for whoever opened it... that was pretty icky.

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Even Wal-Mart requires your Driver's License for returns without a recepit and for store credit. Why? Because you can only do returns without a receipt three times a month, and they keep track of that via your Driver's License Number.

I guess maybe tha'ts a new thing because I've never had Wal-Mart ask to scan my license.

To return a purchase or gift to a Target store:

To find out if your gift can be returned to a Target store, on the "Additional Information" tab in the product's description or visit our Online Returns Center. The "Method of return" drop-down box will let you know if the item can be returned to a store.

You can return an item to a store in just a few steps:
Visit our Online Returns Center and obtain an online receipt or gift receipt.
Bring the following with you to a Target store:

1. Your new and unused item and all product packaging and accessories.
2. Your receipt or gift receipt.
3. A form of personal identification.

If you are returning your item with a gift receipt, you will receive a store credit for the original purchase value of that item. The store credit can be used in any Target store.

Find the Target store closest to you using our store locator or call 1-800-800-8800.


Wal-Mart return policy

Take the item, packing slip and all original packaging to the Customer Service desk. No return shipping charges Replace or exchange the item immediately (availability may vary) Or receive immediate credit for your return

I think, short-term, you'll see more of this "habitual return" tracking. Over the long-term, however, I think that kind of information-gathering is going to be such a turn off that most vendors are going to have to stop doing it - as soon as the first vendor stops doing it, that'll create the pressure for everyone else to stop.

While I don't blame stores for puttting measures in place to stop habitual returners, I think those measures will come at the expense of creating an adversarial relationship between merchants and customers - particularly the ones with legitimate product return issues.

I think one of the reasons WalMart almost owns the world is because of their wide-open return policy.

-SD

I actually made yet another return to Target. I had no receipt but fortunately I had paid with my debit card. They scanned my card and walla they could verify the purchase.

Personally, I wish all stores could do that. I'm even okay with them asking to scan my ID on cash purchases just in case I lose my receipt.

I know Radio Shack can lookup purchases also.

What I really hated was Service Merchandise's policy of having you write all your info onto a form just to buy a simply alarm clock. I think that is one reason they failed.

I think it would be nice if banks could capture entire receipt information when you use your debit or credit card. That way you could log on to the Internet and just print out a copy of a receipt, use it for warranty work and taxes.

I have no problem with collecting such info as long as I have the option to opt out at my own risk.

Remember when grocery stores tried to force customers to give them their personal info to qualify for sale prices?

I see no need for to database personal information with food purchases.

Hey, I can give you one HUGE story about Service Merchandise, from several years ago.... btw mranderson, if you're even still browsing this thread, I'll warn you in advance to avert your eyes. You won't like this one.

I bought a new iron for my mom for Christmas. (Yes, an iron, that's what she wanted, so save your "thats-a-lousy-present brickbat ). I bought the one she wanted at Service Merchandise, and the first time she plugs it in and uses it some bizarre white/metallic kind of power started spilling out of it and all over what she was ironing.

Fortunately, the particular fabric was not stained permanently, so the only issue at hand was returning the iron. We go to the store, and the little local manager there won't give me full credit for the return because I don't have the original box. I go into a thirty-minute argument with the guy about it, and he won't budge. That's fine. He gives me a $5 deduction on the refund, and I proceed to inform him that'll be the most expensive $5 he ever argued with a customer over. Mind you - it wasn't just the $5, it was the crappy attitude the little local manager jerk was tossing out to me.

I find the address of the CEO of Service Merchandise - a gentleman named Zimmerman, and prepare a typewritten (that tells you how long ago it was) letter explaining the situation - and the attitude - I had to deal with. I pointed out in particular that the $5 wasn't going to break me at all, but I sure didn't need the attitude I got from this little bozo. Over time, I'd spent more than a few $$$ at that Service Merchandise, and I darned sure wasn't anything like a "habitual returner." After barely a week, I get a phone call from Zimmerman's office outlining the following:

* Their agreement that the situation should never have happened
* Their apology for my hassle
* Their advisory to me that the manager at that store had been corrected
* Their credit to my card for more than the $5 I was out.

The next time I went to that store, Mr. Snippy Manager Dude was gone (along with his picture).

I can only imagine other customers that got the same load from Mr. Snippy Manager Dude that never bothered to relay the info up the chain.

Sadly, though, and that incident notwithstanding, I really liked SM. They had stuff you couldn't get just anywhere, and had a really cool selection of photo equipment for a non-specialty photo store. I bought a Minolta Maxxum SLR there probably 15 years ago that I still have to this day. Used to get film developed there, and it had a great selection of unusual electronics....but I digress.

Don't know what served as SM's ultimate demise; know they went through a couple of rounds of bankruptcy before finally shutting down....but if lots of people had return hassles like I did, I can see how that reputation would start to precede them and people would just opt not to bother...

-SoonerDave

Well, we got the gift receipt and took back the item over the weekend and all we got was store credit. So my wife bought something just to close the transaction and end it. Of course she couldn't find anything that she half way wanted for the exact same price and we knew that if we chose something cheaper the difference would be given to us in store credit and we didn't need 2 or 3 dollars of store credit so she bought something a little more expensive. When all was said and done that return cost ME $4. True $4 won't break me, it's just the principle of the thing.

On top of that when my wife went to the changing room she told them how many items and then they began to quiz her about the diaper bag and our boys' coats that were also in the basket to see if she was stealing stuff. Then when she went to pay (we paid in electronics because I was looking at the PS3 with my boys) the guy again quizzed her about the other stuff in the cart that was our personal items.

Yeah, we decided to pay for these items but the rest of the stuff in the cart we're gonna steal and we thought we'd bring the baby and the kids along for the ride as well.

Maybe they were all bored because no one was in the store because of the bad weather but I can think of other ways to pass the time than to make honest customers feel like criminals. I can say I've never experienced this at Wal-Mart. Like it was said by someone earlier, there's a reason Wal-Mart is not just the largest retailer in the world but the largest company, bar none. Larger than GM or General Electric or anyone. As much as we like to bash Wal-Mart they give the customer what they want.

And I can understand stores having a problem with habitual returners but what is the percentage of habitual returners to honest customers with a legit return? Probably minimal. So they'd rather tick off the vast majority of honest customers with legit returns just to put a stop to the 5 or so % of the customer base that habitually return items with no receipt.

I will no longer be buying anything at Stupid Target. Any item I look for has to be sold elsewhere as well.

The number one rule in retail used to be "The customer is always right."
As a consumer, it is my right to visit another retailer and, if I choose, to let the offending retailer know (and the internet makes this painless) why they have lost my business and will be receiving negative publicity among my friends and family.

Having worked in retail for many years, I have learned you are incorrect. The customer is rarely right. most are quite the opposite, and quite rude.

Like when Mr. Anderson is the customer?

-----------------

It should probably read "The customer is always right, even when they're wrong." In the end, regardless of who is right, it's the customer's business that may be lost or won. Is it worth it to always be "right" if it ends up making you go out of business?

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind
Albert Einstein

That's exactly right. I again will say that too many retail clerks act like they are doing you a favor for being there, when in reality, it's the other way around. Those "by the book" and "policy is policy" retail clerks/managers forget that customers always have a choice in where to shop. This is drilled on by Herb Kelleher (founder of Southwest Airlines). He says:

"Yes, we have policies at Southwest Airlines. We also seek out and only hire indviduals who are smart enough to know when to realize that policies (aside from government regulations) are made to be broken! A lot of the success of our airline is knowing that "no" is something we utter only when it's unreasonable in the extreme. Each customer that calls us, steps to our counters or on to our jets is unique, with different needs, desires, expectations and standards they expect from an airline they chose to fly with. We show our appreciation by catering to that individual, not to the masses of the flying public where we treat them all the same because page 53, paragraph 4 says that's how it is to be done. It's truly an easy concept that any company dealing with the public can use, but unfortunately few do and we all see that everyday as we go about our lives."

Note: Southwest Airlines is regarded as the most successful domestic airline of the past 30 years.





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Any company would fire a manager within a week that stuck to the policy with no exceptions...Think he is trying to get a rise out of everyone

Know my employer wouldn't think twice about escorting out a retail branch mgr that didn't use common sense when dealing with customer issues no matter who was at fault...Just two or three calls to the district mgr by customers would likely get the ball rolling on a lovely meeting with that branch mgr

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Dr. Spaceman: Now Jenna, medically speaking for your height your weight puts you what we call the "disgusting" range. Fortunately there are solutions. For example, crystal meth has been shown to be very effective. How important is tooth retention to you?

I've noticed that in this discussion you guys have occasionally mentioned cashiers or clerks who didn't have the intelligence to "bend the rules" occasionally. I'd like to point out that those cashiers might not actually have the room to bend the rules; at the pain of being fired they might have to follow those rules like a bible. The only way those rules could be bent is if the customer asks for a manager and the manager chooses to allow whatever it is the customer wants.

Example: At my theatre we're not supposed to allow student discounts unless the student has a student ID or a report card or something proving they are currently enrolled in a school. We can't. At all. We're not allowed to make the decision. We have to ask a manager to make exceptions. Normally they will unless the person is very obviously not a student, but still...

Just keep that in mind next time you disagree with a store's policy and decide to take it out on the guy just doing what he's told (not that anyone here has said that the cashier deserves a good yelling at, just pointing it out).

^^Waaaay back in the days of college I worked a joe job where I had to deal with customers all day. I didn't have the authority to make or break policy, but customers rarely took frustration out on me because I didn't let them. I put them face-to-face with someone who did have that authority and removed myself from the situation. That's the common sense intelligence that they're talking about at Southwest Airlines.

Unlike someone like anderson who makes themselve bigger and more important than they're position by telling everyone NO when they don't have the authority to say Yes. And instead of making it easy on everyone by getting the person who can break policy for the customer, they continue to frustrate the customer by not allowing them to talk to management with lame excuses like: the manager's busy, he/she's not available, I am the manager (yeah department manager not store manager), etc.

"Unlike someone like anderson who makes themselve bigger and more important than they're position by telling everyone NO when they don't have the authority to say Yes. And instead of making it easy on everyone by getting the person who can break policy for the customer, they continue to frustrate the customer by not allowing them to talk to management with lame excuses like: the manager's busy, he/she's not available, I am the manager (yeah department manager not store manager), etc."

First, I do not tell "everyone" no. I follow policy. Plus, I do not "make myself look bigger than my position." I have always had the authority to say yes or no. If you break policy for even one person, you set precidence. That means you must do it for everyone. I believe policy is there to be enforced. Why have it if you will not enforce it. You people want retailers that walk up to you with their tails between their legs, say "yaza boss" and do anything you demand. Yes, demand. You demand something with me and believe me, you will get less.

I am no longer in retail and do not want back in mainly because of people like you. It use to be you would explain policy and the typical consumer would simpally say "ok, I have to accept that." Now they argue, spit, sputter, and throw tantrums like small children until they get their own way. Sorry people, I refuse to play that game. Plus, if a store has a policy, as a consumer, I respect it. I do not ask nor demand they break it. If I do not get what I would like, that is my problem, not theirs.

Understand you are all about policy mranderson and yes it should hold in most clear cut cases...But it seems you didn't understand one thing in retail

The whiny tantrum throwers paid your salary

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Dr. Spaceman: Now Jenna, medically speaking for your height your weight puts you what we call the "disgusting" range. Fortunately there are solutions. For example, crystal meth has been shown to be very effective. How important is tooth retention to you?

Okay anderson, policy is your "god". So if a store still had a policy to not serve blacks, should it be upheld. If you say no, then that means that policy can be wrong. I think that's the problem alot of people have with store policies, is that many of them are ridiculous and seem to be there merely to cut down on responsibility to the customer.

You say the customer is responsible to the store. You've got it backwards. The customer has no responsibility to the store because they can go elsewhere. However, if a customer decides to buy something at a store, you have the repsonsibility to stand behind that product and service that customer even after the sale. When a customer buys a product they expect a REASONABLE (I did that so that you would notice and not twist my words as has been your habit) amount of satisfaction out of it.