And That Hurts Us How?

A customer comes in for a Blu-ray player. He tells me as he puts it on the counter that his current one broke. I get his information and pull up his receipt to find that he purchased it less than a month ago. I tell him we can swap it out for no charge; he just has to bring in the old one first. He tells me that money is no object, and he’s fine with spending another $60 or so on a new one.

Whatever, the customer is always right, right? So, I ring him up and give him his receipt, and he immediately brings up the environmental fee of $2 like I’m trying to pull a fast one on him. Granted, this isn’t a terribly old thing, but old enough that he likely paid it the first time, too. I calmly explain to him that it goes toward electronic recycling costs, and it’s completely out of my hands. I can’t even take it out of the Blu-ray player, because it is at cost.

He booms in that indignant customer tone, “This is an outrage! I’m gonna go home right now and throw my old Blu-ray player in the garbage!”

I haven’t worked in retail for some time, but I still have the grey hairs.