Refunder Blunder, Part 4

(I’m a part-time manager at a popular arts and crafts store. One of my cashiers has just called me on the radio to ask me to do a return for him. I am confused, but go up to find a customer we had dealt with two nights prior who had a bunch of returns and only had receipts for half of them. She has the receipt for a candle and a vase this time, but not for the other nine vases.)

Customer: “I have a return card from before. You can just put the store credit from the ones without the receipt on there.”

Me: “It doesn’t always work, but I can sure try. Let me just get these all scanned in.”

(I put in her driver’s license number as I would for any return without a receipt and the system declines the return. This happens sometimes as a measure to prevent fraud if a customer is found to be doing a lot of high-dollar value of returns with no receipt.)

Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t process this return. There’s a number on that slip there that you can call for more information.”

Customer: “What? So, you won’t give me back my money?”

Me: “No, sorry. It doesn’t give the exact reasons, but you can call that number for more information as to why the return was declined. I can’t bend the rules here.”

Customer: “That’s illegal. Where does it say that you can refuse to do a return? I want to speak to your supervisor!”

Me: “Well, I’m not sure, but I’ll go look in our database to find you some proof.”

(I go to the office and print out the policy for returns, cut out the simple return policy, and highlight the first line which states ‘[Store Chain] reserves the right to refuse any return regardless of receipt,’ which I then give to the customer.)

Me: “There you go. As you can see, the first line clearly says we can refuse to refund you.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! [Store Name] is really willing to lose business over $18? That’s a stupid policy. Other stores let you return anything no matter what.”

Me: “Yes, well, they’re owned by different people and they probably work with different credit companies.”

Customer: “They’re your competition and they’ve been around for a long time. Do you really want to go to small claims court over $18, because I will call my lawyer. You need to get a job at a store with more class.”

Me: “Our store has actually been around for forty years. What I NEED, ma’am, is to finish my degree and start teaching. That was rather personal.”

Customer: “You wanna be a teacher? Well, I’m a teacher. I’m an English teacher, and I write a lot. I write a lot of letters and this will be out there.”

Me: “All right, ma’am. You can certainly call our corporate number to lodge any complaints. Have a nice night.”