I was probably the annoying customer in this story, but it still worked out well, I think.
My local chain bookshop has a “buy four, pay three” deal going on. As an avid reader, I naturally lap this up. Because my tastes are a little eclectic, the books I would like are not in stock at my closest location, so I order them from the shop’s online store and have them delivered to my home.
Among my selection is a volume in a series I already own several of, but I only realise I already own this particular volume when it arrives and I go to put it on my shelf. I check the shop’s policies on exchanges and returns, and it says I can return online orders at a brick-and-mortar location, and since I’m meeting a friend in town that day, I decide to do that.
I sort of regret this.
I also sort of don’t.
At the cash register, they tell me I need to go to the customer service desk as this was an online order. There’s no one at the desk, so I pull up the confirmation email while I wait. To make matters more complicated, I realise that this book was the one I received for free.
Someone finally arrives. She has trouble finding my order, so she asks for my name, address, etc. I offer repeatedly to show her the order number and billing number, but she barely acknowledges this, which I honestly find a little odd. After some back and forth, we decide that an exchange is probably the easiest option rather than a refund (which I’m more than okay with; you can never have enough books). The customer service person tells me that after I’ve picked up my replacement book, I can go to the cash register and get the exchange there.
I pick out a book and go to the cash register. The cashier, however, cannot find the book and even claims she can’t find the ISBN in or on the book (which is very bizarre, but okay). I’m sent back to the customer service desk.
Once there, I explain my predicament yet again, but the person there (a different one than the one from before) brushes me off and tells me I need to go to the pick-up desk upstairs. Okay?
I go upstairs. Three people are working there. The first I talk to hasn’t even heard of the deal. The next person is a trainee and asks the third person for help. At this point, I admit that I am getting a little short as my patience is fraying by having to repeatedly explain this (admittedly somewhat complicated) matter — that I received this book for free through a limited-time offer, realised I ordered the wrong thing, and was told I could exchange it for this other book. I’m even offering that we forget the whole thing, and I’ll go home and do the exchange/return online, but for some reason (stubbornness?), these two keep trying to do the exchange right then and there.
And here’s why I think the whole ordeal was worth it, after all. They find my order (easy as pie with the order number) but can’t find the book I’m trying to return in the system. I don’t know why; the ways of a point-of-sale system are unknowable to mortal man. They try to run the ISBN, which doesn’t work, either. They try to enter the book into the shop’s inventory, but it doesn’t show up.
Finally, the older worker shakes her head in frustration and asks the younger worker what price the book is listed for. She then does a manual return under “miscellaneous”, scans the other book I’d like, and hands it to me, telling me I’m all set. She even refunds me the difference in price — only a euro, but still!
I thank her from the bottom of my heart, wish her a very happy new year, and walk out with a new book and a skip in my step. Sometimes patience does pay off!
To clarify, I was not asking her to go out of her way at all. I did my best to remain polite even through my frustration. I had the 1€ difference ready in my hand to pay and would gladly have accepted it if they’d told me there was nothing they could do and I should try online. They were just being nice, and I am very grateful they were.
