You Got Me In A Box Here, Part 3

My clothing store has a pretty standard return and exchange policy; you need the receipt and must be within thirty days of purchase. I’m on the phone with a colleague, talking about store stuff, when I notice a woman and man come in. They look around for a while and then come up to the desk.

Woman: “My mother purchased these pants from your store and she got a spot on them. She used water and dishwashing liquid to rub the spot out and, as you can see, the color came off.”

Me: “Yes, I see that’s an issue. I’ll gladly exchange these pants for you. Do you have the receipt along?”

Woman: “No.”

Me: “Ah, unfortunately, I cannot do an exchange without the receipt.”

Woman: “But it’s faulty. And who keeps the receipt of their clothes for more several months?”

I can already tell that this is going to be a thing. It’s clear from her words that these pants were purchased longer than thirty days ago, meaning they’re outside of the return timeframe, anyway, and it’s impossible to do anything without a receipt.

Things go back and forth. She doesn’t understand when I keep telling her that, without the receipt, I literally cannot do an exchange or anything; the system flat-out won’t work without a receipt for this. She’s getting more frustrated. So am I, as her attitude is getting to me.

Woman: “Well, don’t you have a manager or something?”

Me: “My manager is currently on vacation.”

Man: “Well, then call her.” *Jokingly* “Haha, I mean, it’s not like she’s on some sort of world tour!”

Me: “Actually, that’s exactly where she is.”

We go back and forth again. They don’t like that I am not going to give them the personal phone number of the district manager. I finally write down the business email address of said district manager and hand her the note.

Woman: *Looking at my writing* “What’s it say?”

Me: “[District Manager] at [Store] dot EU.”

Woman: “And what’s your name?”

I take the note back and write my first name on it.

Me: “Here you go; it’s [My First Name].”

Woman: “And your last name?”

Me: “You won’t need that. My first name will be enough to identify me.”

Heck if I’m going to let her have my full name. She leaves, saying she’ll complain. That’s fine with me, as I was following the rules and know that the system won’t allow exchanges or returns without a receipt. You can’t even get store credit without one.

A little over a week later, we have a pre-planned meeting, and while I expect something to be said about this situation and complaint, nothing happens. A few days later, though, it turns out the woman did complain. She claimed that she couldn’t read the address I wrote down, so her email went straight to headquarters.

And said email is already full of exaggerations. She claims that I was having a private, non-work-related talk on the phone, which is not the case. She claims they had to wait ten minutes for me to pay attention to them, let alone hang up. That’s also false; they spent those ten minutes looking around the shop before coming to the desk.

I’m now on the phone with a higher-up about this matter, explaining the above.

Higher-Up: “So, how long were they actually waiting until you hung up?”

Me: “About a minute or two, I would say.”

[Higher-Up] gives me a short reprimand over letting them wait for a minute.

Higher-Up: “And why didn’t you call [District Manager] or me?”

Me: “Because I was always informed that policy is that, without a receipt, we cannot do a refund, exchange, or anything. The system won’t allow those functions without one.”

There’s some more reprimanding.

Higher-Up: “So, how do you think this’ll be fixed? Because that woman is going to get a different pair of pants from us.”

Me: “That’s fine. As soon as I have written permission and instructions to bypass the system into giving an exchange without the original receipt, I will gladly do it.”

I was still reprimanded for doing exactly what I was taught to do. And neither the woman’s nor the higher-up’s tone was decent. All this has done is make me want to increase my effort in finding a different job. I like my direct manager and colleagues, but the higher managers talk down to everyone. And you leave management like that.

Related:
You Got Me In A Box Here, Part 2
You Got Me In A Box Here