Sunday, October 31, 2004

Kyoot, But Not My Size

"Attention, Big Bookstore customers. If you have a toddler with you tonight, you might want to check your child's feet - particularly if your child came in wearing BabyGap tan and orange sneakers in size Toddler 5. If your child is missing his or her shoes, we have them here at Information. Thank you."

2 Comments:

Blogger (BB & B) said...

OK, so this is off topic to your most recent post, but this happened to me tonight and it bewildered me... i thought id share...

Bookseller(me): thank you for calling "bookstore name" this is anthoyla, how can i help u?"

Customer: "hi anthoyla, i dont know how to explain this, but i have a problem here... i bought a book the other day (dont you LOVE when they say that?) and i lost the receipt, i came to return it because the person i bought it for already had it, and you guys were only going to give me 11$ for it! (yelling now) that is perposterous! i know i spent (said amount i forget... maybe 19.95?) on that book!"

B: "im sorry ma'am but that is our policy... what happens is, without a receipt we here at Bookstore cannot verify if you purchased it at a special sale price, at our online store or if you purchased it here at all... so in a way that seems fitting for both sides of the story, we honor your return at the lowest sale price as long as its in saleble condition and in our database"

C: (still yelling) "excuse me, but is there a manager i can speak with about this? this is ridiculous!"

B: "yes ma'am there is a manager on duty, you are speaking to her."

C; (calm now) "oh i see... isnt there a way you can go into ure database and look up my purchase for that day to see that i didnt pay only 11$?"

B: "why yes ma'am i can, but for that i would need at least a receipt number... do u have that?"

C: "no, i just TOLD YOU i dont have my receipt!"

B: "No problem ma'am, just trying to help you, provide customer service..."

C: "i also bought 2 gift cards that day, i have THOSE receipts... couldnt you use the number on THEM to look it up?"

B: "was the book also purchased on THAT receipt?"

C: "no."

B: "im sorry ma'am, then i cannot look up what ure asking for..."

C: (yelling once again) this is the worst customer service ive ever received! how can you not be able to look this information up? it was only a few weeks ago!"

B: "ma'am would you like to make a complaint to HQ? i can give you the number..."

C: (confused that id even suggest such a thing...) "um,... yes, i would..."

B: "ok, here is the number, do u have a pen and paper?"

C: "um... yes... one moment... ok"

B: "alright its ###-###-####. My name is Anthoyla... thats A. N. T. H. O. Y. L. A. and my store district number is ####. im sorry i couldnt help you more ma'am, have a good night."

END.

Sorry that was long, but i REALLY needed to get that one off my chest! esp to someone who would probably totally understand!

1:49 AM  
Blogger ereshkigal said...

Thanks for sharing, Anthoyla! Don't worry about the length. The more the merrier!

When I'm in a really charitable mood I almost feel sorry for some of the no-receipt returners. They are being punished for all the scam artists out there. Example: the guy who came in the other night to return some DVDs without a receipt, and purchase others. He was using a teacher's discount to purchase the DVDs (even though they were all B-grade horror movies that were hardly educational), but insisted that the DVDs he was returning were purchased without the discount. Of course. Oh. He also presented a dry-cleaning receipt claiming a barista didn't put the lid on his coffee right. The man was a filthy, unkempt P-I-G pig. Did he actually get anything cleaned? I think not. Did he spill the coffee on himself deliberately? Certainly. Did we give him the money? Can you doubt it?

Still, the fact that your customer might have been one of the honest ones is no excuse for her to be abusive OR to complain about a return policy that mirrors the policy of every major retailer out there. Honestly, it amazes me that there are people on this planet stupid enough to not keep receipts until they are sure they are keeping the merchandise.

3:09 AM  

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