Thursday, November 10, 2005

Mental Issues

We have one regular customer with severe mental issues. I'm not just using that as an expression for someone I intensely dislike; she is really messed up.

On numerous occasions she's bought up to $300 worth of merchandise at a time. A few weeks/months later her husband returns it all, most opened, some partially used, but almost all of it a total loss. We can't resell it, but have to take it back anyway.

I had heard about the customer numerous times and recorded her returns as losses numerous times, but only met her recently. Not that you actually meet her, because she won't talk to anyone. She wears gloves (to protect her hands from germs??) yet still gingerly picks up items, holding them far away from her body. She always spends at least an hour in the store. She doesn't just shop or look around, she scrutinizes everything. Her husband stands nearby, saying nothing, only watching.

As I was cleaning up that evening, I came to a secluded area where she had spent a lot of time. There were several neat stacks of merchandise on the floor. She had pulled ALL of the items of that type off the shelf/peg where they were sitting/hanging to choose which one she wanted (when they're all the same anyway). The last thing I wanted to do when getting ready to close was put ALL of the items back on the shelf.

So the lady has a problem. That's too bad. But why doesn't she stay at home/get help for the problem? Why does she come into my store, make a mess, then return merchandise that we can't do anything with? It makes extra work for us and makes higher prices for other customers. I have to deal with enough "the customer is always right" types to have to deal with people with genuine psychological disorders, too. I feel bad for her husband, I really do. But how is letting her shop/buy a lot of stuff that he later has to return helping either of them? I just don't get it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. I'm not familiar with your industry, could you explain why you would have to take her stuff back? Especially if they're opened... and, goodness, used? I can't make sense of in what way are you guys obliged to accept her returns. Do you give her back all her money, or just partial refund? Thanks!

Retail Recorder said...

I don't know where you're from, but most stores in my part of the U.S. have rather liberal return policies. Places like Wal-mart have made people used to returning anything at any time.

If I say, "Sorry, the return policy is only XX days. You're on day XX + 1 so I can't take your merchandise back," the customer will be upset. Oh no, we can't have that. So essentially if the item was bought 10 years ago, I still have to take it back, even if we don't currently carry it and I have no place to put it.

If a customer returns a partially used item with the excuse that they didn't like it, then I can't say, "Too bad, we can't take it back." Instead I have to do the return of the item that then can't be resold.

One customer returned an item that he bought on sale then pitched a fit that I didn't give him the regular price back. He could not understand that I couldn't give him back more than he had originally paid. I eventually had to get the regional manager involved. She told me to give him back the regular price. More than what he originally paid! ???

It might make more sense if I told you what industry I'm in, but the industry is rather small so I'm not comfortable revealing more.

I love going to places like Best Buy and seeing that they have a 10 or 15% "restocking" fee on certain electronics. It makes people think twice before buying, or at least opening the package!

Our returns that aren't able to be resold are now up to approximately 1% of total sales. In my opinion that's WAY too high.

scaryice said...

What happens to the returns that you can't resell?

Retail Recorder said...

Returns that can't be resold are sent back to corporate. After that, I assume they're either destroyed there or sent back to their respective manufacturers and destroyed there. Either way, it's a big waste.