Refund Policy

I was doing a return this weekend and saw that I wouldn't be able to give a refund in the store. It's a controversial but essential part of our return policy, to protect against employee theft: for large purchases made in certain tenders, the head office must issue the refund, not the store.

When I told the customer this, she did a 180 and turned from a well-spoken lady into a cursing devil. "I just bought these 2 hours ago! I changed my mind! You WILL refund my money NOW!" I backed away from her, startled and scared.

I explained the policy again, pointed out the policy hanging next to the register and the policy printed on the receipt, wondering if I should call someone. It's a Saturday night.......the office is closed, and like the store manager/regional manager want to be bothered with something like this. I'm just following store policy. Is there a way to get around the policy to satisfy this woman and get her OUT OF HERE?

But the woman didn't give me a chance to call anyone, look into alternatives, or even THINK. All she could do was curse and order me around. I was close to telling her to leave without doing anything for her, but she kept it PG-13 rated as she demanded a partial refund and our main office number.

The partial refund is within our rules, with the full refund coming from the office. As for the office number, sure........call them. They'll be glad to hear I'm following the policies that THEY set to protect the COMPANY.

So the woman left. And apparently first thing this morning, called the office. Because by 11 AM we were being faxed a customer complaint with a note from the regional manager for the store manager to call her. So from 8 AM (when the office opened) to 11 the customer called the office, they emailed the regional manager, and she faxed the complaint to us.

Guess what? The customer left off some VERY IMPORTANT details in her complaint. She didn't lie, but she certainly didn't mention the high dollar amount of the return. She made it sound like it was $10 or something, instead of $100. When the store manager told the regional manager the amount and the woman's behavior, the regional manager had no problem with how I handled it. It also helped that I had an employee who witnessed the whole thing and another employee who saw the latter (loud) part of it.

Another day. Another irate customer causing headaches. Oh well.