Failed Distraction

A few days ago, there was some fuss over someone trying to walk out of the store with some stuff. Things like this do (unfortunately) happen on occasion, so I didn't pay too much attention until I saw the basket of items.

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~ I was checking most of the day, so I missed the majority of what happened with the shoplifter. It was only once they pushed the basket full of what they tried to walk out with up to the service desk that it struck me as to how ballsy people are. From there, I found out that it was a joint effort between a man and a woman and that the two, main items that they were trying to steal were $400 vacuum cleaners. Everything else amounted to over $2,000 of housewares items. Pretty awesome, right? And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for one pesky store employee.

From what I was told, one of our employees (I'll call her Tabitha) was standing near the exit to the store when the thieves wanted to leave. Because of this, the woman hurried up to Tabitha and told her that she was having an emergency. The woman thief then proceeded to coax her away from the door for assistance in finding a phone to use. She really must not have been very convincing and the man thief must have been too impatient, because as he tried to slide by a not-completely-distracted Tabitha, he did not go unnoticed. They bolted out the door when they saw her lay eyes on the basket and asked to see a receipt. Because none of it was in bags, there's no way they could even try to pretend that they had bought it. Its a bummer that they got away, but the store still has security cameras. They'll be recognized next time.

Tabitha is also preggers, and because of that awesome catch, some of the women from the front-end of the store plan on throwing a mini baby shower for her. Its not every day someone catches something that outrageous and they understandably want to show their appreciation. Unfortunately I have no idea what to get her...

Zero to Angry in 30sec

Today's blog is another incident that happened a few days back. I'm pretty sure it was on the 15th.

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~ A woman had four items to return without the receipt. What she had were two identical water filters (the kind that attach to your sink faucet) and two identical fishing reels. Because I already had an idea of what the cost of the filters were, I scanned one to find out exactly how much. None-to-my-surprise, it was $48 before tax. Because of this, I informed her that I wouldn't be able to return either of the filters without a receipt. That single item was above the amount that our registers will allow me to return without the proof of purchase. When I said this, she immediately dropped the smile on her face, propped her hand on her hip, entered Super Cocky Mode and quickly started rattling off questions and comments along the lines of:

>You only scanned one item! How can you tell me you can't return my stuff!?
>I've returned stuff more expensive than this without a receipt before, why can't you do it now?
>I've never heard of a "limit" on a the amount of return like that! Is that something new?
>You haven't even scanned all my stuff, how can you tell me you can't return it!?
>I know your other store would have already put it on a gift card by now. Why is this such a problem?

To which I responded (respectively) with:
>Without the receipt, that one, single, item is already above the maximum amount that our computers will allow me to return without an override.
>If someone else has returned more expensive items, that's their decision, but I know that returning these are not within my ability to do without the receipt.
>No, the limit is not something new, its been there since I've worked here and longer.
>I don't need to scan all four items, just the one is already over what I'm allowed to work with.
>You may want to bring the items to that store, then, because I know our policy won't allow the return here without a receipt.

Of course, none of my answers were good enough, so she demanded to speak with a manager. As I was leaving the counter to find one, she was speaking to no one in particular while she continued to carry on and complain. Its very obvious that she was doing this specifically to make a scene because she even chose to play the Race card. I was still within earshot when she said, "This is racist. She's being racist! There's no reason she can't return my stuff. She's just doing this because I'm black and thinks I stole it!"

Now, I will make a point right here that I did not, nor will I ever base my judgment on a return on someone's skin color. She could have been purple, green, or even leopard print and I still would have given her the same answer. Because of her comment, though, I altered my course. I knew for a fact that there was a manager on duty with her same skin tone, and I found her. The manager listened patiently as I explained the situation and even scoffed when I mentioned the woman's comments about me denying the return over color. She came with me back up to the service desk and had almost the exact same conversation with the customer that I did. The only difference is that she also had me check the price on the two fishing reels. They turned out to be $63... even more over the amount that I'm allowed to return. Much to the customer's displeasure, my manager also declined the return.

The moral of this story:
No means no. If you're going to throw a fit, I'm going to do my best to find a way to fight it. This is especially true if your turn to slander as your primary means of attack.

Coffee Catastrophe

Well, its been a while since I've been able to make a post, which I apologize for. There's just been lots of stuff going on, leaving little computer time. Customers haven't been too horrible, either, but I've definitely still got stories for you. Today's post is about an incident that happened yesterday.

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~ A couple approached the counter with a coffee maker that they were dissatisfied with. Apparently it took a ridiculously long time to brew and it also leaked in the back. Further inspection revealed that they had been filling it with too much water. They had already thrown the box away and also didn't have the receipt because it had been given to them as a gift. The maker still looked brand new, but because of the absent receipt and box, I informed them that all I would be able to do is exchange it for another of the exact-same model. The reason for this is in case there is something defective with their maker to cause it to take so long to brew. To my dismay, the couple was very disappointed with my response.

After hearing the only available option in my power, the woman immediately spoke up. She went on this rant about how dissatisfied they were with the coffee maker, that they were willing to pay extra for a more expensive one, how just exchanging for the same one was unacceptable, and so on. While she spoke, all I could do was repeat, "I understand," over and over until she finally gave me room to speak again. When she finally shut up, I repeated to her that all I can do is follow policy, which limits me to only exchanging out for the exact same model in this situation. Of course, that still was not good enough, so they wanted a supervisor. I found one nearby and soon had permission to exchange out the maker for a different model. Shortly after, the couple were on their way into the store to find a replacement.

I was on lunch when the couple returned to exchange the coffee maker, but to provide us with the UPC number needed to process the exchange, they brought back the display model for their original coffee pot. That, of course, needed to go back out on the floor since it was no longer needed at the service desk. When I went to move the display maker into a shopping basket, tragedy struck. I accidentally tilted the device a little too much causing the coffee pot slid off it's base and onto the floor. So not only did I get angrily ranted at, I also got to clean up a pile of busted glass, all because of one couple's troublesome coffee maker. I wasn't very happy, to say the least.

Four in One

Maybe I'm just lowering my standards, or possibly I was just really irritable yesterday, but I've got four, separate mini-occasions to share from yesterday. None of them are really long enough to blog about by themselves, but together, I find them worth mentioning.

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~ To start, I got to "play" with glass a lot. And by "play," I mean "clean up and prevent others from hurting themselves with it." One of the bulbs in a two-pack of long, florescent lights had busted and was pushed out of the way. Why no one else had the initiative to clean it up, I have no idea. After I'd done so and attacked the remaining pack (which still contained half the broken bulb and lots of glass) with lots and lots of tape, I placed the item in our designated basket of things that won't be put back on the shelves. When doing this, I moved a box of glass cups out of the way only to find that the box sounded as if someone had drop-kicked it across a football field. The folded cardboard had plenty of small exit points and nothing done to seal the container, either. It got attacked with tape, too. In the end, I succeed in avoiding any glass injuries on my part. Yay.

~ Next, I had another customer with a whole bunch of little things to return without the receipt. All of the items she had were things specifically known to get stolen... a lot. She must have lifted some of it from a different store, though, because half of the items wouldn't scan. Over-all, I declined the return with a big, fat "Nuh-Uh." We keep similar products of the ones that weren't in our computer, and I'd guesstimate them costing over $100 for the small handful. That's not even including the ones that I could check the price on. She had a total of around $160 in items we are just not allowed to take back without a receipt. The reason this attempted return is so mentionable is because she walked off without the bunch that wouldn't scan. Anyone who would have actually spent that much on those items wouldn't just leave them in the store. Ebay, friends, family, something would have been better than just leaving a legitimate purchase behind. She had to have stolen them and the fact that they weren't in our computer made them useless to her. Its as simple as that.

~ Also, in my list of Do's and Don'ts When Interacting With Cashiers and Customer Service, I specifically mention, in my list of Customer Service Don'ts, that it is disliked when customers, "Act as if [they've] been giving a blessing from God if there are no other customers in line when [they] arrive." Well, that's exactly what happened yesterday... multiple times. In fact, it bothered me enough that I started keeping count. Yes, I'm that awesome. The grand total is five. In one day, five separate people felt the need to mention that it was so great the service desk area was empty. It was raining ALL DAY!! It is a very consistent thing that much fewer people want to return something while its raining, or even shop for that matter. Think, people, think!

~ And, last but not least, I discovered a gentleman who could operate without his brain. I was walking back up to the front of the store when a pleasant sir approached me. He wanted to know where he could find plastic, outdoor, lawn tables. Assuming he's already checked, the only answer I felt I could give him was to, "look in the garden center area since that's where most of the outdoor stuff, short of sporting items, are kept. If they're not there, we probably hadn't gotten any in yet." When I mentioned this, his eyes lit up as if I'd just told him where to find the lost city of Atlantis. He had not, in fact, checked the garden center area. He didn't even know we had one. WHAT SUPERSTORE DOESN'T HAVE A GARDENING AREA!?!?