I'm at work right now, and I just had a customer get pissed because I couldn't accept an exchange of shavers without his receipt. He went on about how he's not going to shop here anymore and yadi yadi yada. But he's not the worst I've ever gotten; I mean, he was a nice guy and all, and I would've taken the exchange, but my hands were tied because he didn't have the receipt. Aside from that, the shaver he bought from us was a refurbished one.
Anyway, we're also a service center here, and I get a lot of customers who don't seem to appreciate that. They're in that 'over the counter' mode of thought, that they can just get an exchange without question. It might be true of OUR products, but we fix and exchange products purchased elsewhere, and those take time! Like, say, someone purchased a Sunbeam Electric Blanket from Wal-Mart. The blanket stops working about six-seven months later. Obviously Wal-Mart can't take them back because their Return Policy from the date of purchase expired, but they still have the Manufacturer's Warranty (key word, MANUFACTURER). This means that the customer has to deal directly with the Manufacturer, in this case Sunbeam, or an Authorized Service Center, i.e. my store (Batteries Included/Kata King Services). We don't carry Sunbeam products, nor do we represent Sunbeam, but Sunbeam has authorized us to fix or order parts for their products. People don't seem to get this. "You're Sunbeam, aren't you!?" And this happens across all the brands we service, too. As for product exchanges, since we don't carry the products, we have to send the customer's broken units back to the manufacturer, and wait for them to send it to us. Of course, customers will think 'why does it take so long? mail and packages don't take that long to send!' Well, unfortunately, big companies will not go out of their way to find and send just ONE product unless the customer is willing to pay more than the product itself in time and shipping. Same thing when a customer wants parts ordered. Then some of them will say "But I see them in other stores!" Well, guess what? We, or the big companies/brands, will not ask another retail store to send a product back to the companies. it's like asking one customer to return a product so we could give it to another customer. People get spoiled by the terms 'customer service', and the idea that we deal with one customer and help only them. it's just unrealistic. Point and fact: you're not the only customer! These things take time, not everything is instantaneous, and the internet is still only confined to computers and other handheld gadget thingies. Not everything is done with the click of a button!!
Now, back to this receipt thing, I don't see why it's so hard to grasp that you need a proof of purhcase. Even if I did remember who you are, I still need it not for myself, but for my colleagues, or for the big companies. They're not me. They won't just take my word for it. For this particular customer, I understood part of the reason why he was upset; he was old, had some physical problems, he didn't want to run around, and that really broke my heart, really. But was it necessary to yell out you're not buying anything in my store anymore?
I need to get out of retail, i think -_-
Anyway, we're also a service center here, and I get a lot of customers who don't seem to appreciate that. They're in that 'over the counter' mode of thought, that they can just get an exchange without question. It might be true of OUR products, but we fix and exchange products purchased elsewhere, and those take time! Like, say, someone purchased a Sunbeam Electric Blanket from Wal-Mart. The blanket stops working about six-seven months later. Obviously Wal-Mart can't take them back because their Return Policy from the date of purchase expired, but they still have the Manufacturer's Warranty (key word, MANUFACTURER). This means that the customer has to deal directly with the Manufacturer, in this case Sunbeam, or an Authorized Service Center, i.e. my store (Batteries Included/Kata King Services). We don't carry Sunbeam products, nor do we represent Sunbeam, but Sunbeam has authorized us to fix or order parts for their products. People don't seem to get this. "You're Sunbeam, aren't you!?" And this happens across all the brands we service, too. As for product exchanges, since we don't carry the products, we have to send the customer's broken units back to the manufacturer, and wait for them to send it to us. Of course, customers will think 'why does it take so long? mail and packages don't take that long to send!' Well, unfortunately, big companies will not go out of their way to find and send just ONE product unless the customer is willing to pay more than the product itself in time and shipping. Same thing when a customer wants parts ordered. Then some of them will say "But I see them in other stores!" Well, guess what? We, or the big companies/brands, will not ask another retail store to send a product back to the companies. it's like asking one customer to return a product so we could give it to another customer. People get spoiled by the terms 'customer service', and the idea that we deal with one customer and help only them. it's just unrealistic. Point and fact: you're not the only customer! These things take time, not everything is instantaneous, and the internet is still only confined to computers and other handheld gadget thingies. Not everything is done with the click of a button!!
Now, back to this receipt thing, I don't see why it's so hard to grasp that you need a proof of purhcase. Even if I did remember who you are, I still need it not for myself, but for my colleagues, or for the big companies. They're not me. They won't just take my word for it. For this particular customer, I understood part of the reason why he was upset; he was old, had some physical problems, he didn't want to run around, and that really broke my heart, really. But was it necessary to yell out you're not buying anything in my store anymore?
I need to get out of retail, i think -_-
