This place fails to entertain today!

[randomJACKASS]

I want a refund!

Thanks that was so prompt I couldn't even finish the post! Now that's customer service!

 

[Inkara1]

In retail, they quickly teach you that the customer is not always right because too many people use "the customer is always right" to scam companies into goods or services for free.

 

[paul_valaru]

The customer is rarely right.

 

[Professur]

The customer is generally a fucking idiot

 

[Altron]

"Well, the customer is always right" is often the last weapon in the arsenal.

Cust: "I want to return this TV"
Emp: "Sir, you bought a 46" TV, and there's a 23" TV in this 46" TV box"
Cust: "That's exactly why I want to return it - they must have packaged it wrong at the factory or something"
Emp: "Or you took the 46" TV out of the box, and put your old TV in it"
Cust: "The customer is always right!"
Emp: "Well, why don't I call the police, and see what they think?"

That actually happened several times at my store. You'd be surprised how many people try to open a box, take the product out, then return it with an old product or some bricks or something like that in the box, hoping we won't open it to check.

 

[Mirlyn]

"Well, the customer is always right" is often the last weapon in the arsenal.

Cust: "I want to return this TV"
Emp: "Sir, you bought a 46" TV, and there's a 23" TV in this 46" TV box"
Cust: "That's exactly why I want to return it - they must have packaged it wrong at the factory or something"
Emp: "Or you took the 46" TV out of the box, and put your old TV in it"
Cust: "The customer is always right!"
Emp: "Well, why don't I call the police, and see what they think?"

That actually happened several times at my store. You'd be surprised how many people try to open a box, take the product out, then return it with an old product or some bricks or something like that in the box, hoping we won't open it to check.

Bricks-in-a-box were my favorite.

Had a few attempt return a computer that had been completely gutted. They should have at least left the CDROMs and PSU to fill the holes and make it slightly more convincing.

 

[Gonz]

What kind of shits think that stuff up? It'd never even cross my mind to do that.

 

[Mirlyn]

What kind of shits think that stuff up? It'd never even cross my mind to do that.

Likewise, I stopped trying to figure out what kind of shit thinks these things up. There's too many of them out there.

 

[spike]

That actually happened several times at my store. You'd be surprised how many people try to open a box, take the product out, then return it with an old product or some bricks or something like that in the box, hoping we won't open it to check.

Ok, I'm not proud but when my original Playstation 1 quit working I bought a new one, put the broken one in the box and returned it. It worked. I feel bad about it.

I was pissed that my Playstation broke doing what it was supposed to do and was out of warranty. But Toys R Us had to deal with it.

I was also broke and wanted to play my Plastation games. It's weird what being really broke will make someone come up with.

I also have taken shit back that I've been given as gifts that I don't need to random stores. Somebody gave me a $100+ iHome thing back when I didn't even have an iPod. I took it to Best Buy even though I have no idea where they bought it and got store credit. Seem like less of an offense.

I worked in retail for awhile so I know what work plus if you frequent the FatWalet you can exploit the hell out of things.

 

[chcr]

What kind of shits think that stuff up? It'd never even cross my mind to do that.

Likewise, I stopped trying to figure out what kind of shit thinks these things up. There's too many of them out there.

If you just assume that everyone that you don't have a good reason to trust is trying to rip you off, I think that's a good rule of thumb. It's probably not correct but it's close enough to live with.

 

[Professur]

That's a moray!

Sung to the tune of Dean Martin's "That's amore"

There's a thing on the reef, with big shiny white teeth - it's a Moray
If he's big and he's mean, and he's slimy and green - it's a Moray

Put your hand in the crack and you won't get it back - It's a Moray
When you're movin' your hands, best take care where they land - Watch for Morays

When some teeth catch your eye. and an eel wriggles by - It's a Moray
when something, bites your fin, and throws off your trim - It's a Moray

Keep your fingers in tight and you won't have a fright - It's a Moray
When you're moving by feel and then up pops the eel - It's a Moray

When an eel bites your thigh, as you're just swimming by - It's a Moray
When you scream, and you beg, but it still bites your leg - It's a Moray

Watch you don't get a shark, When you search, after dark - for amore
When you're out of your depth, and you run short of breath - that's amore air

When he's fanning his gills, Better head for the hills - It's a Moray
when your light, in the night, gets swallowed out of sight, - It's a Moray

When your horse munches straw, And the bales total four - That's some more hay.
When you're down and it's dark, Over there - that a shark?, No - It's a Moray

When you ace your last test, Like you did all the rest - That's some more "A"s!
When your boat comes home fine, And you tie up her line - That's a moor, eh?

When you've had quite enough, Of this daft rhyming stuff, that's "no more!", eh?


there, you've been entertained.

 

[Altron]

Ok, I'm not proud but when my original Playstation 1 quit working I bought a new one, put the broken one in the box and returned it. It worked. I feel bad about it.

I was pissed that my Playstation broke doing what it was supposed to do and was out of warranty. But Toys R Us had to deal with it.

I was also broke and wanted to play my Plastation games. It's weird what being really broke will make someone come up with.

I also have taken shit back that I've been given as gifts that I don't need to random stores. Somebody gave me a $100+ iHome thing back when I didn't even have an iPod. I took it to Best Buy even though I have no idea where they bought it and got store credit. Seem like less of an offense.

I worked in retail for awhile so I know what work plus if you frequent the FatWalet you can exploit the hell out of things.

That's a grey area. Technically, once it's past the store's return policy, it's the manufacturer's problem if it breaks.

For certain items like that, we would do the "restocking fee". Kept people honest. If the product (certain types qualified - I think GPS, computers, and laptops were the only things) was opened, you could exchange it for another product of the same type, or if you wanted all of your money back, you had to pay a restocking fee. If the box had never been opened, you didn't.

It worked pretty well, IMO. The goal was to prevent people from buying a product, opening it up, swapping it with their old, broken one, then returning it for full credit.

There's a whole ton of issues like that. We haven't even gotten started on misprinted prices. Twice, I remember getting price tags (the individual stores get all their sale prices and price tags from corporate) where the price was obviously incorrect. And, the stupid customers always think that if the price is blatantly incorrect, we need to honor it anyway. Like that thing BestBuy had to deal with a few weeks ago, where their $4000 TV was accidentally sold for $9.99 online.

We had like a $1399 plasma TV that was supposed to go on sale for like $1199. But, the monkey typing the prices into the computer in Richmond wasn't paying attention, so the tag we printed and the price in our system was $199.

In that situation, what we did was pull the price tag, and if any customers asked, we told them the TV was out of stock (since it would ring up as $199). We called corporate, and they fixed it, and the new correct tag came out the next day.

Another time, it was this digital camera, like $299 or something accidentally tagged as $9.99. One of our employees got the bright idea to buy a bunch and sell them on ebay, and he told his friends. So about 4-5 of our employees bought like 20 of these cameras to sell on ebay, and once the regional manager found out, they all got fired for internal theft.

 

[randomJACKASS]

Man I was just talking to Jody, and she hates the courtesy desk. Why in the hell do they not just delay these folks and call the cops?!? In my mind this is a lot worse than shop lifting, and if they did, people might think twice....

Oh wait, what am I thinking, most people who would do this in the first place are incapable of conscious thought!

 

[Nixy]

Altron: Re: mispriced items. I don't know about in the US but in Canada, unless there is a posting stating that the advertised price was wrong (ie. on the door going into the store or at the item display) then you need to sell it for the advertised price. Also, if a price tag on an item has the wrong price a store is obligated to sell it for that price or else it's false advertising. When I worked in retail there were a couple of times we had to do price overrides because merchandise would accidentally get shipped to us with US price tags instead of CDN. The item would scan as the CDN price but for the item with the US tag we had to override and sell for the lower price. Really, if an item is mispriced because some bozo at corporate can't type numbers in correctly, and they don't have a good enough cross checking system in place, then any customers who show up to buy the item before the mistake is corrected deserve the lower price. I've bought items before where the sign on the floor says one price and it rings in for something higher. Not my problem, don't put out a sign that says item XYZ is $5 if it's really $15.

That said, the guys that worked there buying the items for a mispriced price after they knew it was a mistake is wrong and they deserve to be fired...but a customer who walks in and buys a camera that happens to scan for $9.99, well then it's his lucky day.

 

[Inkara1]

There's a whole ton of issues like that. We haven't even gotten started on misprinted prices. Twice, I remember getting price tags (the individual stores get all their sale prices and price tags from corporate) where the price was obviously incorrect. And, the stupid customers always think that if the price is blatantly incorrect, we need to honor it anyway. Like that thing BestBuy had to deal with a few weeks ago, where their $4000 TV was accidentally sold for $9.99 online.

We had like a $1399 plasma TV that was supposed to go on sale for like $1199. But, the monkey typing the prices into the computer in Richmond wasn't paying attention, so the tag we printed and the price in our system was $199.

In that situation, what we did was pull the price tag, and if any customers asked, we told them the TV was out of stock (since it would ring up as $199). We called corporate, and they fixed it, and the new correct tag came out the next day.

Another time, it was this digital camera, like $299 or something accidentally tagged as $9.99. One of our employees got the bright idea to buy a bunch and sell them on ebay, and he told his friends. So about 4-5 of our employees bought like 20 of these cameras to sell on ebay, and once the regional manager found out, they all got fired for internal theft.

In California, it's the law now that if you see something listed for one price (either on the tag on the shelf or in an ad) and it scans for higher, it has to be sold at the lower price. But strangely enough, before Curcuit City closed for good, often times stuff on their Web site was cheaper than in the store. For example, I bought some speakers online, paid for them and picked them up at the closest store, and it was cheaper than just going in the store and buying them. I noticed soon before the end of business, they changed that so the store and online was one price. I think a lot of people besides me noticed the price differential and took advantage, and between that and idiots typing in wrong prices in corporate, it's no wonder Circuit City died.

 

[Professur]

Died? Hell, it ain't dead. My parent company just bought them out up here.

 

[randomJACKASS]

In California, it's the law now that if you see something listed for one price (either on the tag on the shelf or in an ad) and it scans for higher, it has to be sold at the lower price. But strangely enough, before Curcuit City closed for good, often times stuff on their Web site was cheaper than in the store. For example, I bought some speakers online, paid for them and picked them up at the closest store, and it was cheaper than just going in the store and buying them. I noticed soon before the end of business, they changed that so the store and online was one price. I think a lot of people besides me noticed the price differential and took advantage, and between that and idiots typing in wrong prices in corporate, it's no wonder Circuit City died.

Yes and they also claimed to price match, but not against online vendors. Why do you think they went under?

 

[Altron]

They went under because the top level management was completely retarded.

Nobody price-matches online stores. It's stupid. We can price match other local retail stores, because they have the same overhead costs we do. Some toolbag selling TVs out of a warehouse in Hong Kong doesn't have those costs, and can undercut us like crazy. Best Buy doesn't price-match websites either, especially because of shipping charges. So many websites inflate their shipping charges, so that they can offer a lower price. The other day, I ordered something from a place in NJ. I paid $4.50 for shipping. I then put the exact same package in the mail, and sent it to Ontario for $2.27. Does it cost twice as much to send a package about 50 miles from the warehouse to my house as it does to send a package 500 miles to another country? Nope. And this was from a reputable website. I can go on ebay and order something for $0.99 and pay $15 for shipping. The thing actually costs $10, and shipping is $5, but by flipping it, they can make the price seem lower, and then they don't have to refund shipping if you return it. By nature, it's almost impossible for a retail store to be able to compete with an online-only store, because of overhead. If someone is ordering directly from the warehouse, obviously it is cheaper than paying for it to be shipped to the store, paying the costs of maintaining a building, and paying the costs of hiring employees, and all of that other stuff.

If you want to buy a TV without ever looking it, then buy online for cheaper. If you want to be able to actually see what the TV looks like compared to other models, and ask the employees stupid questions, and have the ability to return it, then that costs extra.

We never charge restocking fees on TVs, even if they've been opened. So, if you buy it in the store, and don't like it, you can bring it back for a full refund. If you buy it online, you have to pay shipping to you, and if you want to return it, you have to pay shipping back to the website, which could easily total $200 for a big TV.

As for wrong prices in corporate, that's a fluke, not neccessarily incompetence. Bestbuy just got a ton of publicity for their $9.99 plasma TV. In the two years I worked there, and I did the pricetags pretty much every week, there were only two misprints, and both were noticed by the staff before any customers could take advantage of them.

Yes, the website is a little cheaper. That's because the online market is more competitive than the retail market. The store would honor the online prices. I often used them as "wiggle room" when trying to make a big sale. If I had a big-ticket sale, and the customer was getting iffy, I'd offer to give them the cheaper online price, and that usually did it.

 

[Mirlyn]

Don't forget MAP requirements. I can sell you a LG LCD or plasma for far cheaper than any bigbox retailer (30-50%), but I can't advertise that. As a dealer, all I can do is encourage that you ask me for a price (add it to your cart or request a quote).

 

[Inkara1]

Know what really pisses me off? Ads for car dealers where next to the cars will say "NICE" or "LOADED" or "22-INCH RIMS" or "CALL" instead of THE FUCKING PRICE. They could at least save us time and say "OVERPRICED FOR WHAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY GETTING HERE."