Staff Attitude During Return

Wow... you guys did a great job in critiquing my original letter.

First of all, let me tell you that it is 'impossible' to communicate
details in writing. Everyone will look at things differently.

Extraneous details to YOU are important FACTS to someone else. To
paint an accurate portrayal of an event, in words, to an audience of
diversely educated people, who were not there, is difficult (to say
the least).

And, to those of you who suggested I write for a living. I do.
Thanks.

When communicating you always remember, people can minimize the
information, but never, can they maximize it. That would be an
assumption, and we ALL know what that leads to.

My letter came in the passion of the same evening of the visit.

Oh, one other thing. When a person is 'ASKED' what they 'want done',
that leaves the door WIDE open. It was my opinion, that this woman
should not be in Customer Service. I didn't mention in my letter that
this was actually the SECOND encounter I had with this woman.
Another, instance showing that not all information can be transmitted
at one time.

The use for opening a door, as PlanetFeedBack provides us, gives us
the opportunity to expand on our experience with the Company
themselves. So the initial letter, just gets our foot through the
door. Sometimes revealing more than necessary, but usually ALWAYS not
covering all the facts.

Just like the Media. Can ya dig it?

So, the Manager of the store spoke to me. Bottom line was that she
was pleasant and took care of the problem in a professional, tactful
and helpful manner, and took care of the sales person appropriately.
By the Way, she wasn't fired.

Again, all you PlanetFeedbackers...

Thanks... Those of you just looking for a release for your stressful
days are welcome to bash my letters any time... Criticism shouldn't
always be taken negatively!

Peace,
Aneva
.

I hate to be snarky (actually, no I don't) but I cannot believe that
you bought a boatload of $4.97 clothes, half of which didn't fit
because you were too busy to try them on, you lost the receipt and
then you felt they were ripping you off because they wouldn't "take
your word for it" that they were correctly priced?

I can only guess what kind of clothes you purchased from Penney's that
were $4.97 each. I'm not a big fan of their clothing when it's full
price, so I can't imagine the clearance items being all that hot.

But at the end of the day, all I could think is, "DUDE! You bought
clothes that were $4.97 each AND RETURNED THEM???"

I mean, it begs the question of how bad did you really need them if
you could purchase them without trying them on and then bring them
back 10 days later expecting a full refund without your receipt.

I don't think you were embarassed over the cashier's behavior, you
were embarassed that people would find out you bought those cheap
freaking clothes!

I could ALMOST see you raising a fuss if you had paid $20 or $30 per
item and they would only give you back $2.97 each, but seriously,
$4.97?

I'm just at a loss for that one.

First of all, the cashier's attitude was not acceptable. No matter
what time of day, or what sale was going on. I'm sure that she was
busy and a huge non-receipt return is a time consuming process, but
that is no excuse. She should have sucked it up and left the floor to
do her complaining.
I can tell you what happened between the time you bought the items and
the time you returned them. The price went down. The cashier did not
arbitrarily decide to credit you less than the ticketed price. When I
used to work in the Women's department, I can't tell you how many
times there was say a $14.99 clearance sticker on the item, but it
rang up $9.99 or something like that. When items go to clearance,
there is usually one or two units left on the floor and you're lucky
if you can find them. In the interest of time, if you look through
the woman's department and do not find the one remaining pair of jeans
with that lot number, you move on. Ok, then two days later it's found
in the Home Furnishing's stockroom and brought back out to the floor.
It's going to have the wrong sticker on it. There's only a handful of
people who do the clearance now, so the cashier probably didn't even
know the current selling price till she rang it up on her POS. That
still doesn't excuse her attitude.
The thing about her having to call for clearance, is because there are
associates who have friends who come in and grab a pile of stuff and
then "return" it for a gift card. It's to audit the cashiers as well
as the customers. Unfortunately, there are married mothers ripping
off the company, too. Those few who break the law make it harder for
the rest of us.

The cashier's behavior was clearly uncalled for. She probably had a
bad day, and has had (many) experiences with other people who didn't
bring their recipt, and blew a fuse when she saw how many items you
had to return. Again, Melba's attitude was uncalled for. She lost
it.

Since you shopped in such a hurry, you should have made sure to keep
your receipt in anticipation of return.

When you return items without a receipt, it DOES cause the store to
have to search for the lowest price the item sold for. They can't
prove when you bought it. I don't know Penny's policy regarding the
tags on your items (if the marked price would have been lowered if
there was a sale), but what happened with that doesn't sound
surprising.

I think you should have sought out a manager immediately to bring to
their attention the cashier's behavior. That way, the manager could
get a good pulse on Melba's situation, and educate her how to behave
better next time. It would be a good learning opportunity.

I'm sorry - we frequently hear about people feeling mortified or
embarrassed about something, but there doesn't seem to be good cause
for it. They were questioning the price you paid because you had no
receipt. Period.

I don't think Melba should be dismissed based on this interaction. I
do not believe she was incompetent, based on what you wrote. I
believe she had a bad attitude. Again, that isn't acceptable, and I
think she should be told that.

It was a good idea to save that return receipt. Now I suggest you
seriously look for the original receipt, so that you can bring them in
for comparison and get the rest of your money back.

I don't feel that the cashier's attitude was called for but...

If I were to go into a store such as JC Penny's and purchase a bunch
of clothes without trying them on, I would certainly make sure that I
hung on to the receipt. Since you didn't, I'm not sure that you can
really complain about the $2 price difference. As someone had said
earlier, it is certainly possible that they lowered the clearance
price on that item. I know that JC Penny's is also known for their
weekly % off sales as well.

If her attitude was that terrible you needed to approach another
cashier and request a manager. Since you didn't I don't feel that JC
Penny's really owes you anything.

I agree with what everyone else said, but this particular line, "I
requested that a like item be shown to me with the price because I
knew I had paid the price on the item and she refused," irked me.

If the items were indeed clearance, finding another "like item" might
be near next to impossible! There aren't usually a lot of one
particular item left when it goes clearance and then the clearance
items are grouped differently and usually, strangely. For instance,
Sears groups clearance first by price, then by size, and then by color
(at least we try with the last two, heh.) I have no idea of how
Penny's organizes their stuff, but I've been through one of their
store quite a bit and their many clearance racks are usually very
messy like ours.

Please be aware that some associates would get a little irked at being
asked to go hunt an particular item down, especially if it is at a low
price. Those go fast and it might be impossible to track it down. The
associate should have explained Penny's return policy better, as well.
It would have probably helped greatly in your understanding of why you
didn't get all your money back.


Anyhow, it sounds like maybe she was just having a long day and she
shouldn't have acted that way to you. She didn't communicate with you
well. In the future, try and return your items (especially if it is a
large return with no receipt) on a non-holiday. Nothing annoys me more
than when customers come in with complicated, large returns on our
busiest sales days!

Best of luck in the future.

There is no excuse for rudeness - - and there is also no excuse for
losing a receipt. The clothing your purchases was obviously on sale
and was further reduced when you made your return. If you don't have
your receipt then you are pretty much at the mercy of the retailer for
whatever they will give you.

However, I'm curious about something - - you state you were given a
gift card totaling $56.79 to cover the return of 10 items of which you
state most of them cost $4.97 each. $56.79 divided by 10 equals $5.68
each. Maybe my math is way off, but if you paid $4.97 for most of the
items it appears to me that you received the majority of your money
back??

Once I sifted through the drama and theatrics on this one, I think I
get it:

You lost your receipt, wanted to return them and the lady was rude and
horrible. Granted, no excuse for that, but you have to accept some of
the responsibility for losing your receipt.

And I'm sure she didn't arbitrarily decide to only give you 1/2 credit
on a few items. More than likely, they went down in cost and since you
::ahem:: didn't have your receipt, that's all she could give you back.


Perhaps next time you should shop when you have a little more time for
your teens to try on their clothes. THAT certainly wasn't Penney's
fault. Not that I can't relate, but when it's time to shop for pants
for my 16 year old, I drag him, kicking-and-screaming, with me. If I
didn't, and just used a 'guestimate', then came home and LOST MY
RECEIPT too, I think I'd be accepting SOME of the responsibility
myself, not just blaming Penneys.

Again, there was no excuse for her rudeness. But there are many issues
here that don't pertain to the matter-at-hand, and SOME of thos issue
could have been resolved with a little planning on YOUR part.

I'm sorry I didn't have the time to read the entire letter (rather in
a rush).. but I just wanted to make a small comment. You said that the
clothes were marked 4.97 but she gave you $2 less for them. At the
retail store I work in, if you don't have a receipt, and you return an
item, you get the amount that it currently rings up for. IE, if you
paid full price for.. a notebook lets say... and its on sale for 50%
off now.. you get the 50% off price, no questions asked. I think that
MIGHT be the case here... Did the woman say if they were on sale? or
if she just decided to do it for 2.97?

I wish the OP would work at my old job for just one week. Then she'd
understand how often stores get ripped off, especially clothing
stores.
And I absolutely LOVE how she thinks that the store should take her
word for how much she paid for the things she returned.
Oh, perhaps in a perfect world...
Sorry, but you didn't have the proof needed for a full refund.
Clearance merchandise is sometimes lowered on a daily basis and seeing
as you had no receipt, I don't see how you would expect to get
anything more than the current selling price.

As for the employee's conduct...well, rudeness isn't ever cool from
either side of the counter, but for some reason this account seems a
tad...embellished? Another situation where I wish both sides could be
told...

While I'm not condoning her behavior, without a receipt, it doesn't
matter what the tag says, most retailers will give you the lowest sale
price within a certain period of time, usually 90days. If you don't
want to take less, keep your receipt. Sorry, but that's the way it
goes. Many retailers have had to tighten up their return policies
because of thieves and scammers. I'm not saying you're one, but
that't the reason.

The fact that you are married with children has nothing to do with
this complaint. You don't think that some thieves are married? Heck,
some people stash stolen items in their kids stroller.

I would agree with another poster that the letter contains a lot of
extraneous details which would be better left out.

I would further point out that Aneva has just returned from the mall
on one of the busiest shopping days of the year - President's Day.
With the return of so many items, especially without a receipt, it
would have been better to have returned during a day and time when the
store was not as busy.

Aneva stated that, because the items were in an original bag and with
all sales tags attached, she should be given credit to this tagged
price. Of course, any items can be placed in a different bag, and
lower clearance prices can be removed also. This combined with the
additional dramatics seems to suggest that Aneva was frustrated over
the credit she was being given. The rest, which would have not been
an issue on their own only became such when Aneva couldn't get the
full credit she felt she deserved.

Maybe its because I have more respect for most retail establishments,
but I can understand any company stating they can only give the lowest
or current clearance price on any such return without a receipt. To
suggest that a customer would not try to scam a store with such a
return is naive and suggests that the customer has entitlement issues.
For all the store knows, the customer has came into the store with
the bag, made her way to a clearance table and, slipped the
merchandise in. Returning to another department, she then requests a
refund without a receipt. Unfortunately, this scam happens more than
most people know.

There also seems to be a lot of letters within this site that wants
someone fired. As someone else has pointed out, this is not Aneva's
place to make such a request. Doing so, along with the over-dramatics
of the letter, paints a picture of frustration and venting over the
credit given.

As a form of compliment, I would suggest Aneva consider a career in
writing. Her ability to use words in such a dramatic fashion would
lend her talents to both fictitious and non-fictitious writing.

I never understand why a customer says they were embarrassed when an
employee behaves poorly. If I was in line behind you, and the
cashier's behavior was as bad as you said, my attention would have
been on the cashier, not you.

I also don't understand what being married and having children has to
do with not having a receipt. If the items scanned at $2.97, then
that's what you get. It doesn't matter what the price tag says. I
don't think you were ripped off at all.

Do you actually think that companies are not cheated by married women
with children? That's not to say I think you were trying to cheat the
company, but I'm sure it happens everyday.

It definitely sounds like the cashier had an attitude, but that's no
reason for you to be embarrassed, and just because you didn't get back
what you paid doesn't make the cashier incompetent, it simply means
you lost your receipt.

It doesn't sound like you had a very good experience. I would
probably be pretty upset myself. There are some issues with your
letter, though, that make it less likely that Penney's will help you.


First off, you might think about cutting out the extraneous details.
Tell your story clearly and concisely, leaving out anything that
doesn't directly support your claim. The list of reasons why you
didn't try things on is largely irrelevant. I'd suggest paring that
down to one sentence. This will make your complaint so much easier to
follow. Also, the fact that you have three children and are married
has absolutely nothing to do with your complaint. Married mothers of
three are no less likely to scam a store, so this fact really doesn't
have any reason to be added.

Secondly, it honestly isn't your place to demand that someone be fired
(and "relieved of her duties" is at best a polite euphemism for
getting the axe). If you tell your story factually and clearly,
management can make that decision.

I think it might be a good idea for you to take a few days, calm down,
and rewrite this leaving out the more emotional bits. Maybe try
something like this:

Dear Penney's:

Approximately 10 days ago, I made a large purchase of clothing for my
family at Store #1206. Since the store was busy, we were unable to
try everything on, and I later found that several items did not fit.
Therefore, I went back to the store to return them. Although I did
not have a receipt, all the price tags were still on the items.

The woman who handled my return, Melba, was extremely rude throughout
the transaction, behaved aggressively and raised her voice. I felt
she was insinuating that I was trying to scam Penney's out of money by
returning without a receipt. She was angry enough to make errors
while keying in my information, and attract the attention of other
patrons. This was very embarrassing for me.

In addition, Melba arbitrarily decided to only refund me back $2.97,
when I had paid $4.95 for several items. She rudely refused my
request to see the item in the store marked with that price.

I would like to be refunded the difference between the actual price of
the items I returned and the amount Melba actually refunded to me.

Sincerely,
OP

This way, your case is made without being distracting, overemotional,
or combative. I really do think you have a valid complaint, I just
don't think you are going about this in the right way. Good luck, and
do think about rewriting this.